Notes to Culture

I. CULTURE AND SOCIETY

A. Culture: Knowledge, language, values, customs, material objects passed from 1 generation to the next, one person to the next.

                    1.  Humans both construct culture and are sustained by it

                    2.  Culture varies and changes through time

          B.  What appears to be natural features of our lives (sexuality, aging, death, the consumption of food) are all made meaningful by culture (Murdock).  There is a strong connection between a person’s values, beliefs, and behaviors and the culture in which they were raised.

                    1.  When trying to understand why a person has particular values, use a sociological imagination and consider their cultural influences.  If they were raised in a culture that values monogamy, it would likely be the case that the person would express dissatisfaction at their partner being intimate with another person, for example.

          a. material culture: The physical or tangible creations that members of a society make, use, and share for survival and enjoyment (cars, clothing, houses, computers, etc.)

          b. nonmaterial culture: Abstract or intangible human creations of society that influence people’s behavior (language, beliefs, values, rules, family patterns, political systems, etc.)

          c. cultural universals (George Murdock 1945): Customs and practices that occur across all societies (appearance [bodily adornment, hairstyles], activities [sports, dancing, games, joking, visiting], social institutions [family, law, religion], customary practices [cooking, folklore, gift giving]

                                        1.  Specific forms vary from one group to another and from one time to another within the same group.

II. COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

A. symbols: anything meaningful that represents something else.

--Shared meanings (flower behind ear, shaka sign, flag, color of clothing and gender)

--But meanings vary by culture and thus are often misinterpreted:

--AOKAY gesture is good in US, but in France and Belgium, however, it means “You’re worth zero” while in Greece and Turkey, it is an insulting or vulgar sexual invitation.  In parts of southern Italy, it is an offensive and graphic reference to a part of the anatomy.

B. language: a set of symbols that expresses ideas and enables people to think and communicate with one another.

--Humans have unique ability to express abstract concepts and rules and thus to create and transmit culture from one generation to the next.

--Language shapes our perception of reality

--Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: language shapes the view of reality of its speakers.  Language precedes thought.

     1) Eskimo language has over twenty words associated with snow which allows them to make subtle distinctions regarding the different types of snowfall.

     2) Japan and “excuse me”.

     3) The number of words and expressions pertaining to technology that have entered the English language. 

These include cyberspace, virtual reality, hackers, morphing, information surfers, wired, and zapped.

These words reflect the preoccupation of American culture with technology.

In contrast, many Americans are at a loss for words when they are asked to describe nature: varieties of snow, wind, or rain, kinds of forests, vegetation zones…Why?  These things are not of great importance in urban American culture.

--Most sociologists believe that language influences our behavior and interpretation of social reality but does not determine it.

--Language and gender:

          1) Ignores women by using the masculine form to refer to human beings in general (man, chairman, mankind, which supposedly includes both men and women.)

          2) Use of pronouns he and she show gender of person we expect to be in a particular position.  (Will little girls think it’s possible to be a cop if we mainly refer to cops as ‘he’?) (Under 10% of police in the US are female).

          3) A language-based predisposition to think about women in sexual terms reinforces the notion that women are sexual objects (fox, bitch, babe, doll=childlike and pet-like characteristics.) By contrast, men have performance pressures placed on them by being defined in terms of their sexual prowess (dude, stud, hunk).

--Many changes have occurred (Ms. versus Mrs., food server versus waiter/tress, chairperson, etc.)

--Language, race, and ethnicity

--Language transmits preconceived ideas about the superiority of one category of people over another.

          1) That’s mighty white of you, black mark

          2) Racial slurs popularized in movies, music, often used in conjunction with physical threats against persons.

--Language reflects our feelings and values.

C. values: collective ideas about what is right and wrong, good bad, desirable or not, in a particular culture.

--Provide us with the criteria by which we evaluate people, objects, and events.  We use values to justify our behavior.

Robin Williams, 1970 10 Core American values

--Individualism, achievement and success, activity and work, science and technology, progress and material comfort, equality, efficiency and practicality, morality and humanitarianism, freedom and liberty, racism and group superiority.

--Value contradictions:  Real versus Ideal culture: Ideal culture is what people say they value, and Real culture is what people actually do -- sometimes there are contradictions -- ie, we say we value obeying the law (ideal culture) but we break the speed limit when we are late to work (real culture).

D. norms: Established rules of behavior or standards of conduct.  Vary according to culture (Japan: pool, sleeves, train windows)

--Prescriptive and proscriptive

--Formal and Informal norms

          --Folkways: Informal norms or everyday customs that may be violated without serous consequences (Brush teeth, wear right clothing, thanking people for helping you, etc.)

          --Mores: Strongly held norms with moral and ethical connotations that may not be violated without serous consequences. Taboos: Mores so strong that their violation is considered to be extremely offensive and unmentionable.

          --Laws: formal, standardized norms that have been enacted by legislatures and are enforced by formal sanctions.

--Civil or criminal.

III. TECHNOLOGY, CULTURAL CHANGE AND

DIVERSITY

A. cultural change: many forces working for change and diversity.

          1. technology: knowledge, techniques, tools that allow people to transform resources into usable forms and the knowledge and skills required to use what is developed.

          2. cultural lag (Ogburn, 1966) A gap between the technical development of a society and its moral and legal institutions (material culture moves faster than non-material (cloning, stem cell research, internet privacy issues). Conflict.

          3. discovery, invention, and diffusion

--Discover cure for cancer? AIDS?

--Invention of guns, the wheel,

--Diffuse into other countries by media, military, tourism, immigration.

B. cultural diversity: wide range of cultural differences found between and within nations.

--homogeneous: Include people who share a common culture and are typically from similar social, religious, political, and economic backgrounds (Japan, Sweden)

--heterogeneous: Include people who are dissimilar in regard to social characteristics such as religion, income, or race/ethnicity (United States)

          1.  subcultures: a category of people who share distinguishing attributes, beliefs, values, and/or norms that set them apart in some significant manner from the dominant culture (Native Americans, Generation Xers, Amish, ethnic subcultures in LA, NY, and other large cities, like Asians, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, etc.)

          2.  countercultures: a group that strongly rejects dominant societal values and norms and seeks alternative lifestyles.  Young people most likely to join these ‘cause have less invested in existing culture (beatniks of the 1950’s, flower children of 1960’s, religious sects, or cults, KKK, Nation of Islam, etc.).

C. culture shock: the disorientation that people feel when they encounter cultures radically different from their own (Japan swimming pools, small appliances, tins of black bikes and not even locked up, not saying hello to strangers=aggressive, coming home in Canadian airport, etc.)

D. ethnocentrism and cultural relativism

--Ethnocentrism: the practice of judging all other cultures by one’s own culture.  Assume one’s way of life is superior to all others (In Japan, people would rather crawl on floor than walk in house with shoes…if we think that's weird, we might be being ethnocentric)

--Cultural Relativism: the belief that the behaviors and customs of any culture must be viewed and analyzed by the culture’s own standards. For example, we don't judge what people do in other cultures because we understand that it's just part of their culture.

--BUT may be used to excuse customs and behaviors that may violate basic human rights (genital mutilation).

IV. HIGH CULTURE, POPULAR CULTURE

A. High culture:  classical music, opera, ballet, live theater, and other activities usually patronized by elite audiences, composed primarily of members of the upper classes, who have the time, money, and knowledge assumed to be necessary for its appreciation..

1. Cultural Capital theory: (Bourdieu, 1984).

--When sociologists look at high culture and popular culture, the focus is primarily on the association between culture and social class.

--Karen Cox example.

--High culture is a devise used by the dominant class to exclude the subordinate classes.

For example, if a lower class person goes to a 5-star restaurant and doesn't know what fork to use, they will know that they don't belong there.

--Since knowledge and appreciation of high culture are considered a prerequisite for access to the dominant class, its members can use their cultural capital to deny access to subordinate group members and thus preserve and reproduce the existing class structure (Hale, 1993).

--The value of education is part of cultural capital.

--Parents give this to us.

--People must be trained to enjoy high culture.

--Individuals learn about high culture in upper-middle and upper-class families and in elite education systems, especially higher education.

--Possess a form of cultural capital.

B.  Popular culture: Activities, services, products, assumed to appeal primarily to members of the middle and working classes (rock concerts, spectator sports, movies, and TV soap operas and sit coms.)

--But rise of consumer society in which luxury items have become more widely accessible to the masses has greatly reduced the great divide between activities and possessions associated with wealthy people or a social elite (Huysses, 1984).

1.  fads and fashions (popular culture)

--fad: a temporary but widely copied activity followed enthusiastically be large numbers of people.

--Most are short-lived.

--fashion: a currently valued style of behavior, thinking, or appearance that is longer lasting and more widespread than a fad (in childrearing, education, arts, clothing, music, sports).

--Cultural imperialism: The extensive infusion of one nation’s culture into other nations (Hawaii).

--Homogeneous global culture? Or just becoming Westernized?

V. SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF CULTURE

A. Functionalist: Sees society as stable, orderly system with interrelated parts that serve specific functions.

--Culture helps people meets many needs:

1) biological: food and procreation

2) instrumental needs: law and education

3) integrative needs: religion and art

--Societies in which people share a common language and core values are more likely to have consensus and harmony.

--Popular culture is the glue that holds society together.

--Regardless of differences, we can all enjoy a sporting event or a good movie…

--We become homogenized as a result of seeing the same images and being exposed to the same beliefs and values (Gerbner, 1987).

--Dysfunctions: numerous subcultures (different values)

--But may overemphasize harmony and cooperation.

--Also needs to look at structural problems like class-based inequalities, racism, and sexism, that may contribute to conflict.

B. Conflict: Assumes social life is a continuous struggle in which members of powerful groups seek to control scarce resources.

--Values and norms help create and sustain the privileged position of the powerful in society while excluding others.

--Marx said that ideas were cultural creations of society’s most powerful members.

--Political, economic, and social leaders use

ideology: an integrated system of ideas that is external to, and coercive of, people, to maintain their positions of dominance in a society (Marx).

--Popular culture is merely part of the capitalistic economy, products and services created.  We begin to think we need these things. 

Symbolic capital: public trust in the product (Boourgieu, 1984).  If it’s Nike, it MUST be good.

--Also, the issues of language and power and who gets to define.

--But some say conflict focus too much on societal discord and the divisiveness of culture.

C. Interactionist (Symbolic Interactionist)

--Microlevel analysis

--focus on the sum of people’s interactions.

--People create, maintain, and modify culture as they go about their everyday activities.

--Symbols make communication possible by providing shared meanings (clothing, for example.)

--Flags, new norms, new meanings

--Values and norms are reinterpreted in each social situation we encounter.

--But even Simmel said that the larger cultural world eventually takes a life of its own independent of the actors who daily re-create social life.  Thus, people may be more controlled than they realize: 

Money:  develops a social meaning that extends beyond its economic function. 

--Becomes an end in itself, rather than a means to an end.

--But no systematic framework for analyzing how we shape culture and how it, in turn, shapes us.

--Also doesn’t say how shared meanings are developed

AND doesn’t address the disagreements on meanings.

--Fails to take larger social structure into account.

VI. CULTURAL PATTERNS FOR THE TWENTY-

FIRST CENTURY

A. Important changes in cultural patterns may

include:

1. cultural diffusion and cultural diversity

RESOURCES

Websites:
The Sociology of Culture – Wikipedia

Books of Interest:
After Subculture: Critical Studies in Contemporary Youth Culture by Andy Bennett and Keith Kahn-Harris (2004)
The Graffiti Subculture: Youth, Masculinity and Identity in London and New York  by Nancy Macdonald (2003)
Hippies of the Religious Right: From the Countercultures of Jerry Garcia to the Subculture of Jerry Falwell by Preston Shires (2007)