SOC 2000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: William Graham Sumner, Social Inequality, Sociocultural Evolution
Chapter 2: Culture
What is Culture?
• Culture is the ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and the material objects that together
form a people’s way of life
o Nonmaterial culture: the ideas created by members of a society
o Material culture: the physical things created by members of a society
• Culture often encompasses things we think of as human nature
o People view their own way of life as natural
• Culture shock: personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life
• Only humans rely on culture rather than instinct to create a way of life and ensure our
survival
Culture and Human Intelligence
• When early humans began building shelters and using clothing culture became the
primary strategy for survival.
• We began fashioning the natural environment for ourselves
o Continue making and remaking our world
Culture, Nation, and Society
• Culture = shared way of life
• Nation = a political entity, a territory with designated borders
• Society = the organized interaction of people who typically live in a nation or some other
specific territory
• Many nations are multicultural: people follow various ways of life that blend (or clash)
How Many Cultures?
• More than 7,000 languages spoken in the US suggesting the existence of at elase as many
cultures
o However 4,000 of the world’s languages are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people.
o Languages are endangered
o This is caused by globalization
The Elements of Culture
• Includes symbols, language, values, and norms.
Symbols
• Humans transform elements of the world into symbols by giving them meaning
• A symbol is anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a
culture
• We become aware of the importance of a symbol when someone uses it in an
unconventional way
o Such as burning the U.S. flag
• Not understanding the symbols of a culture can be alienating
• Culture shock is a two way process
o Travelers experience culture shock when encountering people whose way of life
is different
o A traveler may inflict culture shock on ocal people by acting in ways that offend
them
Language
• Language is a system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another
o Key to the world of culture
• Chinese (including different dialects) is the most widely used first language (spoken at
home)
• English is the most widely spoken second language
o Almost everywhere except nations in Africa and china
• Cultural transmission: the process by which one generation passes culture to the next
o Language is the key to this
• Every society has transmitted culture by using speech, a progress sociologists call the
“oral cultural tradition”
• Nearly universal literacy was not common until very recently
• Language sets humans apart
Values and Beliefs
• Values: culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good, and
beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social living
o People who share a culture use values to make choices about how to live
• Beliefs: specific thoughts or idea that people hold to be true
o Values are broad principles that support beliefs
• Key values of US culture
o Equal opportunity
o Achievement and success
o Material comfort
o Activity and work
o Practicality and efficiency
o Progress
o Science
o Democracy and free enterprise
o Freedom
o Racism and group superiority
• In many ways cultural values go together but they can also contradict one another
• Values change over time
• Values vary from culture to culture
o Values of higher-income countries are very different from lower-income
o Higher income countries value individualism and self-expression
o Lower income values center around survival
Norms
• Norms: rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members
o People respond with sanctions (rewards or punishments)
• Mores: norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance
o Coined by William Graham Sumner
o Includes taboos
o Difference between right and wrong
• Folkways: norms for routine or casual interaction
o Draw line between right and rude
• Social control: attempts by society to regulate people’s thoughts and behavior
• Evaluate our own behavior based on cultural norms
Document Summary
Culture and human intelligence: when early humans began building shelters and using clothing culture became the primary strategy for survival, we began fashioning the natural environment for ourselves, continue making and remaking our world. Oral cultural tradition : nearly universal literacy was not common until very recently, language sets humans apart. Ideal and real culture: values and norms do not describe actual behavior so much as they suggest how we should behave. Horticulture and pastoralism: horticulture: the use of hand tools to raise crops. In especially dry regions, societies turned not to raising crops but to pastoralism: the domestication of animals, societies are more unequal with some families operating as a ruling elite. Cultural diversity: many ways of life in one world. In the u. s. cultural diversity can be seen within a neighborhood: multicultural, countries like japan who have been isolated are monocultural.
