SOC 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Cultural Universal, Cultural Lag, Cultural Relativism

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 1101
• Professor: Halyna Mokrushyna

Document Summary

Learning objectives: culture and society, components of culture. Knowledge, languages, values passed from person to person one generation to the next. Eg: rules to navigate cars/ bicycles or establish/protect rights. Instinct: unlearned, biologically determined behaviour pattern common to all members of a species that predictably occurs whenever a certain environmental condition exists. Reflex: unlearned, biologically determined involuntary response to a physical stimulus. Drives: unlearned, biologically determined impulses common to all members of a species that satisfy needs (sleep, food, water, sex) Non-material culture: abstract or intangible creations (customs, symbols, language, beliefs, values) Murdock: came up with the 70+ cultural universals (present in all cultures in different forms eg jokes are different in different cultures) Culture could not exist without no shared meaning. Sapir-whorf hypothesis: if people are able to think through language, language must precede thought. Issue: race bias (eg: black hearted, black mark, derogatory terms) Issue: gender bias (eg: mankind, connotations with jobs or positive/negative)