ANTH 195 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Structural Violence
ANTH 195 Lecture 5
Society and culture are used as interchangeable terms
- Our experience of culture and society is repeatedly stabilized by symbols, values,
norms, and traditions
- Values: symbolic expressions of intrinsically desirable principles/qualities
- Norms: patterns of behavior
Society:
- Attribute of human nature
- Specific group of people living in particular ways
- As a synonym for “a people”
- As equivalent to a social system
- As interchangeable with culture
Structure + Function:
● Social structure
○ Social relations are patterned and predictable
● Function
○ Role played by social institutions to satisfy needs
○ Contribution of social institutions to the maintenance of conditions of existence of
the collective organism
Problems from idea of “Society”
● Evolutionary divisions of hunters, agriculture, and complex societies
● Potential to focus too much on stability and not account for change
● Relationships of the individual to society
○ Solved through Agency
■ Recognition that we change
■ Capacity to change social, cultural, and material circumstance
■ “Actions are both constrained and enabled”
Limitations of Agency:
● Capability for action
○ Usually work in dominant structures
● BUT not reducible to empowerment
Culture feels so stable because it is expressed and reinforced by social institutions
Social institution:
● Organized sets of social relationships that link individuals to each other in a structured
way in a particular society
○ Patterns of kinship/marriage
○ Political forms
○ Religious institutions
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Document Summary
Society and culture are used as interchangeable terms. Our experience of culture and society is repeatedly stabilized by symbols, values, norms, and traditions. Values: symbolic expressions of intrinsically desirable principles/qualities. Specific group of people living in particular ways. Role played by social institutions to satisfy needs. Contribution of social institutions to the maintenance of conditions of existence of the collective organism. Evolutionary divisions of hunters, agriculture, and complex societies. Potential to focus too much on stability and not account for change. Capacity to change social, cultural, and material circumstance. Culture feels so stable because it is expressed and reinforced by social institutions. Organized sets of social relationships that link individuals to each other in a structured way in a particular society. Patterns of behavior and ideology that become relatively discrete, enduring, and autonomous. Durkheim -- how institutions work + societies function. Mechanical solidarity -- simple; anyone can step in.
