SOCI 461 Lecture Notes - Cattle In Religion And Mythology, Marvin Harris, Human Behaviour
3 Feb 2013
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Document Summary
Widely shared and passed from one generation to the next. Sociologists define culture as the ideas, practices, and material objects that people create to deal w/ real-life problems. Popular and mass culture is consumed by all classes, but high culture tends to be consumed by mainly upper class. Tools and religion are also elements of culture. Thus, culture comprises the socially transmitted ideas, practices, and material objects that enable people to adapt to, and thrive in, their environments. Abstraction ability to create general ideas or ways of thinking. Cooperation capacity to create a complex social life by establishing norms and values. By analyzing how people cooperate and produce norms and values we can learn much about what distinguishes one culture from another. Production involves making and using tools and techniques that improve our ability to take what we want from nature. Symbols, norms, and values are non-material culture b/c they are intangible.
