SOC 101 Lecture Notes - Cultural Relativism, Culture Shock, Ethnocentrism
16 Oct 2011
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Document Summary
Culture: collection of values, beliefs, behaviours and material objects shared by a group and passed on from one generation to the next. Cannot determine where culture began: little material evidence survives from thousands and thousands of years ago and much of culture is non material and cannot be preserved. Culture carries meaning and facilitates communication between members of society, way we predict others are going to do, have a sense of our roles, the ways be have, ways we do things that are different from other people. Everything that is the product of a human mind, the sum total of human creation. Comes from relationship of physical and social environment. Is a social process influences all that people think and do. Hominid ancestors (human ancestors) began making tools and living in shelters more than 3 million years ago. Homo sapiens sapiens (modern human beings) emerged out of africa and the near east roughly 1 million years ago.
