SOC 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Sociobiology, Cultural Relativism, General Social Survey

• School: University of Maine
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 101
• Professor: Markiedes

Document Summary

Culture: artifacts and ways of thinking, feeling and acting that are part of any society if the culture we learn influences our beliefs and behaviours, then culture is a key concept to the sociological perspective. Men of pregnant wives can experience pregnancy symptoms (in some societies) Human behaviour is more the result of culture than it is of biology. Because humans have such a large complex nervous system, we are less controlled by biology. Most sociologists would say that culture affects behaviour much more than biology, others say the opposite. Socio-biology: view that genes and other aspects human biology influence human behaviour: eg. competition, aggression, altruism. Why do sociologists generally favour culture over biology: 1. Many behaviours differ dramatically among societies in ways that show the impact of culture: 2. Biology cannot easily account for why groups and locations differ in their rates of committing certain behaviours.