This document provides an overview of key concepts related to culture. It defines culture as the ways of thinking, acting, and material objects that form a society's way of life. Culture has both material and nonmaterial elements. It is shared within a society and transmitted between generations, particularly through language. All cultures have common elements like symbols, language, values, norms, and ideal/real culture. Subcultures and countercultures can differ from mainstream cultural patterns. Cultural change occurs over time as new elements diffuse and cultural lag develops.

1. Chapter Two
Culture
Society, The Basics
10th Edition
John J. Macionis

2. What is Culture?
Culture – the ways of thinking, the ways of
acting, and the material objects that together
form a people’s way of life
Only humans rely on
culture rather than
instinct to ensure
survival.

3. What is Culture?
Nonmaterial
culture – ideas
created by members
of a society.
Material culture –
tangible things
created by
members of a
society.

4. What is Culture?
Society refers to
people who interact in
a defined territory and
share culture.
Culture shock refers to
personal disorientation
when experiencing an
unfamiliar way of life.

5. How Many Cultures?
• One indication of culture is language
• Global estimates document 7,000 languages
• In the USA, there are about 200 languages
• Upcoming decades will show the
disappearance of hundreds of languages

6. The Elements of Culture
Although cultures vary, they all have five common
components:
(1) Symbols
(2) Language
(3) Values and Beliefs
(4) Norms
(5) Ideal and Real
Culture

7. Elements of Culture
Symbols
 Symbols – anything that carries a
particular meaning recognized by
people who share culture.

8. Elements of Culture
Symbols
 Symbols – collective creations
General Marketing
• Aimed at a total
population
Segmented
Marketing
• Aimed at a
specific
population

9. Elements of Culture
Language
Language – a system of symbols that
allows people to communicate with one
another.
Language allows for the continuity of
culture.
BBC

10. Elements of Culture
Language
 Cultural
transmission –
the process by
which one
generation passes
culture to the next.
 Every society
transmits culture
through speech.

11. The Sapir-Whorf Thesis
Languages are not just
different sets of labels for the
same reality.
All languages fuse symbols
with distinctive emotions.
The Sapir-Whorf Thesis
– people perceive the world
through the cultural lens of
language.

12. Elements of Culture
Values and Beliefs
Values – culturally defined standards by which
people assess desirability, goodness, and beauty
and that serve as broad guidelines for social
living.
Values are abstract standards of

13. Elements of Culture
Values and Beliefs
Beliefs –
specific
statements that
people hold to be
true.
Beliefs are
particular
matters that
individuals
consider true or
false.

14. Elements of Culture
Societies show significant cultural
variations in their favorite sports.
Canada: Ice
Hockey
Jamaica: Cricket
Thailand: Kite flying
China: tai chi chuan

15. Key Values of United States Culture
 Equal Opportunity
 Achievement and
Success
 Material Comfort
 Activity and Work
 Practicality and
Efficiency
Robin M. Williams, Jr.

16. Key Values of United States Culture
 Progress
 Science
 Democracy and
Free Enterprise
 Freedom
 Racism and Group
Superiority
Robin M. Williams, Jr.

17. Elements of Culture
Norms
o Norms – rules and
expectations by which a
society guides the
behavior of its members.
o Most important norms in
a culture apply
everywhere and at all
times.

18. Elements of Culture
Norms
Mores – norms that are widely
observed and have great moral
significance.
Folkways –
norms for
routine, casual
interaction.

19. Elements of Culture
Norms
Mores
Inspire intense
reactions
Punishment
inevitably follows
Societal taboos such
as:

Murder

Treason

Child sexual abuse
(Right vs. wrong)

20. Elements of Culture
Norms
Folkways (polite vs. rude) –

People chew quietly with mouths closed

Accepting one’s place in line

People avoid facing each other in elevators
No written rules
No one physically
harmed

21. Technology & Culture
Sociocultural
evolution
Material culture also reflects a society’s
technology – knowledge that people use
to make a way of life in their surroundings.

22. Technology and Culture

hunting and gathering
societies

horticultural & pastoralism

agriculture

industry

postindustrial information
technology

23. Cultural Diversity
Cultural diversity can
involve social class.
Many cultural
patterns are readily
accessible to only
some members of a
society.

24. Cultural Diversity
Popular culture –
cultural patterns
that are
widespread
among a
High culture – cultural
patterns that distinguish
a society’s elite

25. Subcultures
Subculture – cultural patterns that set apart
some segment of society’s population.

26. Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism – an educational
program recognizing the cultural
diversity of the United States and
promoting the equality of all cultural
traditions.

27. Multiculturalism
Eurocentrism – the
dominance of
European cultural
patterns.
Afrocentrism – the
dominance of
African cultural
patterns.

28. Counterculture
Examples:
• Hippies of the
60’s
• Street Gangs
• Hare Krishna
• Extreme right-
wing religious
groups
Countercultur
e – cultural
patterns that
rejects and
opposes those
widely accepted
within a society.

29. Cultural Change
• Cultural integration
– the close
relationships among
various elements of a
cultural system.
• Some elements of
culture change
faster than others –
cultural lag.

30. Cultural Change
Cultural integration
• Examples:
Women in the workforce
• Later first marriages
• Change in family patterns
• Increased use of day
care

31. Cultural Change
Cultural lag
• Examples:
Contraception
• Increased availability
• Use by adolescents
Medical Advances
• Little or no ability to provide higher
quality of life

32. Cultural Change
Cultural changes
• New cultural elements
– Cell phones
– Blackberry
– iPhones
• Diffusion
– Spread of objects from
one society to another

33. Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism
Ethnocentrism – the
practice of judging
another culture by
the standards of
one’s own culture.

34. Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism
Cultural Relativism
– the practice of
evaluating a
culture by that
culture’s own
standards.
Cultural Universals

35. A Global Culture
Global economy: the flow of goods
Global communication: the flow of
information
Global migration: the flow of people

36. Theoretical Analysis of Culture
The structural–functional paradigm
depicts culture as a complex strategy for
meeting human needs.
The social–conflict paradigm suggests
that many cultural traits function to the
advantage of some and the disadvantage of
others.
Sociobiology explores ways in which
human biology affects how we create culture.