Chapter 3

1. Culture

2. What is Culture?
• Culture refers to the beliefs,
values, behavior and material
objects that, together, form a
people’s way of life.

3. Two
components
of culture:
nonmaterial culture the
thought part of culture (the
intangible creations of human
society)
material culture the
tangible products of human
society from armor to zippers.
Together, these two
components describe a
people’s way of life. Culture
also plays an important role in
shaping the human
personality.

4. Other
Components
of Culture:
Ideal Culture
and Real
Culture
Ideal culture is the
“Golden Rule”, how we
should behave.
Real culture is how we
actually behave.
As most of us know, these
are often in conflict in our
society. How we should
behave is not how we
actually behave.

5. Components of culture found in all
societies include: symbols, language,
values, and norms.

6. Symbols
Symbols are defined as
anything that carries a
particular meaning
recognized by people
who share culture.
The meaning of the
same symbols varies
from society to society,
within a single society,
and over time.

7. Language and
Cultural
Transmission
Language is a system of
symbols that allows people to
communicate with one
another.
Language is the key to cultural
transmissionthe process by
which one generation passes
culture to the next.
Through most of human
history, cultural transmission
has been accomplished
through oral tradition.

8. Values and
Beliefs
• Values are culturally defined
standards by which people judge
desirability, goodness and beauty, and
which serve as broad guidelines for
social living. Values are broad principles
that underlie beliefs.
• Beliefs are specific statements that
people hold to be true.
• Values within one society are frequently
inconsistent and even opposed to one
another.

9. Norms, Folkways,
and Mores
• Norms are rules and expectations
by which a society guides the
behavior of its members.
• Two special types of norms are
mores and folkways.
• Mores norms that are
widely observed and have
great moral significance.
• Folkways norms for routine,
casual interaction.
• Sanctions are a central
mechanism of social control
various means by which members
of society encourage conformity
to norms.

10. Cultural
Diversity:
Many Ways of
Life in One
World
• The United States is the most multicultural of
all industrial countries. By contrast, Japan is
the most monocultural of all industrial
nations (meaning that their culture is pretty
much the same everywhere in that country).
• High culture refers to cultural patterns that
distinguish a society’s elite (think about the
opera, art galleries, etc).; in contrast,
popular culture designates cultural patterns
that are widespread among a society’s
population. However, high culture is not
inherently superior to popular culture.
• Subcultures are cultural patterns that
distinguish some segment of a society’s
population. They involve not only difference
but also hierarchy.

11. Ethnocentrism
and Cultural
Relativity
Ethnocentrism judging
another culture by the
standards of one’s own culture.
Sociologists tend to discourage
this practice, instead they
advocate cultural relativism
Cultural relativism the
practice of judging a culture by
its own cultural standards

12. Is There a
Global
Culture?
Some evidence suggests that a global culture may be
emerging.
Three key factors are promoting this trend:
• Global economy: the flow of goods.
• Global communications: the flow of information.
• Global migration: the flow of people.
• Three limitations with the global culture thesis:
• Global culture is much more advanced in some parts
of the world than in others.
• Many people cannot afford to participate in the
material aspects of a global culture.
• Different people attribute different meanings to
various aspects of the global culture.

13. Theoretical
Analysis of
Culture
• Functionalism: depicts culture as a
complex strategy for meeting human
needs
• Conflict theory suggests that many
cultural traits function to the advantage
of some and the disadvantage of others
• Interactionists suggest that culture is in
a constant state of change as people
reevaluate their place within it