The creation of culture is a natural process. The forms it takes are not (e.g., material versus non-material).
1 - it's the primary means of communication between people
2 - it allows us to pass on our knowledge, experiences, etc., to the next generation
3 - provides a shared social past
4 - provides a shared social future
5 - allows for shared perspectives, understandings
6 - enables complex, goal-directed behavior to exist
7 - expands our ability to connect and communicate beyond just face-to-face or small group interactions
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis -- Language not only reinforces our perceptions of the world, it shapes them.
ethnocentrism, tempocentrism, cultural relativism, culture shock, cultural diffusion, cultural leveling, cultural lag, cultural imperialism, cultural universals, subcultures, counter-cultures, pop-culture, high-culture, fad versus fashion, folkways (little norms), mores (norms with a moral component), taboos (norms that will get you killed, put away, or banished from society should you violate them).
Applying the three major perspectives to Culture:
Functional
Culture reflects our structural arrangements in a given society, e.g., kinship relations, divsion of labor, etc. and serves both manifest and latent functions. Folklore, rituals, symbols, all support these relations by giving people reasons for their lives. Since they are learned at a very early age, and according to the Functionalist, accepted by most all around us, they are binding.
Conflict
Culture reflects our structural arrangement in a given society but most often the rituals, values, folklore, and symbols are those of the powerful ("the ideas of the ruling class become the ruling ideas" - Marx). What we are exposed to are the cultural components that have passed through cultural "gatekeepers" (i.e., powerful organizations, individuals, groups that control cultural innovations).
Culture is shaped by daily face-to-face interactions. Our perceptions of ourselves are derived through subcultures. We are a nation of subcultures. Evidence can be found just glancing through CDs at the local music store, or thumbing through greeting cards at Hallmark.
The waves of new Americans learned to tolerate each other-- first as groups, only thereafter as individuals. Rubbing up against each other in an urbanizing America, they discovered not just the old Christian lesson that all men are brothers, but the hard, new multicultural lesson that all borthers are different. Equality is not the product of similarity; it is the cheerful acknowledgement of difference.
Women become both producers of …. and products of our culture…. . See www.nationaleatingdisorders.org For who is at risk among dieters
Culture? Subcultures? Countercultures?
Norms -- know different types and examples
Non-material versus material
Real vs Ideal culture?
Robin William and American Core Values -- Emerging Values?
Ethnocentrism? Tempocentrism? Cultural - relativism, lag, diffusion
Cultural leveling, shock?
Symbols? Sapir-Whorf -- know it!!
Most important symbol system?
Instincts versus innate behavior
pop vs. high culture, fads, fashions
Functionalist, Conflict, and Symbolic Interactionist perspectives on
culture