Culture and Society: An Overview

Culture and Society Overview

• Culture is the way of life shared by a group, encompassing knowledge, beliefs, values, rules, language, and material products.
• Culture provides the framework for everything within a society.
• Society is an organized, interdependent group living in a specific area, interacting more with each other than outsiders.
• Societies cooperate for shared goals and share a common culture over time.
• Society provides the structure learned through culture.

Social Solidarity

• Early traditional societies have "mechanical solidarity," according to Durkheim.
• Mechanical solidarity is social cohesion based on the similarity of beliefs and values within the group.
• Simple division of labor is based on gender and age.
• In more modern societies, solidarity is more "organic".
• Organic solidarity is based on a division of labor where members have specialized, interdependent tasks.
• Modern societies feature less social consensus and shared values, but necessity of dependence holds people together.
• Larger organizations and institutions have shifted society toward the macro level.

Societal Development

• Lenski theorized that technology is a driving force in societal evolution.
• Hunter-gatherer societies rely on natural vegetation and animals for sustenance.
• Hunter-gatherer societies are nomadic, moving based on resource availability.
• Their populations are small, with obligations based on reciprocity.
• Generally, men hunt and women gather, with small differences in roles beyond this.
• Hunter-gatherer societies are becoming rare.
• Herding societies existed roughly from 12,000 to 3,000 BC.
• They focus on domesticating animals whose care is the central activity.
• Horticultural societies rely on the cultivation of plants using basic tools.
• The shift from hunting/gathering led to more settled lifestyles.
• Increased control and efficiency in food production led to surpluses, population increases, accumulation of possessions, and social inequality.
• Agricultural societies primarily raise crops for food, using advanced technology such as plows, irrigation, and fertilization for continuous cultivation.
• The introduction of the plow was an important change.
• Agricultural production became increasingly efficient, irrigation and fertilization allowed for more permanent settlements, land ownership, and greater population densities of up to 1,000,000.
• This led to continued surplus accumulation, development of social classes, and the emergence of the feudal system.
• Industrial societies emerged in the mid-1700s during the Industrial Revolution.
• They rely on mechanized production, leading to greater division of labor based on expertise.
• Industrial societies saw migration to cities (urban centers of 1 million+), where people became wage earners, increasing inequality between owners and workers.
• Families became smaller, as children were no longer needed for agricultural labor.
• Industrialization led to the expansion and interconnection of society, with greater external influence and rapid change.
• Postindustrial societies shift from human labor and manufacturing to automated production and service jobs, focusing on information processing.
• These societies require technical and professional education.
• Postindustrial societies began around 1950.
• Manufacturing jobs have declined, while service jobs have increased, alongside reliance on new energy sources, computerization, and increasing globalization.

Culture Defined

• Culture is the shared way of life of a group, including knowledge, beliefs, values, rules, language, customs, symbols, and material products needed to meet human needs.
• Culture is shared within a society and learned through socialization.
• It evolves over time and is adaptive.
• Cultural evolution includes changing expectations, such as evolving expectations for women.
• Culture is an ongoing, cumulative process of building to adapt to new challenges, where COVID is a prime example.

Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativity

• Cultural expectations vary across and even within societies.
• Ethnocentric views hold one's own group and its cultural expectations as right, proper, and superior.
• Ethnocentrism can bond a group, but may also cause misunderstanding and conflict.
• Cultural relativism aims to set aside cultural beliefs to understand a group through its members' eyes, without judgement.

Components of Culture

• Material culture includes human-made objects that can be seen or touched, such as clothes, computers, and cars.
• These material objects are reflective of peoples attitudes and interests.
• Material culture takes on meanings beyond its actual use, potentially leading to a loss of control, according to Simmel.
• Nonmaterial culture is defined as thoughts, language, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes.
• Values are shared judgements about what is desirable or undesirable, right or wrong, and good or bad.
• Some core American values as defined by Williams (1970) include freedom, equality, individualism, democracy, efficiency, progress, achievement, and material comfort.

Norms

• Norms are rules of behavior shared by members of society and rooted in the value system.
• The importance of a norm can be judged by the consequences of violating it.
• Folkways are customs and usually desirable behaviors, for example, talking loudly in a library, or proper table manners.
• Mores are more serious matters of right and wrong, such as cheating on a partner or a test.
• Taboos are the most serious norms; violations are unthinkable, for example, having relations with a dead person, or cannibalism
• Provide guidelines for what is right and wrong, but norms can vary across cultures, times, and place.
• Laws are more formal norms enforced by the legal system; violation of laws constitutes a crime, like theft or murder.
• Normative behavior is enforced through positive and negative sanctions.
• Sanctions reinforce norms through rewards and penalties and can be formal or informal.
• Formal sanctions are conferred by recognized officials.
• Informal sanctions involve unofficial rewards or punishments.

Types of Cultures

• Microculture develops at the microlevel of one's life or influences a limited period.
• A portion of life may define someones involvement in a Greek organization, their workplace culture, or their athletic team's culture.
• Subculture is smaller than the nation, but large enough to support people over the life course.
• Ethnic groups exemplify subcultures; and represent having to align with dual consciousness.
• Counterculture is a group whose expectations and values contrast with the dominant values of a society.
• Religious extremists, Proud Boys, Q’Anon, and the Amish are some examples of countercultures.

Cultural Theories

• Symbolic interactionism is a micro-level perspective.
• It views social construction of reality as shaping realities through shared interaction where what becomes 'normal' is only due to how it’s defined.
• Structural functionalism views culture has holding people together.
• It considers that shared norms, values, and beliefs stabilize society.
• Conflict theorists focus on how people with power and privilege influence culture through manipulation of instructions.
• This relates to schools for the poor versus schools for the affluent or media centralization.

Explore culture and society: Culture encompasses shared beliefs, values, and practices guiding a group's way of life. Society involves organized groups cooperating towards common goals within a shared culture. Understand their interplay and the concepts of mechanical and organic solidarity.