Culture: Structural-Functional & Social Conflict Theory

• Studying culture involves examining its effects on ourselves and the world.

Structural-Functional Theory: The Functions of Culture

• Values are the main component of a culture, derived from the philosophy of idealism.
• Cultural values guide lives, provide meaning, and unite people.
• Understanding unfamiliar ways of life is achieved through functional thinking.
• Cultural universals include family, funeral rights, and jokes.
• Culture provides for human needs.
• Cultural diversity is ignored by the functional approach.
• Functionalism minimizes the role of change.
• Functionalist ideas are not as stable.

Social Conflict Theory: Inequality and Culture

• Cultural traits benefit some members of society, while disadvantaging others.
• The economic system shapes society and influences which values dominate.
• Materialism asserts that the system of material production greatly impacts culture.
• Unlike the functionalist approach, this emerges from a lived, physical, material world.
• Capitalism's culture leads people to believe the rich work harder, and economic inequalities are natural and unchangeable.

Feminist Theory: Culture is Gendered

• Societal definitions of male and female influence our ways of life.
• Feminist theory sees culture as a conflict rooted in gender.
• Gender is very important.
• Society emphasizes being male as more significant than being female.
• Masculinity dominates, and gender inequality is seen as natural and unchangeable.
• Culture treats everyone unequally, and some are controlled by others.

Cultural Diversity

• 12.8% of Canada's population was born outside of Canada by 1901.
• 18.4% of Canada's population was born outside of Canada by 2001.
• 22% of Canada's population was born outside of Canada by 2021.
• Immigration patterns reflect today's cultural diversity.

Subculture

• Cultural patterns distinguish a segment of society's population.
• Subcultures can cause violence and tension, although they provide pleasing variety.
• Variety is positive, but too much can lead to tension.
• Hierarchy is involved, not just difference.
• People participate in multiple subcultures without great commitment.
• Subcultures may be seen as something for the poor or less fortunate.

Counterculture

• Cultural patterns are in strong opposition to widely accepted societal norms.
• Youth counterculture has rejected the idea of being different and prefer a collective lifestyle.
• Hippies left general society for countercultural communities.

Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism

• Ethnocentrism involves judging another culture by the standards of one's own culture.
• Cultural relativism involves judging a culture by its own standards.
• Cultures are judged based on what is considered normal from a personal point of view.
• People have emotional ties to their own way of life.
• Misunderstandings and conflict can result.
• People usually prefer what they already know.
• It is best to avoid judgments and try to understand the cultural meaning behind unfamiliar practices.

Culture as Value Thesis

• Culture determines value views.
• Socialization into culturally specific moralities guides our sense of right and wrong.
• Logical arguments are required when cultures clash, but these are also cultural.

Culture as Rationale Thesis

• People are socialized to know culturally specific arguments to justify feelings as right or wrong.
• Culturally similar rationales justify our reactions to situations.

Sociological Sympathy

• Strong reactions occur when actions go against cultural rationales.
• When trying to understand others, sociological sympathy involves setting aside one's own viewpoint.
• Letting go of thinking that your culture is superior.
• Criticisms must be based on something other than mere difference
• Culture forces choices while remaking the world.
• Freedom is evidenced by the cultural diversity in society.
• Racism and sexism continue to be repeated in every society.
• Patterns may drive us to excellence but also isolate us.
• Material objects create happiness but push us away from close relationships.
• Biological instincts create a ready-made world, but culture pushes us to make choices while we remake the world

An overview of culture through the lens of structural-functional and social-conflict theories. It examines values, cultural universals, and how economic systems shape societal values. A comparison between idealism and materialism is discussed in the context of cultural analysis.