Sociology Chapter 3: Laws and Sanctions

Culture and Society

• Laws are formalized rules that are officially stated and enforced by a government, and may be based on folkways and mores.
• Sanctions are rewards or punishments for conforming to or violating cultural norms, and can be formal or informal.
• Only a small fraction of social behavior can be policed by formal agencies, and most sanctions are applied informally.

Language and Symbols

• Symbolic communication, including language, is a major component of culture.
• Language allows the transmission of cultural ideas through generations and enables interaction and recreation of society.
• Symbols can unify people or command respect and devotion, and their meanings can only be derived from their cultural context.

Beliefs

• Beliefs are ideas about what is true and help define reality.
• All cultures have accumulated many beliefs over time, providing a common basis for understanding the environment.
• Beliefs are culturally relative and can vary greatly between cultures.

Material and Nonmaterial Culture

• Material culture refers to the concrete and tangible aspects of a society, such as food, clothing, and technology.
• Nonmaterial culture includes intangible components, such as language, norms, values, and beliefs.

Functions of Culture

• Culture enables communication with others through language.
• It provides standards for distinguishing between right and wrong, beautiful and unpleasant, and reasonable and unreasonable.
• Culture provides methods for training children and meeting sustenance needs.

Cultural Variations

• Culture is relative to time and place, and what is considered normal in one culture may be unacceptable in another.
• Acculturation is the borrowing of cultural traits by one group from another, and can lead to the emergence of new culture.

Innovation and Globalization

• Innovation is the process of introducing a new idea or object to a culture, and can take the form of discovery or invention.
• Globalization allows international economic and political systems to dominate local cultures, leading to cultural homogenization.

Perspectives on Culture

• Culture is a shared perspective that is not absolute truth, and perspectives are limited by their nature.
• As we interact, we come to share ideas about the way the world is.

Cultural Dynamics

• The Caribbean region has a complex cultural milieu, with diverse cultural values and attitudes introduced by immigrant groups.
• The plantation system created a complex system of social stratification, with race and ethnicity creating divisions.
• Culture in the Caribbean is multifaceted, dynamic, and rich, with a fusion of European, African, and Asian cultural elements.