Lecture Notes: Culture and Society

Culture is a way of thinking, way of action, and the material objects that form a person's way of life.  Material vs nonmaterial culture  Travel and culture shock.  \- This can happen in your own country.  We create our own way of life and what is considered normal.   Animals behave out of inst...

Culture is a way of thinking, way of action, and the material objects that form a person's way of life.  Material vs nonmaterial culture  Travel and culture shock.  \- This can happen in your own country.  We create our own way of life and what is considered normal.   Animals behave out of instincts.  \- Humans are the one type that rely on culture rather instincts to survive.  Culture and Human Intelligence:  65 million years ago -- emergence of primates.  5 million years ago, our distant human ancestors climbed down from the trees of Central Africa to move about in the tall grasses.  By about 250,000 years ago, our species, had finally emerged.  12,000 years ago: permanent settlements and emergence of specialized occupations  \- This is what sociologists call the birth of human civilization  Culture is a shared way of life.  \- A nation is NOT the same thing. Society is the organized interaction of people who live in a nation.  \- Canada is both a nation and society.  How many cultures are in Canada?  2021 Canadian census:  2 official languages  More then 200 nonofficial languages  70 Indigenous languages.    Globally we see more than 7000 languages.  \- Globalization is the biggest reason for the loss of languages.  \- People are migrating all over the world.    The Elements of Culture:  Symbol -- anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture.  \- The importance of a symbol becomes clear when someone uses them in an unconventional way.  o Someone burning a Canadian flag shows us the power of symbol.  A culture shock is being unable to understand a symbol or action it is out of the norm for you.  Symbolic meanings can also vary within a society.    Language -- this is your key to a world of culture. It's a system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another.  \- Different cultures write differently.  Cultural transmission -- the process by which one generation passes culture to the next.  Language is what sets humans apart as the only creatures whoare self conscious and know our limitations and understand mortality.  Does language shape reality?  \- Each language has its own symbols  \- Each language has its own phrases or words that aren't found in any other culture.  Language doesn't really determine reality.  \- Children understand the idea of family and caregiving before they learn these words.  \- As adults we can imagine new ideas and things before we have an official name for it.    Values and Beliefs:  Values -- broad principles that support beliefs and specific thoughts and ideas that people hold to be true.  \- They're abstract standards of goodness Beliefs are particular matters that people believe to be true or false.            Key Values of Canadian Culture:  1. Democracy and human rights  2. Healthcare and social safety net  3. Support for the environment  4. Importance of gender and racial equality  5. Value of immigration  6. Support for diversity  7. Free market and property rights  Values: Often in Harmony, Sometimes in Conflict Value conflict can cause strain  \- Value 3 and 7 contradict with eachother Values can change over time  \- The values of male leadership has changed from what it was in the 1900's till now.  Values: A Global Perspective  Values that are most common in higher income countries differ from the ones in lower income countries.  \- Lower income countries put more emphasis on the values that ensure survival.  o These lower income countries also are more traditional and value a patriarchal system.  \- Higher income countries encourage individualism and secular thinking.  o Values such as thinking for themselves and have more tolerance for others.  Norms:  These are rules and expectations by which a society guides the behaviour of its members.  William Graham Sumner -- some norms are more important to our lives than others.  \- Mores: norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance. It distinguishes from right and wrong o Eg. Infidelity is wrong.  \- Folkways: norms for routine or causal interaction.  A difference between right and rude.  o Appropriate greetings and proper dress \- Laws: systems of rules recognized and enforced by governing institutions.  o Eg. Criminal code of Canada    Ideal vs Real Culture:  Values and norms describe how we *should *behave.  Real culture is what actually occurs in this life that we are living.