What is Culture?
EQ: What concepts are central to
and included in the study of
culture?
AP definition
Culture is comprised of the shared
practices, technologies, attitudes,
and behaviors transmitted by a
society.
Cultural Traits
Individual elements of a culture
including
– Food preferences
– Architecture
– Land use
Culture sets boundaries for behavior
and provides standards for:
Good and bad
Right and wrong
Beauty and ugliness
Cultural Beauty
Culture includes values:
Something held as important or
worthwhile
– Individualism
– freedom
Culture establishes norms:
Commonly accepted actions or
behaviors
– Having only one spouse
– Rudeness vs. politeness
Culture establishes institutions &
artifacts:
Institution: any established organization,
law or custom
– Marriage
Artifact: an object made by humans
– Wedding ring
Levels of Cultural Involvement
Cultural Universals: behavior that is
widely accepted and required within a
culture
– Wearing clothes
– Children attending school
Levels of Cultural Involvement
Cultural Alternatives: choices open to
people in meeting the requirements of
the universals
– Selecting which clothes to wear
– Choosing which school to attend
Levels of Cultural Involvement
Subcultures: groups within a culture
that agree with the major parts of the
dominate culture but behave in ways
that make them recognizably different
– Teenagers
– Ethnic groups
Levels of Cultural Involvement
Countercultures: groups within a
culture whose behavior is a threat to the
main culture
– KKK
– Street gangs
Seven Elements of Culture
Religious Expression
Artistic Expression
Family Structure (Smallest Social Unit)
Educational System
Social Class System (& Social Mobility)
Political System
Economic System
Culture Hearths
Places where important ideas began
and from which they spread to
surrounding cultures
– Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus River Valley,
Meso-America, Huang River Valley
– Taming animals & crops
• Writing, math, art, government, etc…
How Cultures Change
Technology
Diffusion
Acculturation
How Cultures Change
Technology: skills and tools people use
– Affects how people use resources
– Affects how people alter the surface of the
earth
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Cars
Computers
Farming techniques
Form cultural landscapes
Communications Technology
Communications technologies (especially
the Internet) are reshaping and
accelerating interactions among people
and places and changing cultural
practices
How Cultures Change
Diffusion: changes occurring from the
spread of cultural traits from one culture
to another
– Travel
– Migration
– Expansion
(contagious/hierarchical/stimulus)
– Relocation
Impact of Colonization/Imperialism
How Cultures Change
Acculturation: the process of adapting
traits from other cultures
– Over time, traits become part of American
culture
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Acupuncture
Feng Shui
Sushi
Fashion, music, entertainment…
Western & Eastern Medicine
Cultural Landscape
Amalgamations of physical features,
agricultural & industrial practices, religion
& linguistic characteristics, and other
expressions of culture
Traditional vs. Modern Worldviews
Traditional
– Typically agricultural /strong
family ties
• Well- kept traditions passed
down
– Priority on collective good
– Distinct gender roles
– Look to the past to solve
problems
– Flexible attitude toward time
– Accept/Adapt rather than
change
Modern
– Industrial/urban/loose
family ties/mobile
population
• Change is valued
– Priority on individual
– Blurred gender roles
– Reason & Science as
guiding principles
– Rigid attitude toward
time
– Moving forward/Progress
Folk vs. Popular Culture
Folk: Spatial Aspects
Popular: Spatial Aspects
– Local, regional
– Diffusion
– National, global
– Diffusion
• Expansion
• Slow
• Limited
• Hierarchical
• Rapid
• Extensive
Understanding Other Cultures
People prefer their own culture
– Familiar and comfortable
– Customs feel “natural”
– “the way things are supposed to be”
Understanding Other Cultures
Ethnocentrism: judging other cultures by the
standards of your own culture
Racism: belief that one group is naturally
superior to another
Often results when groups compete for power and
resources
*group that wins uses racism to justify dominating others
•European colonization
Global Village
The world is more interdependent today
than at any other time in history
New technology has improved
communications, transportation
We must work to understand and
respect diversity and combat destructive
effects of racism
Village of 100
June 19, 1999: 6 Billion Day
2012: The world reached 7B
If the world of 7,000,000,000 was
condensed into a village of 100, here is
what it would look like…
Nationalities
61 are from Asia
– 19 from China
– 18 from India
15 are from Africa
10 are from Europe
8 are from Latin America
5 are from U.S./Canada
1 is from Oceania
Languages
Nearly 6,000 languages
in the village!
12 speak Mandarin
Chinese
5 speak English
5 speak Hindi or Bengali
5 speak Spanish
3 speak Arabic
2 speak Portuguese
2 speak Russian
2 speak Japanese
1 speaks German
Ages
1/4 of the villagers are
14 or under
8 are 65 or older
On average 1 person
dies and 3 babies are
born every year
Life expectancy: 67
Religions
33 are Christians
22 are Muslims
14 are Hindus
12 practice folk religions
7 are Buddhists
2 are atheists
10 are non-religious
Food & Housing
There is enough food
in the village, but food
is not equally
distributed
– 22 would be overweight
– 13 suffer from
malnutrition
25 live in substandard
housing or have no
home at all
Wealth
82 would be from less
developed countries
– 51 of those live on less than $2
a day
18 others live on $90 a day
Half of the entire village’s
wealth would be in the hands of
only 6 people
– Most of them are citizens of the
United States
Education & Work
7 would have a college education
7 would be unable to read & write
10 would have no job
36 work in agriculture (primary)
21 work in industry (secondary)
43 work in service (tertiary)
Technology
76 have electricity; 24 do not
77 cell phone users
– Unequally distributed: some have 2 or
more; others have none
30 Internet users
15 with Internet access at home
12 active users of Facebook
11 with cars or light trucks
Past and Future…
Over 3,000 years, the population
doubled 5x
In the future, population will double 5
times in just 250 years
Consequences?
The need for tolerance and
understanding is glaringly apparent…