Sociology 100 Midterm 2 - CH 5

The sum total of the social environment in which we are raised and continue to be socialized in throughout our lives.

• Foundations
  • geography
  • climate
  • language
  • norms
  • values
  • current artifacts
  • traditions

Common practices shared by all societies.

• But all societies share certain cultural universals

1. To function for the smooth and continued operation of a society (functionalist perspective)

• • Provides stability & order

2. Imposed by more dominant societies upon others which are less dominant (conflict perspective)

• Within & outside culture. Hierarchies are formed.

All societies must:

• Secure material goods
• Develop forms of communications
• Develop the use of technologies and tools
• Develop skills
• Provides identity

Tangible or physical items that people have created for use and give meaning to in a given culture.
Material culture tells about about non-material culture. Material = food Non- material = belief systems

Intangibles produced by intellectual or spiritual development and the use of artifacts in a given culture.

An abstract system of word meanings and symbols including spoken, written, and signed forms of verbal and nonverbal communications that are used to encode and decode cultural components.

• • Personal expression
  • Transmission of knowledge
    
    • The value of Language...
      • Functionalists
        • Shared language essential for the well being of society
      • Conflict
        • Language as power and control
          • History of the words “Niger, upidy and boy” to people of colour

The first language learned at home in childhood that is still understood by an individual.

• More than 200 mother tongues in Canada

As a function of linguistic determinism and relativism, language shapes reality. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Language shapes and names reality. Depends on your perspective as to what becomes real. Language conditions perceptions of reality. Example: Fear of Snakes (culture dictates they're evil) vs Snakes are yummy (taste is a cultural perception.) Post structuralism

• Linguistic turn
  • The idea that language constitutes reality
  • Experience synonymous with language
• Social constructionism
  • Idea that our understanding of the social and / or physical world develop from within social contexts
  • Sapir's linguistic determinism (97)
• Hyperreality (Baudrillard)
  • inability of thinking people to distinguish between reality and fantasy. We have no way to know how many girls are being educated in Afghanistan, or how many children and maimed in cross fire.

Our own perceptions are not any more sure than those purposed by other cultures.

• Implications of linguistic turn
  • It means we cannot access a reality beyond our perceptions, which are always interpretations perceptions are reality.

Informal norms that are based in accepted tradition.

• • • Informal
      • Cultural expectations

Formal norms embedded in laws that are needed to maintain social control.

• • • • Essential norms (typically laws) that are crucial to maintaining social control

Mores that are considered wrong in and of themselves.

Rules concerning behaviours we are expected to do.

Rules concerning behaviours we are expected to refrain from doing.

Gestures with direct verbal equivalents.

Observable social phenomena external to individuals that exercise power over them.

Cultural values a majority of people identify with in a given society.