Culture The Nacirema Fundamental Belief: The human body is ugly ...

Culture
The Nacirema
Fundamental Belief: The human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and
disease.
The Shrine Room
Medicine Men and Lapistos
Mouth-Rites and Holy Mouth Men
Temple of Sweat and Brawn
Humans are to culture as fish are to water.
Culture is ubiquitous.
Culture
Defining Culture
The language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and material objects that are passed from one
generation to the next
Learned and shared ways of believing and doing (culture within us).
Total life way of a people, the social legacy the individual acquires from his group.
The part of the environment that is the creation of man.
A storehouse of the pooled learning of the group.
“That which binds men together…”
Cultural Questions
Why do Moroccans wear white robes that reach to their feet
Why is it that the women of Morocco are completely covered except for their eyes
Why do the Nacirema allow the holy-mouth-man exorcise the evils of the mouth with painful rituals
and practices
Why do we do any of the things that we do
Society is Not the Same as Culture
Society is the largest form a human group.
Society is a group of people who interact more with each other than they do with other individuals,
cooperatively for the attainment of certain ends.
Means to an end relationships.
Organization, institution, formality.
Culture is the glue that holds society together.
Culture simplifies day to day interaction.
Culture – D. Riess 1

Consequences of Globalization
Culture Shock
Personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life.
Cultural Lag
Period of maladjustment when nonmaterial culture struggles to adapt to new material
conditions.
Cultural Diffusion
Spread of information from other cultures.
Material culture spreads more easily by comparison.
The transmission of non-material culture can result in alternative meanings.
Cultural Leveling
Differences between cultures are less discernable.
Culturally Standardized Unreason
Equally non-rational responses to the meanings attached to cultural norms.
How many wives should a husband have
What meat will you eat
What relationships are appropriate or inappropriate
Ethnocentrism
One’s own group is the center of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to
it.
Toward Own Group
See members as virtuous and superior.
See own values as universal and
intrinsically true.
See own customs as original and centrally
human, as reflecting true “human
nature”.
Toward Outsiders
See outsiders as contemptible, immoral,
and inferior.
See outsiders’ values as false.
See outsiders’ customs as suspicious,
ignorant, and lacking in humanity.
Conflict theorists: ethnocentric value judgments serve to devalue groups and to deny equal
opportunities
Functionalists: ethnocentrism maintains sense of solidarity
Culture – D. Riess 2

Cultural Relativism
You can only understand others and their ways of doing things within their cultural context.
Emphasis on understanding.
Sociologists are not in the business of reporting that one way of doing things (culturally
speaking) is better than another.
Which way is better or worse is not a sociological question.
That is a question for policy makers, social reformists, and social workers.
Material Culture
Tangible
Human made from raw materials.
Artifacts / Artificial
What would a culture from another time and/or place say about us based on our material culture
Intangible
Symbols
Language
Norms
Mores
Taboos
Sanctions
Beliefs, Ideology, Values
Non-Material Culture
Symbols
Anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture.
Anything that represents something else.
Gestures
Language
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Language precedes thought.
Language is not a given.
Language is culturally determined.
Language colors the ways in which we see our world.
Culture – D. Riess 3

Spoken or written words and gestures.
Governed by a set of rules (grammar and syntax).
Without rules we would have trouble understanding one another.
Language
So prey I God that non myswrite the,
Ne the mysmetre for defaute of tonge.
And red wher-so thou be, or elles song,
That thou be understode…
-Chaucer
Language Continued….
The meanings for the adjective “black” in the dictionary:
Dismal, gloomy, forbidding, destitute of moral light or goodness, atrocious, evil, threatening,
clouded with anger.
The meanings for the adjective “white” in the dictionary:
Pure or innocent.
Consider “blacklists” and “white lies”.
Consider gender.
Mailman, policeman, fireman.
Miss, Mrs., Ms. vs. Mr.
Princess, softball, powderpuff, women’s tennis, women’s golf, etc.
The emergence of non-sexist terms in spite of resistance to such terms.
Norms
Folkways – Casual Norms.
Sanctions may be a dirty look, a roll of the eyes, or disapproving comment.
Mores – These Are Not Casual.
Violations can result in a full range of serious sanctions up to and including death.
Taboos – The thought of violating these norms is upsetting to people.
Sanctions and Structure
Sanctions are the way society perpetuates desired behavior and attempts to extinguish
undesirable behavior.
Sanctions function to maintain societies structure by (+) reinforcing desirable norms and (-)
reacting to deviance.
Culture – D. Riess 4

Beliefs, Ideology, & Values
Beliefs – specific ideas that people hold to be true.
Ideology – ideas found in law, religion, literature, and the arts used by upper classes to maintain
their superiority.
Values - culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good, and
beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social living.
Key Values of U.S. Culture
1. Individual achievement and personal success.
2. Individualism.
3. Hard work.
4. Efficiency and practicality.
5. Science and technology.
6. Material comfort.
7. Freedom.
8. Democracy and free enterprise.
9. Equality.
10. Group superiority.
Robin Williams Jr. (1970)
Further Values
Education
Religiosity
Romantic Love
Value Clusters
Leisure
Self-fulfillment
Physical fitness
Youthfulness
Concern for the environment
Further Values and Clusters
Our Changing Culture
Technology
Knowledge / tools that people use to make a way of life in their surroundings.
Overview of Technology
Hunting and Gathering
Simple tools to hunt animals and gather vegetation.
Culture – D. Riess 5

Horticulture and Pastoralism
Using tools to cultivate crops and the domestication of animals.
Agriculture
Large-scale cultivation; control over the earth.
Industry
Factories, energy, efficiency, production, etc.
Postindustrial
Ideas and information
Culture in Action – 1
Culture as a Product of Action
Every society has problems to be solved.
Solutions are created by humans.
Culture in Action – 2
Culture as a Conditioning Element of Further Action
Once a problem is solved in a satisfactory way, people stick with
that solution.
Culture puts us all in the same rut.
Culture in Action – 3
Cultural Maintenance
Once something is institutionalized there is ordinarily great resistance to change.
Our institutions represent:
“Our Sacred Beliefs”
that are beyond criticism.
To suggest modification or resistance is to threaten our very way of life.
Culture – D. Riess 6

Sub and Counter-Cultures
Subculture
Values, beliefs, and/or use of material culture set them apart from others in society.
Counterculture
Values, beliefs, and/or behavior are set or positioned against society.
Culture Through the Paradigms
Functionalist Paradigm
Reinforce societal standards.
Culture reinforces solidarity.
Conflict Paradigm
People in different social classes have different values, beliefs, and behavioral norms which
are passed down through socialization.
For most these values, beliefs, and behavioral norms are incompatible with success in society.
Symbolic Interactionist
Culture dictates / directs interaction.
Interaction defines, shapes, and is shaped by culture.
Culture – D. Riess 7