Wk 4 Culture

7/29/2019 Wk 4 Culture

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Culture

Introduction



Culture

• The way of life of a people

• Culture includes the human-createdstrategies for adjusting/adapting to the

environment & to those creatures

(including humans) that are part of that

environment.



North

Korea

South

Korea

The division ofthe Korean Peninsula into

North and South havehad a profound effect on

Korean culture (on the wayof life of both North and

South Koreans), and on themeaning of being Korean.



Fig. 3-2, p. 66



Division becomes a genre in art

• Desire for unity in movies



• The previous photo:

– From the Korean point of view ―their world fell

apart‖ when Korea was divided into north and

south. This monument on the South Koreanside of the DMZ (demilitarized zone)

expresses the desire of both sides to ―push

the their world back together‖ and reunify.




– the DMZ museum on the southern side of theborder. Two South Korean figurines, one

male soldier and one female soldier stand

outside the entrance.



The Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C




– The United States memorializes its role in the

Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C.,

with 19 statues each approximately 7 feet, 3inches tall.

– An estimated 7.5 million Americans haveserved in South Korea to maintain that

division over the past 60 years.


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/wk-4-culture 12/32Fig. 3-CO, p. 58



Culture

Material Culture

Nonmaterial Culture

Beliefs

Values

Norms

Symbols

Language



Definitions

• Material culture:– All the natural and human-created objects

to which people have attached meaning.

• Non-material culture:–

Intangible human creations, which wecannot identify directly through thesenses.



• Subculture: Segment of society that

shares distinctive pattern of mores,

folkways, and values that differ from larger

society



A Culture of Cheating?

• If cheaters are not caught, will their academic

dishonesty have any negative effect on them?

• What effects does it have on honest students?



• Ethnocentrism: Tendency to assume that

one’s own culture and way of life

represents the norm or is superior to

others

• Cultural relativism: People’s behaviors

from the perspective of their own culture



• Culture shock: Feeling disoriented,

uncertain, out of place, or fearful when

immersed in an unfamiliar culture



• Culture war : Polarization of society over

controversial cultural elements



• Dominant ideology: Set of cultural beliefs

and practices that help maintain powerful

interests, including:

– Social interests

– Economic interests

– Political interests



General, shared conceptions of what is good, right,appropriate, worthwhile, and important with regard to

conduct, appearance, and states of being.



Conceptions that people accept as true, concerning howthe world operates and where the individual fits in

relationship to others.



Written and unwritten rules that specify behaviors

appropriate and inappropriate to a particular social

situation.



An handbook for international students studying in the United

States describes American norms guiding greetings:

Americans are very friendly. They tend to greet each other witha smile, sometimes a handshake, and a friendly "Hello, how are

you?" (which is not a question about your health) or "What's up?"Such a greeting is very common, and does not always require ananswer. If an American friend greets you with "Hi, what's goingon?" and walks away, do not feel offended, it is a popular way ofgreeting. Also, the common phrase "See you later" is not an

invitation for a visit, but a way to say "Good bye."



Any kind of physical or conceptual phenomenon—a

word, an object, a sound, a feeling, an odor, a gesture or bodily movement, or a concept of time—to which people

assign a name and a meaning or value.



• Diffusion: Process by which cultural item

spreads from group to group

– McDonaldization: Process through which

principles of fast-food industry dominate

certain sectors of society



Types of diffusion (1)

• Normative: adoption of what has

become the professional or legitimate

standard – Recycling practices




• Mimetic: when uncertain about how

best to approach a problem, actors

borrow from others

– how to deal with terrorist attacks




• Coercive: adoption out of respect for

authority or to avoid losses

– Driving on the left or right?



• How do functionalists and conflict theorists

view culture?

– Culture as consensus

– Culture as conflict

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