Culture and SocietyCulture—the conceptComponents of cultureSocietyCategorizing societiesPremodern societiesIndustrialized societiesGlobalization

Culture—the conceptA shared set of norms, beliefs, and values that guide the social life of a group, and the material products of that group.Becker: what is it that allows us to act together “without missteps and conflict”?Redfield (in Becker): “conventional understandings made manifest in act and artifact”A “way of life”Where does it come from? Becker: imposed and invented, continuously

Components of cultureObjects (material culture)Symbols (non-material culture)

Material cultureThe physical artifacts or objects made by humans in society

Technology: the tools and techniques used in productionthe link between culture and nature

Nonmaterial culture

Intangible products of social life

Two important types of ideas that give culture the capacity to guide social life:

Values:Abstract idealsIdeas about what is right, good, preferred Examples?

NormsSpecific principles or rules of expected behavior; do’s & don’tsTypes:

Folkways Mores Taboos Laws

What are these?

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What do they all have in common?

They are symbols.

symbolAn item that stands for or represents another itemWords are symbolsLanguage is a system of symbols that carry meanings, including abstract ideas

What do all these have in common?

They are signifiers.

signifierAny vehicle of meaningCan be sound, gesture, image, object, or even a styleA symbol is a type of signifier (involving motivation-meaning)

Semiotics:

Analysis of nonverbal cultural meanings

Example of semiotics: ritual buildingsChristian church with spire: male-centered, heaven-orientedHopi kiva: female-centered, earth-oriented

Old norm that spire was highest buildingNew urban norm of skyscraper

Cultural identitywe take our own culture for granted, assume it as the norm; culture is an important part of our identity

this can also take the form of a subculture; examples?judging other culture’s by one’s own cultural standards is ethnocentrism

social scientists strive for cultural relativism: understanding another culture by it’s own standards

Society:

A group of people who live in a specific place with its own political authority and

are aware of their shared identity.

societySystem of interrelationships

A macro social structureIndustrialization and globalization are the main drift of this period of history

Categorizing societiesMarx’s concept: mode of production Non-Marxists: level of material culture (technology) taken as key indicatorSocieties divided into “pre-capitalist/capitalist” by marxists, premodern/modern by non-marxists.

Categorizing societiesMode of production:

forces of production (technology) and relations of production (classes)periods defined by key classes:

“primitive” communism slavery Feudalism Capitalism socialism

Material culture:complexity of technology and source of energy keysociocultural evolution assumed, but all “levels” still exist

hunting and gathering agrarian pastoral traditional states or

civilizations industrial

Marx’s Historical Materialism (“vulgar” version, based on statements in A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy)

Primitive Communism (classless)

Slavery (masters vs. slaves)

Feudalism (lords vs. peasants

Capitalism (capital vs. labor)

Socialism (dictatorship of the proletariat)

Communism (classless, stateless)

“Class struggle is the motor of history”

Premodern societies

Review table 3.1

Hunting and gathering

+

Eating Christmas in the Kalahari

How is stratification minimized in a gift-based mode of exchange?

Agrarian

+ ( )

Pastoral

+

Traditional state or civilization

Industrialized societies

+

Industrialized societiesIndustrialization: emergence of machine production based on the use of inanimate power sources.

Industrialized societies: characteristics

Rapid technological innovation (Marx sez capitalism causes this)More non-agricultural workers than farmersUrbanizationNation-state

Nation-statePolitical community with clearly delimited bordersDistinguished from traditional states with fluctuating frontiersAll modern societies are nation-states

Nation-states

World system: globalizationThree worlds?

Product of colonialism: expansion of European, Japanese and American power (first world)Second world product of state socialism (marxist model)Third world: formerly colonized peoples; now either poor or “newly industrializing”

globalizationNow clearly a World System in economic and political senseAlso cultural influences—both waysJihad vs. McWorld (Benjamin Barber)