welcome to chapter 3 culture please take notes well I'd like to begin this um lecture by talking about some key terms associated with society and culture first let's Define society for our purposes Society is defined as a large group of people Associated by shared culture and social institutions on the other hand culture is defined as the socially learned and shared ideas behaviors and material components of society let's take a moment to unpack those two terms when we talk about Society what we're really talking about is a relatively self-sufficient and self- sustaining group of people who are united by social relationships and who live in a particular territory on the other hand what we're when we talk about culture what we're really talking about is the complex pattern of living living that humans have developed and that they pass from one generation to the next in reality these two concepts are more closely related than their def definitions might have you believe um arguably you cannot have Society without culture and you cannot have culture without a society to maintain it culture is what accounts for our success as a species now that's something really important to keep in mind culture is what accounts for our success as a species in short life without culture would be impossible our culture is what's transmitted from each generation from the past generation to the Next Generation Um and that really helps solve many of the elementary um problems associated with the human existence because of culture you don't have to learn to make fire in order to fix yourself something to eat you can stick your food in the microwave or in the oven or what have you because of culture we don't have to learn um language from scratch each generation learns and builds upon the language that was learned by the previous generations so culture is really what accounts for our success as a species now culture can be divided into two categories there's material and non-material culture material culture is defined as physical artifacts that represent components of society again physical artifacts that represent components of society truthfully material culture consists of those things human beings create that you can physically touch so your laptop um your cell phone um your um uh car keys your backpack your sunglasses your necklace your earrings your baseball cap those are all things that are really under the rubric of material culture those are things humans have created that you can physically touch on the other hand nonmaterial culture consists of ideas and symbols that represent components of society again non-material culture consist of ideas and symbols that represent components of society putting it another way we can say that non-material culture consists of those things humans create that you cannot physically touch so for example language political systems family patterns religious beliefs those are all things that humans create that you cannot physically touch you can't touch language you can't touch a belief system now it's worth noting that often times when humans create a material component or material culture they tend to also create the non-material counterpart so if you look at the images on the screen you can't well you can physically touch a prison yes so you could touch the bars you could T touch the walls of a prison but you cannot touch the laws that got you into prison in the first place similarly you can't touch knowledge or education but you can't touch a diploma so the items that are on the screen are both material and nonmaterial culture well the first category under non-material culture which we're going to spend most of our time on non-material culture the first category um under non-material culture uh consist of norms Norms Norms are culturally specific established guidelines and expectations of behavior again Norms are defined as culturally specific established guidelines and expectations of behavior so Norms tell us how we're supposed to act they're the social rules that specify what's appropriate in a given situation with that in mind please go watch video one and two and when you while you're watching it consider why are you reacting the way you are well hopefully you've watched video one and two and you're thinking about your reaction to what you saw with the first video with the the Bissell vacuum uh advertisement the truth of the matter is we have strong rules and guidelines in society about eating the way the person in the video ate right we just say no don't do it we we often have the 5-second rule if it touches the floor you you pick it up it's it's no it's been on the floor you can't eat it right it's not considered clean truthfully though um the food is not bad right um it's not horrible and if you were starving you would absolutely eat it but we have Norms about that we have rules and guidelines that govern our Behavior with that same thing with the extreme sitting we have rules about personal space um that guide our behavior and you're not supposed to get that intimately close with people you don't know this is what non-material culture is about right the expectations and guidelines um that exist in a society when it comes to how you act um uh when you encounter different situations it's worth realizing and noting though that this is very relative it's relative to time place and culture what's considered acceptable or acceptable Norms in one culture might not be acceptable Norms in another culture or what's considered acceptable today might not have been acceptable 20 years ago 50 years ago 100 years ago or what have you well our look at norms will involve looking at a variety of different categories of norms um but these are the four um top categories that we're going to consider and then we have other forms of non-material culture so let's begin with folkways folkways folkways are defined as informal and common Norms that guide everyday Behavior again informal and common Norms that guide everyday Behavior folkways are the lead least significant of the Norms they are really part of everyday life um you are expected to follow them but if you violate them it's not considered um immoral um um or um an offense that requires the authorities to get involved so someone uh sitting with an umbrella inside when it's not raining um well that's a violation of a folo we don't expect people to do that or if you get on an elevator and you see everybody facing the wrong direction well that's a folkway right it's not illegal to stand facing the back of the elevator it's just not something you expect to do so that's a folkway it's a fairly minor um uh Norm violation next to folkways there are mores mores mores are defined as Norms based on moral and ethical factors that may be strictly enforced and violations may be punished so again mores are norms based on moral and ethical factors that may be strictly enforced and violations may be punished I say maybe because it really does depend on the situation and the circumstance and whether or not there are any rules in place um uh that allow for punishment so examples of mores um let's see so the first image on the screen is a young man named Andrew Martinez he was a student at UC Berkeley um in the 1990s and one day after uh a serious drug Bender um he woke up with the thought that humans are born naked and so we should live naked so he as a college student decided to go to class naked that's him sitting in class no clothes on um he would walk around campus naked he would go to um the Student Union um naked he would eat his meals naked he would just walk around everywhere without any clothes on at the time though there were no rules at University uh of California Berkeley stating you had to wear clothes to class I mean we all kind of assume people will right that's the assumption um and when you or if you're on campus currently the assumption is that you will be walk from one building to the next with clothes on so there were no rules in place against what he was doing but many people found it as a moral violation um we do acknowledge there are times when we don't have our clothes on and we're all naked under our clothes but we expect that you're supposed to be covered all right um another example can be found with Woody Allen um and his wife Sun prevent um their relationship um really tested the the the notion of mores and and the the moral boundaries um of the time um let's see sun is Woody Allen's ex-girlfriend's daughter who he helped raise from about the age of seven so it's his ex-girlfriend her name was MIA faroh uh sun is Mia pharoh's adopted daughter Woody Allen helped raise Sun from a little girl um to an adult he says they say their relationship did not start until she turned 18 um but that for many people was a moral violation many people found it very disturbing since he had played the role of Father SL stepfather um in her life as a child so when we talk about Mor's we're talking about those things that are are more significant than folkways um but they don't quite reach the level of our next category laws laws are formal and legal rules enforced by the state again laws are formal and legal rules that are enforced by the state laws are just encoded Norms in other words they are norms that we as a society take seriously enough that we say we're going to write them down and we're going to hire people in the form of the police Homeland Security Department of Social Services FBI we will hire people to make sure that they are enforced for the well-being ideally the well-being of the group The thing is with laws there are situations in which there there are laws on the books um that people thought were important at one point in time but they don't have the same level of importance um at a different point in time in the society for for example um let's see no need to write these down um uh over in Iowa um uh there's a law that makes it a misdemeanor to pass off margarine as real butter and you can go to jail for it and you can be fined in ble California you're not permitted to wear cowboy boots boots unless you already own at least two cows nothing or no word about um other forms of livestock if owning some goats or horses would make a difference um in claran Texas it's illegal to dust any public building with a feather duster um the city clerk has no idea why that law is on the books it was something people thought was important years and years ago in Tex Arcana it's illegal to ride a horse at night with no tail lights not sure how that's supposed to work with a horse but I guess we can go with it and then finally across Texas it's illegal to curse in front of a corpse again I don't know why anybody thought that was an important enough thing to to um put into law but you know as I said previously um lot of this stuff is relative to time place and culture it was important to somebody at some point point in time and so they made it a formal and legal rule um that the state was willing to enforce well then after laws we have tabos tabos are norms that if violated cause revulsion and the most severe social sanction again Norm that if violated cause revulsion and the most severe social sanction Norms are really just a socially forbidden act it's something that the society does not accept and will not allow um to take place um there not a whole lot of things that are absolute tabos universally um and if you come across them there's often some exceptions um to the rule um couple of examples that come to mind the first one is incest um incestuous relationships across the board are taboo um in societies around the world but how incest is defined varies from society to society um some societies um do not see um relationships between an uncle and a niece as incest others would um in ancient Egypt uh the royalty um uh it was not uncommon amongst the royalty for brother and sister um marriages to take place they did not Define that as incest so it's relative another example is cannibalism now truth is you shouldn't eat folks right we just kind of assume that's not going to happen but we do acknowledge there have been cultures in which cannibalism has taken place so in uh Papu Nini you can find examples of cannibalism that is existed historically um and even in more recent times there was a cult which about uh probably 78 years ago U maybe in which they started practicing col cannibalism again um uh against members in the community and everybody was um arrested for that behavior um but in Extreme Survival situations we do know there has have been cases of cannibalism so the donor party d o n n r the Donner Party if you've never heard of them go Google it um it was a group of people who um were U moving out west as pioneers and they got trapped in the mountains in a horrible snow season and they resulted to cannibalism to survive another example can be found of a soccer team um whose plane crashed in the Andes um in the 1970s I believe it was um and they res resorted to cannibalism to survive Beyond those extreme examples cannibalism is a taboo right and if you have examples of people who engage in t cannibalism um for example Jeffrey dmer um uh then we say yeah no you will be punished um if you engage in can cannibalism uh you've blown through folkway Moray laws and you are strictly in taboo territory well there are other aspects or um examples of non-material culture for us to consider the first is values values are defined as collect Ive ideas about what is desirable and undesirable in society Collective ideas about what is desirable and undesirable in society really values are what justify Norms um they are socially shared ideas about what is good right and desirable um they are um really very abstract Concepts but they really add a a cooh adhesiveness to the society um we often have some basic values as a society in common um in the United States we like to say basic values that we have include life Li liberty and the pursuit of happiness now how we Define those individually may vary but as an overarching value we have some uh Unity or cohesiveness with it now values can change over time and when values change um so do the Norms also change of what's acceptable or unacceptable so body piercing body modification that's our values have about that have changed over time um divorce um if you look at historically how divorce was perceived in this country um our values around that have changed over time and over time the laws have also changed as a result next to values we have roles roles are a collection of norms associated with a particular position in society again a collection of norms associated with a particular position in society we play a variety of different roles over the course of our day and throughout our life whether you're playing the role of student teacher son daughter parent sibling friend we all play very different roles now some roles we see as more important than others and some roles the society cares about more than others let's say for example your um uh best friend is has been texting you uh a lot recently and you've got other things to do you've got schoolwork to do you've got exams to study for you've got presentations and papers to do you haven't responded to your best friend's text in fact you just completely ignored it well you feel like you've caught up on your work after a day or two and then you turn around okay I'll respond to my friend now technically you violated your role as best friend right because you didn't respond to the person when they were trying to get a hold of you but Society doesn't care um about um whether you respond to your friend or not that's not a role we're interested in on the other hand when you take a very significant role in the society let's say the role of priest um we have had incidents where priests have been accused um of molesting children and we as a society take that role very very seriously and if you violate your role as priest um we will come after you with the laws of the society after roles we have language language is defined as words and symbols used to communicate words and symbols used to communicate now previously when I said culture is what accounts for our success as a species language is actually the most important characteristic of our species language is important because it allows us to communicate but even more than that as humans it allows us to communicate past present and future we can talk about what we did what we're doing and what we plan on doing with our language as far as we know we're the only species that does that it is possible that there are others and we cannot understand their style of communication but as far as we know currently humans are the only ones that do that communicate past present and future for example my family we have um three dogs and one very unhappy cat our three dogs will tear out of the house and running through the yard barking as far as we know they're barking about that one moment in time they're barking about the fact that the mailman has come by they're not marking about the fact that the mailman man came by uh yesterday and they're not barking about the possibility of the mailman coming by tomorrow they're barking about that specific moment in time and so our ability to communicate past present and future um gives us a great Advantage now when given the tools to communicate we have found examples in which animals have communicated uh about events in the past for example there's a gorilla um in Georgia named Coco and Coco um she is a gorilla in a research facility which is more like a regular house and her um handlers have taught her sign language and and um at one point in time Koko's handlers gave her a a kitten and you can look online and find images of Coco with her kitten well unfortunately Koko's kitten got out of the facility and was hit and killed by a car even long after the kitten died coko will sign about thinking about her kitten or remembering her kitten so I'm not saying that animals can't think about the past it's just ability to communicate unless there's another gorilla that knows sign language coko doesn't have anybody else to communicate that with except her handlers so language is the most important characteristic of our species and it allows us to communicate now there are all a whole host of different types of of language out there um there's spoken language there's sign language there's click language so that would be a click language um there's also whistle language I would encourage you to watch video three um to learn about syll the whistle language well language is made up of symbols so a b c d e f the alphabet those are symbols and symbols are defined as they're defined as an idea or object that has shared meaning to group groups of people again an idea or object that has shared meaning to groups of people a symbol is really anything that has come to stand for something else it's a symbolic representation of an idea so for example DKNY y any guesses what that stands for if we have any um if you're a fashion major you might know or if you just like to shop you might know DKNY stands for Donna Karen New York it's a fashion brand and if you have these letters on just a plain white T-shirt easily that's a $50 $60 t-shirt well then what do these symbols stand for well if you're at your computer your immediate thought might be it's the ALT key well truthfully know those are my initials they don't really stand for anything in your world right so when we talk about symbols what we're talking about is something that has meaning not just to an individual but to a group of people to the society for example this is an oldie but goodie can you name this tune if you said Call Me Maybe yep you're correct so we can communicate a lot with symbols we do it all the time um with uh emojis and texts and emails or what have you well let's consider the seven functions of symbols the first function of symbols is they allow people to deal with the material and social World by allowing us to name categorize and remember remember the objects we encounter again first symbols allow people to deal with the material and social World by allowing them to name categorize and remember the objects they encounter by allowing them to name categorize and remember the objects they encounter for example the don't symbol if you see the circle with a line across it across something we know that means don't do something don't eat here don't drink here don't walk here don't talk on the phone here don't do something so that's what the function of this particular symbol is it reminds us not to do something number two two symbols improve our ability to perceive the environment again symbols improve our ability to perceive the environment well that's what a temperature gauge does right we know that when it's um the temperature says it's 70° we'll dress one way if it says it's 0° we'll dress a different way so symbols help us perceive the environment number three symbols improve our ability to think symbols improve our ability to think imagine if you will instead of using the alphabet to write out your um lecture notes imagine if you had to draw it with pictures like the pictures on the screen how would you draw out your lecture notes well symbols improve our ability to think having the alphabet and being able to arrange um the letters in in different ways giving us the words that we need it improves our ability to think number four symbols increase the ability to solve problems symbols increase the ability to solve problems this on these numbers on the screen probably would be your nightmare math exam if you were given a piece of paper with just these numbers what would you do well you're not quite sure you could add subtract you could divide I guess you could I don't know you need the symbols to make it all make sense right so symbols increase the ability to solve problems number five symbols allow us to go beyond time space culture and individual uality symbols allow us to go beyond time space culture and individuality so think of a newspaper right now most people get their news online or on their phone but historically people would with a physical newspaper even if you look at a newspaper on your phone or online you're looking more often than not at events that took place in the past where it's something that happens yesterday or something that happen a week ago um you may be reading a a section of the paper that talks about upcoming events so you're looking at things that happen in the future you could read about what's happened in other parts of the world where whether it's in um uh London or bayroot um and you can read about the experience of individuals in other parts of the World um or even in your own backyard so symbols allow us so the symbols in this case consist of the alphabet on the page they allow us to go beyond time space culture and individuality next symbols allow us to imagine abstract Concepts symbols allow us to imagine abstract Concepts I teach a sociology of Harry Potter class and if you were a fan of the books or the novels uh and even if you weren't you probably have heard of quidditch um at one point in time TCU had a Quidditch team uh it was disbanded a few years ago um but there is a United States Quidditch team so um the image in the lower right um that's the US quiddit team and quidditch is a game that was made up um and it was based on the imagination of an individual so symbols allows us to imagine abstract Concepts like quiddit the use of symbols helps us avoid being enslaved by our environment the use of symbols helps us avoid being enslaved by our environment so the computer key your computer keyboard you can type in a web address and go to the lou in um uh Paris you can visit the Great Wall of China um you can go and see the pyramids you can hang out at the Smithsonian um the symbols allow you to go beyond where you are um uh you're not trapped by your environment if you are are sitting in your dorm room um listening to this lecture or if you're at home with your family you're not enslaved by your environment you're you're able to go beyond um where you are because you have the ability to use symbols well when you talk about symbols um I also like uh talking about symbolic interaction so let's take a moment to consider that symbolic interaction for our purposes refers to The Peculiar and distinctive character of interaction as it takes place between human beings Again The Peculiar and distinctive character of interaction as it takes place between human beings the P peculiarity um according to the researcher Robertson the peculiarity is the fact that human beings inter interpret or Define each other's actions our response is not directly to the action of another person but instead is based on the meaning that they attach to the action so for example let's consider example one how would you interpret a slap in the face well there's a lot of ways to interpret a slap in the face it could be that someone's angry at someone else so they slap the person in the face that's probably our initial reaction but there's a lot of different ways to interpret a slap in the face depending on the context of the situation for example let's say you're walking in a park it's a beautiful day and you've decided to go to the park as you're walking in the park you see this couple in front of you you and they're walking along and suddenly the guy passes out and drops to the ground well the woman stands over him and is slapping him across the face trying to wake him up in that instance you know okay let me call 911 it's a health emergency that's why she's slapping him in the face in the same park the couple's walking along and they have a baby with them their little girl and the dad is bouncing the little girl up and down and she's hitting her father in the face with her hand very lightly tapping now technically I guess that's a slap in the face but that's a daddy daughter bonding moment right there's no concern there that same couple walking along in the park the woman stops looks at the man with her slaps him in the face and walks off your initial thought is probably ooh what did he do on the other hand if it's the man who slaps the woman in the face turns and walks off your first thought is probably domestic violence he's abusing her now truthfully when the woman slapped the man in the face that was also domestic violence she was abusing him but we're not socialized to think that way right so when you talk about symbolic interaction it's really an interpretation of the action not just the action itself the interpretation is based on the Norms of the culture what the society assumes is taking place another example um let's see uh example two um uh you can find the video online just Google President Bush shoe attack Iran 2008 um President Bush was in Iran uh at a news conference and a reporter in the audience stood up and and threw a shoe at him and in the video what you see is President Bush ducking you know one shoe came at him then the other and he ducked and got out of the way and when this was shown on American television Bush joked huh he thought it was a size 10 shoe that came at him and American News um media and Americans in general we just kind of thought it was pretty funny hey our president's really quick on his feet he's L on his feet he can duck that was not seen that way over in Iran in many parts of the world your shoe is considered absolutely one of the most unclean objects um you could ever touch and to throw a shoe at someone or hit them with your shoe there's nothing more insulting that reporter I believe he was given 3 years in prison for doing that um it was considered an extremely insulting act when the statues of Saddam Hussein were torn down in Iran um people went out into the streets and started beating the statues with their shoes not that they were going to damage the statue I there these huge metal statues but that was the way for them to insult him there was nothing more insulting so symbolic interaction uh really refers to um The Peculiar notion that we don't just take an action at face value we interpret it based on the mean of the group that we happen to be a part of continuing our look at culture let's take a moment to consider High culture and popular culture starting with high culture High culture consists of cultural characteristics associated with the dominant and Elite members of society again High culture consists of cultural characteristics associated with the dominant and Elite members of society put another way that really is the activities products and services patronized by the wealthy what are the things the wealthy buy what do the wealthy do what type of services do the wealthy um pay for um for example if you are um uh flying on a private plane well then that's high culture if you have a um a yacht with a captain and servants that's high culture if you go to see Broadway plays that actually is high culture um another example can be found with this man this is Floyd Mayweather he's a professional boxer now he's doesn't have the best moral reputation I'll I'll say that in easily but he is a very wealthy man he's worth $400 million he engages in high culture this is an example these are his toys he really likes cars um uh the car the third one um I guess the one on the three on the right hand side the Bugattis um Bugattis are extremely expensive cars to change a tire one tire is $20,000 that's high culture very few people can afford High culture on the other hand popular culture popular culture is defined as cultural characteristics adopted imitated and idolized by the masses again cultural characteristics adopted imitated and idolized by the masses so instead of flying on a private plane you're flying on Southwest instead of going to the Opera you're going to the movies instead of having a fleet of high-end cars you drive a Toyota or a Prius that's the difference between High culture and popular culture now it's worth noting that people who can afford High culture can also afford popular culture so if you can afford a Bugatti you can afford a Toyota but it doesn't go the other way people who can only afford popular culture cannot afford High culture if all you can afford is a Toyota then you sure ain't getting a Bugatti all right so that's the difference between High culture and popular culture continuing um uh along this vein let's consider fashion and fads shall we fashion and fads fashion is defined as fashion is defined as a valued style of behavior thinking or appearance that is longlasting and widespread again a valued style of behavior thinking or appearance that is longlasting and widespread so if you look at the shoes on the screen this type of sandal is fashion the image on the left consists of some of is a picture of some of the oldest shoes um archaeologists have ever found these shoes are thousands of years old on the other hand the shoes on the right the material is different it's got more bling but the style hasn't changed right it's still the basic style so that's fashion uh other examples um the white wedding dress is fashion it's a style that's been around a long time it's not going where anywhere the tuxedo for men that's fashion it's not going anywhere you have some examples of fashion in your own closets that you probably have multiple examples jeans your blue jeans those are fashion they've been around a long time they're not going anywhere uh yoga pants even though that's a fairly new development in the world of fashion within the last I don't know 15 years or so have they really taken off in terms of popularity across the country they're not going anywhere right you're yoga pants are here to stay so that's something that's Fashion on the other hand fad a fad is a temporary but widely copied activity followed enthusiastically by a large number of people again a fad is defined as a temporary but widely copied activity followed enthusiastically by a large number of people a fat is something that comes and goes really quickly everybody wants it and then it goes away uh if you um think back to when you were a kid what was in fad when you were a kid were you someone who was into um silly bands right well that was a fad it's something that people were into and then it went away right so fashion is long lasting fad is something that's temporary well let's consider subcultures versus countercultures a subculture is a distinct set of cultural character characteristics that are shared by a minority of people in the society again it's a distinct set of cultural characteristics that are shared by a minority of people in the society subcultures are groups whose values and behaviors are so distinct that they set their members um apart from the general population um Society contains thousands of subcultures um some are very broad some are very narrow um ethnic groups often for form subcultures um and they place a special value on their own language they distinct food religious practices and other Customs um the Amish are an example of a subculture so they are part of the larger culture but they are distinct so as the image shows on the screen um subculture are within a culture but there's something unique or distinct about them they're not interested in converting the larger culture to their beliefs to their language or uh to their food preferences they just want to be able to enjoy their way of life um and not be disturbed right just let them do what they want to do on the other hand countercultures a counterculture is defined as it's defined as a subculture group that is in opposition or contrast with a majority of society again a subculture group that is an opposition or contrast with the majority of society countercultures are a type of subculture but their members are in opposition to the dominant Society um uh they are outside the Norms of the dominant Society so the image on the screen countercultures those that circle is set apart from um the culture or subculture groups um oftentimes we think of countercultures as being negative that they they really want to change the society to be more like them uh examples include Isis right where Isis goes into a society they r rically change the society they radically um uh change the culture in that Society um uh in other examples um groups um that are um uh in favor of um uh racism um like uh area Nation or the KKK those would qualify as counterculture groups they're looking to radically change the society countercultures do not have to be negative right um uh so historically um the Mormons were originally a counterculture group whose members challenged the cultural values of monogamy um they wanted to broaden the idea of marriage in the society um the hippies the hippie movement that was a counterculture movement they wanted to change how Society operated um in the long run the CH the changes they uh were encouraging were good for the society but at the time they were seen very much as a counterculture movement so you have countercultures um and then you have subcultures a few other aspects of culture to consider let's consider culture shock culture shock culture shock is the result of coming into contact with a radically different culture that challenges our basic assumptions again culture shock is the result of coming into contact with a radically different culture that challenges our basic assumptions people experience culture shock and a variety of different ways uh we often assume it's when somebody goes to another part of the world um and they encounter people who way of life is very different than our own but you can also encounter it within uh your own country if you live live um in New York City for example and then uh you move to Fort Worth you probably will experience some culture shock it is uh a different way of life um let's see you may have had an example uh culture shock um I can give you my example uh which has to do with that image of the coconut on the screen so years ago I was uh in Mexico with a friend and we were on this highway and there was a a little um coconut juice water stand along the highway and we decided to pull off and buy some coconut water and there was a little old lady who was selling the coconut water and we said you know two two coconuts please so she took out two coconuts and then grabbed a machete and lopped off the top of them and then stuck the um straw in um and then handed them to us to drink and so we had a lovely time sitting there kind of drinking our coconut water and when we were done we handed her our coconuts and she took the two straws and shook them off and stuck them back in her bag of straws they were not washed they were not cleaned they were not sterilized that was culture shock I was not expecting that if you go to a restaurant in the United States the assumption is everybody gets a clean straw my preference is a straw that's been hermetically sealed in the little plastic container um and I have to be the one that breaks it open to use it for the first time but that's not the rule everywhere and so something as minor as that can give you culture shock next to culture shock let's consider cultural relativism cultural relativism that's defined as understanding another cultural culture from their standards understanding another culture from their standards that's in comparison to ethnocentrism which is judging another culture by our own standards judging another culture by our own standards over the course of the semester we will encounter a lot of things that will surprise us and in fact may cause some culture shock the question becomes how will you react to it will you react with cultural relativism and say okay that's their culture that's how they do things or are you going to be ethnocentric and say no that's wrong they shouldn't be doing it like that that's the question that sociology students are often up against is how do you react how do you respond to what you're encountering if it's very different than what you're used to my standard um is to say if the people who are engaging in the behavior are happy about what they're doing and they want to be doing it well then I'll I'm all for cultural relativism you be you boo I'm not you and I'm not doing it but if that's what makes you happy and it's important to your culture more power to you on the other hand if the people who are engaged in the behavior don't want to be doing it or are being forced to do it well then I'm more inclined to be ethnocentric right because if they don't even want to do it well then why are why are they being forced to when you watch the video on the yanu Mami that's part of this um uh module assignment for this week keep in mind how are how you're reacting are you being ethnocentric or are you being culturally relative and I'll go ahead and tell you now that the Yano mamy video does have some disturbing um uh parts to it um uh you just have to kind of be aware that the people are doing what they want to do right there so cultural relativism makes sense on the other hand when we start um watching some other videos a little later in the semester it might be more appropriate to be ethnocentric so example the videos on uh trosi slavery which is modern day a form of modern day slavery or um uh female infanticide which which is the systematic killing of female children because the parents in the society don't want girls that makes more sense to be ethnocentric but pay attention to your reaction are you being cultur culturally relative or are you being ethnocentric well then let's consider cultural lag um there are only two more definitions after this cultural lag is defined as the process by which technological development and progress outpace current Norms values knowledge symbols and material components of society I'll repeat that cultural lag is defined as the process by which technological development and progress outpace current norms values knowledge symbols and material components of society the process by which technological development and progress outpace current Norms values knowledge symbols and material components of society cultural lag occurs when some part of of culture changes and the other part lags behind typically it's material culture that changes first right so things you can physically touch and non-material culture is what lags behind right our um um mores our laws our values our language about it often lags behind for example let's consider glow-in-the-dark puppies I know you weren't thinking about Glo the-dark puppies but here we go scientists have designed some interesting puppies this is the puppy with the lights on that's the puppy with the lights off we have the technology now to have glow-in-the-dark puppies they've also got glow-in-the-dark fish and glow-in-the-dark kittens so scientists have created animals with these qualities that's material culture the question is should we have puppies that glow in the dark that's the non-material part of it what are the mores what are the ethics what are the laws around these types of um uh scientific developments another example this is a h human pig hybrid as far as I know this is as far as researchers have taken it is this embryonic stage so we have the ability to do that the question is should we do that right that's cultural lag the material culture our ability to do something exists but the non-material culture has lagged behind um what are the rules and regulations what are the ethics about it what are the parameters associated with it that's what cultural lag is about next to cultural lag let's consider cultural diffusion cultural diffusion is defined as the spread of norms values knowledge symbols and material components from one Society to another again cultural diffusion is defined as the spread of Norms values knowledge symbols and material components from one Society to another cultural diffusion is really borrowing it's when borrow cultures borrow from one another as a result of contact UM now generally groups are less open to um diffusion when it comes to non-material culture but they're pretty open with material culture so groups are not likely to borrow each other's religious beliefs or legal systems or family patterns for example but they are likely to borrow each other's food and music and clothing styles I mean if you look around any major metropolitan area or actually even any pretty small City you can find a range of different foods you can find Chinese food in pretty much every city um big or small um in larger cities you can find Thai food you can find Ethiopian food you can find um um uh Kenyan food or Nigerian food you can find a wide range of food and people are willing to borrow food right that culture is easily diffused a group immigrates to another community and they take their food preference with them and somebody opens a restaurant and people find they like that style of food uh I used to teach a sociology of food class and one thing that we did find with food um is that even though people are willing to borrow it there are certain meals they're more likely to borrow than others so people are much more likely to borrow or try other cultures lunch and dinner than they are breakfast um people often want to kind of get their day going with what they're used to but further in the day they're more likely to try food from other cultures or borrow then we have cultural leveling cultural leveling is the process of cultures becoming similar as a result of factors such as media and globalization again cultural leveling is the process of cultures becoming similar as a result of factors such as media and globalization um so with cultural leveling what you find is that cultures become a a lot like each other um an example can be found by looking at the white wedding dress you can find the white wedding dress all over the world even in cultures in which wearing white is a symbol of mourning or death um uh you can find some Brides willing to wear a white wedding dress um there's a similarity that EX exist um uh uh with the cultures uh you can also find that with food uh again so McDonald's is all over the world Subway is all over the world coca colola is all over the world that's cultural leveling right uh when the the the the cultures become very much alike right they become very much alike so what's next well please take a look at your chapter 3 study guide you should complete chapter 3 in sociological U don't forget to save your chapter certificates do the readings as listed in the study guide and complete the engagement package requirements also don't forget to attend the class check-in session on Thursday that's it for now I hope you have a great day bye-bye