Culture and Society

 Society:
 A group of people who have learned to live
and work together.
 Society is a holon and within the society,
culture refers to the way of life is followed
by the group (society).
 Culture
Culture consists of the beliefs, behaviors,
objects, and other characteristics common
to the members of a particular group or
society. Through culture, people and groups
define themselves, conform to society's
shared values, and contribute to society.
Thus, culture includes many societal
aspects: language, customs, values, norms,
mores, rules, tools, technologies, products,
organizations, and institutions.
being cultured means being well‐educated,
knowledgeable of the arts, stylish, and
well‐mannered.
 High culture
—generally pursued by the upper class—
refers to classical music, theater, fine arts,
and other sophisticated pursuits. Members
of the upper class can pursue high art
because they have cultural capital, which
means the professional credentials,
education, knowledge, and verbal and social
skills necessary to attain the “property,
power, and prestige” to “get ahead” socially.
 Low culture, or popular
culture
—generally pursued by the working and
middle classes—refers to sports, movies,
television sitcoms and soaps, and rock
music. Remember that sociologists
define culturedifferently than they
do cultured, high culture, low culture,
and popular culture.
 Society
Sociologists define society as the people
who interact in such a way as to share a
common culture. The cultural bond may be
ethnic or racial, based on gender, or due to
shared beliefs, values, and activities. The
term society can also have a geographic
meaning and refer to people who share a
common culture in a particular location.
 Unique Aspects of the Human
Species
 The capacity to think.
 Sets humans apart from most other forms of
life.
 Humans have the capacity to externalize
the thought process.
 Tools
 Human reproduction
 Cloning
The Family as Human Universal
 The family is biologically based and is the
primary social unit.
 Family is constant; the form of the family is
variable.
 The development of culture exists
because culture is transmitted from one
generation to the next through education
not through the genes.
 Language and Communication
 Language is defined as any transfer of
meaning, but general usage refers only to
spoken and written messages.
 It is essential to be attuned to unspoken
and unwritten language.
 Language structures reality
 Form and variability determine how members
of the culture will view reality and structure
their thoughts.
 Territoriality
 Tendency of people to seek and maintain
a territory.
 The definition of spatial and interactional
territories is paramount feature of any
culture.
 Refers to the cultural ways people locate
themselves in their universe and establish
the boundaries of their various human
systems.
 Qualities of a Society
 Culture is that complex whole that includes
knowledge, belief, art, law, morals,
custom, and any other capabilities and
habits acquired by a human being as a
member of society.
 Culture is viewed as the ways of doing,
being, and explaining, as they exist in
each particular system.
 Tools
 Amplifiers of human capacities:
 Sensory capacity
 Motor capacity
 Reasoning and thinking capacity
 Include devices, objects, and procedures that
are extensions of human natural capacities.
 Tools of a culture include not only understanding
their built-in purpose but, their purpose for the
user.
 Social Organizations:
Society and Roles
 All cultures, being social systems, have
organization.
 Three aspects operating to define social class:
 Economic status
 Social status
 Political power
 Social class suggests a group consciousness on
the part of members.
 Emergence of a permanent “underclass” in
American society.
 Role relates to and derives from status.
 Total of the cultural expectations associated with
a particular status, including:
 Attitudes
 Values
 Behavior
 Role expectation are defined by the culture and
its components and incorporated by the persons
filling the role.
 All persons occupy a complex set of roles:
 Parent
 Child
 Worker
 Voter
 Worshipper
 The total number of roles is influenced by
the quantity of networks they are involved
in.
Sociological Perspective
The symbolic interactionist perspective,
also known as symbolic interactionism,
directs sociologists to consider the symbols
and details of everyday life, what these
symbols mean, and how people interact with
each other. Although symbolic interactionism
traces its origins to Max Weber's assertion
that individuals act according to their
interpretation of the meaning of their world,
the American philosopher George H. Mead
(1863–1931) introduced this perspective to
American sociology in the 1920s.
 The functionalist perspective, also called
functionalism, each aspect of society is
interdependent and contributes to society's
functioning as a whole. The government, or
state, provides education for the children of the
family, which in turn pays taxes on which the
state depends to keep itself running. That is, the
family is dependent upon the school to help
children grow up to have good jobs so that they
can raise and support their own families. In the
process, the children become law‐abiding,
taxpaying citizens, who in turn support the state.
 Mechanical solidarity is a form of social
cohesion that arises when people in a
society maintain similar values and beliefs
and engage in similar types of work.
 Organic solidarity is a form of social
cohesion that arises when the people in a
society are interdependent, but hold to
varying values and beliefs and engage in
varying types of work.
The conflict perspective focuses on the
negative, conflicted, and ever‐changing
nature of society. Unlike functionalists who
defend the status quo, avoid social change,
and believe people cooperate to effect social
order, conflict theorists challenge the status
quo, encourage social change (even when
this means social revolution), and believe
rich and powerful people force social order
on the poor and the weak.
 cross‐species perspective
The cross‐species perspective considers the
similarities in and differences between
human social behavior and that of other
animals. A comparison of social behaviors
across species can provide valuable insights
into the nature of human society.
 cross‐cultural perspective deals with the
comparative nature of customs and
standards of behavior within a community
or system.
 statistical perspective is based on the
frequency of occurrence of an attitude or
practice within a society.
 historical perspective deals with social
issues from the point of view of historical
attitudes, values, practices, and contexts.
 religious perspective considers the
effects that religious doctrines, scriptures,
and spirituality have on individuals and
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