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Sociology / Unit 3   Soc 0332 short lesson, about 20 seconds

Cultural Lag

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The idea

Cultural lag is the gap that opens when material culture changes faster than the nonmaterial culture governing its use.

In practice

A technology arrives years before the norms, etiquette, and law for handling it settle.

Where people slip

The lag is the ordinary case, not a malfunction — rules follow the thing they govern.

Your place on the trail

Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.

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