Culture

This is Unit Three of Sociology: culture. The unit opens by splitting culture in two — the objects a society makes, and everything it holds without physical form. That split does more work than it looks like it will, because the two halves change at different speeds, and the gap between them has its own name by the end of the unit. Then three stances a person can take toward a culture not their own, and an error entry guarding the middle one. Cultural relativism is a method for describing a practice on its own terms. It is not a verdict that every practice is acceptable, and the course is explicit that understanding why something exists commits you to nothing about whether it should. The middle of the unit is norms, arranged as a ladder — from things that get you looked at oddly, to things treated as genuinely wrong, to things met with revulsion. The ladder is defined by the response, not by the rule. And there is a second error entry about language, correcting a claim that gets repeated confidently: that the language you speak fixes the limits of what you can think. By the end you will be able to do five things. One: say what separates culture from society. Two: say what cultural relativism is and is not. Three: order the four kinds of norm. Four: say where the strong claim about language fails. Five: say what cultural lag is.

Three entries. The objects a society makes, the ideas it holds without form, and then an error entry separating culture from the people who carry it — because the two words get used interchangeably and name different things.

The first half.

Soc 0291 Material Culture

The physical objects a society makes and uses, from tools and buildings to everything else it produces. Culture you can pick up.

The second.

Soc 0292 Nonmaterial Culture

The ideas a society holds without physical form — its values, beliefs, norms and language. Larger than the first half, and harder to change.

And the error.

Soc 0293 "Culture and Society Are the Same Thing"

Society names the population; culture names its way of life. Merging them makes it impossible to say that two societies share a culture, or that one society contains several.

Six entries. One thing every culture has, three positions a person can take toward another culture, and what it feels like to be inside one you do not know. The middle stance carries an error entry, and it is the one most worth getting exactly right.

What every culture has.

Soc 0294 Cultural Universals

A pattern found in every known human culture, though the specific form it takes varies. Universal in presence, not in shape.

The first stance.

Soc 0296 Ethnocentrism

Judging another culture by the standards of one's own, treating the familiar as the natural way. It is the default rather than a failing of character.

The second.

Soc 0297 Cultural Relativism

Understanding a culture's beliefs and customs on their own terms. A research practice — something a person does deliberately to see anything at all.

And its error.

Soc 0298 "Cultural Relativism Means Anything Goes"

It is a method of description rather than a moral verdict. Understanding why a practice exists commits you to nothing about whether it should — the two questions are separate and stay separate.

The third stance.

Soc 0299 Xenocentrism

Believing another culture's ways are inherently superior to one's own. The mirror image of the first stance, and no more accurate for pointing the other way.

And arriving.

Soc 0301 Culture Shock

The disorientation of entering a culture whose everyday rules differ from the ones a person learned. It is the ordinary rules that do it, not the exotic ones.

Two entries, and the order matters. Values are standards of what is worth pursuing. Beliefs are convictions about what is true — and the beliefs supply the picture of the world that the values are standing on.

The standards.

Soc 0303 Values

Shared standards of what is desirable, good and worth pursuing, supplying the criteria a culture judges by. Standards rather than rules.

And the picture.

Soc 0304 Beliefs

The convictions a culture holds about what is true, supplying the picture of the world its values operate on. Change the picture and the same values recommend different actions.

Five entries, and the last three are a ladder. What separates them is not the rule itself but what happens to somebody who breaks it — treated as odd, treated as wrong, or met with revulsion.

The rules.

Soc 0306 Norms

A culture's rules for behavior, specifying what is expected, permitted and forbidden in particular situations. Situation-specific by construction.

Two registers.

Soc 0307 Formal and Informal Norms

Formal norms are written and enforced by an authority; informal norms are unwritten and learned by observation. Most of what governs behavior is the second kind.

The first rung.

Soc 0309 Folkways

Norms of routine and convention whose violation is treated as rude or odd rather than as wrong. Breach costs standing, not standing in the community.

The second.

Soc 0310 Mores

Norms carrying moral significance, whose violation is treated as genuinely wrong rather than merely unusual. The response moves from correction to judgment.

And the third.

Soc 0311 Taboo

A norm so strongly held that violation is met with revulsion, and often with exclusion from the group. The reaction is physical before it is reasoned, which is what marks the rung.

Two entries on how a group answers what people do. Two directions — rewarding and penalising — crossed with two registers, formal and informal, which gives four ways a group can respond without anyone writing anything down.

The response.

Soc 0313 Sanctions

The response a group gives to behavior, rewarding conformity to its norms and penalising departure from them. Enforcement, distributed across everybody.

Two directions.

Soc 0314 Positive and Negative Sanctions

A positive sanction rewards conforming behavior, a negative one penalises departure, and either may be formal or informal. A raised eyebrow and a fine are the same mechanism at different volumes.

Four entries. A symbol works purely by agreement — there is nothing else holding it to its meaning — and language is the organised system built out of that. Then a claim about what language does to thought, and the error entry that trims it.

The unit of meaning.

Soc 0316 Symbols

Anything a culture agrees stands for something else — and the agreement is the whole of the connection. Nothing about the thing itself supplies the meaning.

The system.

Soc 0318 Language

A culture's organised system of symbols, and the means by which culture passes from one generation to the next. Both a product and the delivery mechanism.

The claim.

Soc 0319 Linguistic Relativity

The hypothesis that the language a person speaks shapes how they perceive and think about the world. Shapes — the weaker word, and the defensible one.

And the error.

Soc 0320 "Language Determines Thought"

The strong version, that language fixes the limits of thought, is not supported: speakers routinely grasp distinctions their language has no single word for. Shaping and fixing are different claims.

Four entries dividing a society's culture two different ways. The first pair divides by access — what wealth or training is needed. The second divides by relation — whether a group sets itself apart while accepting the wider society, or defines itself against it.

By access, one.

Soc 0322 High Culture

The cultural patterns of a society's elite, usually requiring wealth, leisure or specialised training to reach. The barrier is the defining feature.

By access, two.

Soc 0323 Popular Culture

The patterns widespread across a society and accessible to most of its members. Defined by reach rather than by quality.

By relation, one.

Soc 0325 Subculture

A group sharing patterns that set it apart while it continues to accept the wider society's core values. Distinct, and not opposed.

By relation, two.

Soc 0326 Counterculture

A group whose patterns reject some central values of the wider society, defining itself in opposition to them. The rejection is constitutive.

Four entries. Three ways new elements enter a culture, and then the concept the unit has been building toward since its first two entries — what happens when the material half moves faster than the ideas governing it.

The process.

Soc 0328 Cultural Change

The process by which a culture's material and nonmaterial elements alter over time. Both halves change — the question is at what relative speed.

Two internal sources.

Soc 0329 Discovery and Invention

Discovery finds something that already existed; invention combines existing things into something new. Both originate inside the culture.

And one external.

Soc 0330 Diffusion

The spread of cultural elements from one culture into another through contact, trade or migration. Most change arrives this way.

The gap.

Soc 0332 Cultural Lag

The gap that opens when material culture changes faster than the nonmaterial culture governing it — a new capability arriving before any shared rule about using it exists.

Two entries, and the distinction between them is whether anybody chose it. One describes contact that happens as a by-product of trade and movement. The other describes imposition that is deliberate and backed by power.

Contact.

Soc 0333 Globalization and Culture

Increased cultural contact and exchange among societies, driven by trade, migration and communication. A condition rather than an act.

And imposition.

Soc 0334 Cultural Imperialism

The deliberate imposition of one culture's values on another, backed by economic or political power. Deliberate and backed are both in the definition — without them it is the previous entry.

One procedure closing the unit, and it is Unit One's method applied to this unit's subject. Culture read three ways — what shared culture does for a society, whose culture becomes the standard, and how meaning gets made between people.

Watch culture read three ways.

Soc 0335 Culture Through Three Lenses

Asking what shared culture does for a society, whose culture becomes the official one, and how cultural meaning is built in interaction. Three questions, one subject.

Five things you can now do. You can say what separates culture from society — one names the population, the other its way of life — and why merging them makes ordinary facts impossible to state. You can say what cultural relativism is and is not: a method for describing a practice on its own terms, which commits you to nothing about whether it should exist. You can order the four kinds of norm by the response a violation draws — odd, wrong, or met with revulsion — and say that the ladder is defined by the reaction rather than the rule. You can say where the strong claim about language fails: shaping thought and fixing its limits are different claims, and speakers routinely grasp distinctions their language has no word for. And you can say what cultural lag is — a capability arriving before any shared rule about using it.