Symbolic Culture Components. Symbols Sociologists: refer to nonmaterial culture as symbolic culture;...
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Transcript of Symbolic Culture Components. Symbols Sociologists: refer to nonmaterial culture as symbolic culture;...
Symbolic Culture
Components
Symbols
• Sociologists: refer to nonmaterial culture as symbolic culture; component of nonmaterial culture is the symbols that people use.
• Symbols– Gestures, languages,
values, norms, sanctions, folkways, and mores.
Gestures• Involve the ways in which people use their bodies to
communicate with one another. • May include everything from hand movements to
facial expressions.• Different from culture to culture.
– Raising middle finger different meaning through out the world.
– Facilitates communication but can lead to embarrassment and misunderstanding if used inappropriately.
Figure 2.1 Gestures to Indicate Height, Southern Mexico
Language
• Primary way people communicate: system of symbols that can be strung together in an infinite number of ways.
• As with gestures, meaning varies from one culture to another.
• Language is the basis of culture!
Sanctions
• Sanctions: expressions of approval or disapproval given to people for upholding or violating norms. – Positive or negative– Positive: approving looks
and gestures to material rewards
– Negative: disapproval looks and gestures to fines, imprisonment, and extreme cases execution.
• Intensity or severity depends on how crucial or not so crucial the group views the norm
Cultural Universals
• Cultural Universal: a value, norm, or other cultural trait that is found in every group
• Sociologists have determined that although such activities (marriage, funerals, music, etc.) are present in all cultures, the specific customs differ from one group to another.
• No universal form of the family etc.
Cultural Variations• What cultural variations
(differences) exist in our American culture?
• Subcultures: a goup with its own unique values, norms and behaviors.
– Teenagers, ethnic groups, motorcycle enthusiasts
• Countercultures: A subculture who rejects values, norms, and practices of the larger society and replaces it with a new set of cultural patterns.
– Satanists, motorcycle gangs and the mafia.