| CULTURE AND SOCIALIZATION Society -- a group of interacting people who share a culture. Culture -- the products, material and nonmaterial, of a society. Note: these two basic concepts are so intertwined that they are often used interchangeably, even by sociologists -- no society or individual that we would consider human could exist apart from culture, no culture could exist apart from the interacting people who inherit it, maintain and modify it, and pass it on to succeeding generations. Cultures are Adaptive, Reflexive, and Dualistic -- the total way of life shared by people in a society. Adaptive -- Like other animals, humans must convert what they find in their environment into things that meet their needs (food, shelter, clothing, tools, etc.). Reflexive -- Products of one generation in a society become part of the environment to which later generations adapt -- culture expands over the course of generations. Dualistic -- There are two different kinds of products/tools: Material culture -- �things� that humans produce and use in adapting to their material environments (food, shelter, ect.). Nonmaterial culture -- symbols that allow people to work together to produce the things that they need (language, norms, values, skills, etc.). Our evolutionary background -- mammals, learning, and flexible adaptation. Implications for the concepts of �human nature� and �instincts� and individuality. Ethnocentrism -- the idea that �our way� is best or �natural�. Reification -- the opacity (hidden/unconscious) nature of much of nonmaterial culture. Cultural Relativism and Social Science -- the attempt to view cultures, including our own, in an objective (scientific) way by �seeing through� ethnocentrism and reification. Norms -- rules or guidelines (often reified) for how to behave in particular situations in a particular culture at a particular time (note: norms and normal). The internalization of norms, social control and self control. Three processes of �natural selection� -- biological, cultural, individual. Socialization -- the processes by which people learn to function in society -- lifelong as humans adapt to biological changes (e.g. aging) and changing circumstances (culture). Two basic things acquired through socialization: 1. Use of symbols -- language, norms, skills, values, knowledge, etc. 2. Individuality -- Personality (stable patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior). Self (conscious sense of identity as an individual). How do we know that these things are acquired through socialization and to what extent are they learned rather than inborn/biological/instinctual? The �Nature vs. Nurture� debates |