human behavior ch. 8: culture

A preliminary definition of culture

"A set of common understandings, manifest in act and artifact" -Inside somebody's head as understandings -In the external environment as act and artifact

ethos

"tone, character, and quality of [people's] life, its moral and aesthetic style and mood" associated with the emotional or affective

human agency

-no individual is a fully free agent -constrained by external factors, such as climate, disease, natural resources, population size and growth -may be able to modify constraints through technology -contemporary example of interface of culture and technology is the mobile phone

culture

-provide stability to social life -changes over time but not rapidly

bicultural socialization

a nonmajority group or member mastering both the dominant culture and their own

family

a set of relationships among two or more people to carry out various social and biological functions, such as support, nurturance, sexual mating, procreation, and child rearing

race

a system of social identity; a fundamental principle of social organization but has no validity as a biological category (meanings and uses of race shift, depending on the social, economic, and political context)

symbols

a way of communicating private meaning through public or social action

worldview

an idea of reality, and "concept of nature, of self, of society" associated with cognitive domain

Modern culture

characterized by rationality, industrialization, urbanization, and capitalism of the 20th century

history

includes chains of events and experiences to which people react

ethnic identity

is how ethnic groups define themselves and maintain meaning for living individually and as a group

othering

labeling people who fall outside of your own group as abnormal, inferior, or marginal

accommodation

partial or selective cultural change. Nondominant groups follow the norms, rules, and standards of the dominant culture only in specific circumstances and contexts

human agency

people are active participants, capable of exercising their will to shape their lives

to develop a deeper understanding of inequalities based on race, ethnicity and social class, and gender relations, among other sociocultural processes

practice orientation goal

history, social structure, and human agency

practice orientation key elements

traditions

process of handing down from one generation to another particular cultural beliefs and practices

Postmodernism

refers to contemporary culture characterized by global electronic communications

Traditional or premodern culture

refers to pre-industrial societies based on subsistence agriculture

assimilation

the cultural uniqueness of the minority is abandoned and its members try to blend invisibly into the dominant culture

cultural relativism

the principle of regarding the beliefs, values, and practices of a culture from the viewpoint of that culture itself

cultural conflict

the symbols we use are arbitrary and can mean different things to different groups of people

common sense

what people have come to believe everyone in a community or society should know and understand as a matter or ordinary, taken-for-granted social competence

complex and arbitrary

Defining culture is __________ and ___________

theoretical perspectives

Definitions and discussions of culture tend to reflect the ___________ ____________ and purposes of the definers

Practice orientation questions

-How do social systems shape, guide, and direct people's values, beliefs, and behavior? -How do people, as human actors or agents, perpetuate or shape social systems?

immigration

-US is a nation of immigrants -immigration is prominent feature of society today -profiles of immigrants are complex -many, but not all, immigrants encounter resistance from the native born -current legislative debates about immigration policy reflect people's differing views of immigration

A Practice Orientation

-a postmodern theoretical orientation that: -focuses on people's actions as expressions of their worldview and their ethos -seeks to explain cultural innovation by what people do as thinking, intentionally acting persons in the face of embedded ideologies and cultural conflict -explores different meanings for things we take for granted and variation in the social environment

Enlightenment

-concerned with the universal application of a rational and scientific thought process -cultures and civilizations could be ranked -biological determinism -continues to exert strong influence on everyday understanding of culture

basic axioms about culture

-culture is learned through social interaction -a society may have customary practices, but not all members have the same knowledge of them or attach the same significance to them -culture seizes nature- that is, humans seek to control nature (in the form of climate, oceans and rivers, etc.) and shape it according to their own needs and interests -culture is patterned; culture is symbolic; and culture is adaptive and maladaptive

Romantic

-differences in culture reflect different frameworks of meaning, understanding, and lifestyles -all people and their cultures are relatively equal in value -cultural relativism -useful in social work practice to understand individuals' points of view and the context of their life

Culture

-has emotional and cognitive components that play out in public in our social actions

why are the basic axioms of culture important for social workers?

-must be able to understand how mainstream and "normal" social behavior fit into the lives of clients -must recognize that beliefs, customs, values, traditions, social institutions vary -must pay attention to development of emotional and cognitive frameworks as elements of society and culture

the meaning of culture

-social workers must understand what culture means and how it works in our own terms and in a multidimensional context -dominant social, economic, and political processes subjugate those who do not comply or fit in -this is a succinct formulation of the simplicity and complexity of culture as a lived process in postindustrial societies

traditions, customs, values, families, and so on

Americans have still not come to terms with the gap between the way we think our ___________ ought to be and the complex, often messy realities of our lives.

trends, patterns, social structures

Consider how we reproduce ________, ___________, and ________ _______ when we assume the rightness of our values, beliefs, and meaning and see no need to change them; how hegemony is a barrier to cultural change

motives, actions

Consider people's diverse ________ and __________ as they make and transform the world in which they live, the memories of official and unofficial observers

subjective order, meaning, value

Consider that people construct culture by investing the world with ___________ __________, ___________, and _________; that they can construct social and political identities to resist and contest cultural hegemony

nature, biology, social conditions

Culture constrains and is constrained by __________, __________, __________ __________, and other realities of human existence

behavior, material outcomes

Culture inclues both ________ (act or actions) and the ___________ ____________ of that behavior.

social, material

Culture involves the construction of meanings associated with the _________ and __________ world

actions

People's ________ express their worldview (how they think about the world) and their ethos (how they feel about the world).

-how human beings construct meaning, intentionality, and public behavior -how human beings produce systemic cultural change, adapt, or maintain the culture

Practice orientation focuses on:

-Traditional culture or premodern culture -modern culture -postmodernism

Three major types of culture

customs

cultural practices that come into being and persist as solutions to problems of living, collective memories of the group

Norms

culturally defined standards of conduct

cultural innovation

culture is adapted, modified, and changed through interactions over time

public, private

culture is both _______ and ________

hegemony

dominance of a particular way of seeing the world

ideology

dominant ideas about the way things are and should work

ethnocentrism

elevating own ethnic group and its social and cultural processes above others

acculturation

mutual sharing of culture; groups remain distinct, certain elements of culture change through exchange and blend of preferences in foods, music, dances, clothing, and the like

social structure

ordered forms and systems of human behavior in public life

cultural symbols

something verbal or nonverbal that comes to stand for something else

ethnicity

static traditions, customs, and values that reflect a deep and enduring cultural identity and a desire to keep that identity intact

-exposes social differences and human variation -highlights the cultural bases of various forms of inequality -describes ways in which variations in human behavior have led to subjugation and have become the basis of racial, ethnic, economic, gender oppression, and inequality

the view of culture presented in this discussion

social class

way of ascribing status, prestige, and power based on education, income, and occupation

gender

what our culture symbolizes and means by maleness and femaleness