CULTURE & ETHNICITY

• Material culture: physical artifacts ...... more and more global in recent years ... isolation/purity is almost impossible. Concrete/tangible aspect of culture (architecture, fashion, roads, books, CDs, etc.)
• non-material culture: knowledge, beliefs, norms, customs, values, etc. created by members of a group or society .... taken-for-granted, shared... abstract/intangible aspect of culture (values, beliefs, etc.)
• knowledge/beliefs: what people know or believe to be true (i.e. believing in God, science, freedom, democracy) regardless of proof.
• values (morals): shared standards of judgment about what is right or wrong, good or bad, appropriate or inappropriate, beautiful or ugly, etc. (values justify social rules about behavior). Our belief system shapes our values (the U.S. culture values education, certain type of physical beauty, individual choice, financial success etc.) For example, we value money but not just by any means... you are supposed to make it through hard work (or stock market these days) but not through stealing (of course white collar stealing is judged much differently than breaking and entering type of stealing).
• norms (customs): shared rules and expectations that are used to guide behavior (how values should guide behavior .... makes life predictable). Our values are reflected in norms (normative-meaning behavioral aspect of culture). For example, men don't wear dresses in the US unless it is Halloween, he is a crossdresser/drag queen, or maybe he has Scottish heritage (if wearing a kilt). We don't pick our noses in public. We know we are not supposed to kill or harm people. Norms that are highly formalized, codified and written are laws (You kill a person--> will most likely go to jail. Pick your nose in public--> sanction is much less severe, such as bad looks)

STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM & CULTURE

• focuses on the needs of society--> stability is essential for society's survival (continuity is possible through stability)
• Malinowski (1922): culture helps people meet their biological needs (food, procreation, etc.), instrumental needs (law, education, etc.), and integrative needs (i.e. religion, art).
• Consensus and harmony is possible thorugh members of a group or society sharing a common language and core values.
• When there is dysfunction (such as the existence of too many subcultures--> and therefore no consensus on core values) it is the institutional structure's role to correct the problem (socialization of the young to maintain order and peace)

• social life as a struggle over control of scarce resources
• cultural ideas and ideals are created by the most powerful in society. Most people are not aware that they are dominated because they  have false consciousness. They hold beliefs that disadvantage them. They buy ideas that benefit the powerful few and keep the rest down.  For example, when we blame the victim (people at the margins of society) we are not focusing on how the people with political and economic power contribute to the problem (or that they don't do anything to create a solution). And status quo is protected because we are not looking/questioning  where/what we are supposed to be looking.
• stresses how cultural values and norms may perpetuate social inequalities
• change is inevitable (when we have people stepping out of false consciousness and uniting against the system that disadvantages them)

• SI does not examine the functions of culture
• microlevel analysis: society as the sum of all people's interactions
• people create, maintain, and modify culture during their daily activities
• symbols are very important: we communicate through symbols that have shared meanings for us (i.e. we all recognize the flag and its significance)
• at any time we negotiate what is 'real.' We re-interpret each value and norm in each social situation we encounter.