Chapter 2: Cultural Diversity

Most sociologists believe that humans are not controlled by natural instincts, like animals are. Humans are able to adapt to their surroundings. The methods by which collections of people deal with their environment is the foundation of culture.

Culture consists of all the shared products of human groups. The physical objects that people create and use form a group's material culture. Abstract human creations form a group's non-material culture. A society is a group of interdependent people who have organized in such a way as to share a common culture and feeling of unity.

Culture is both learned and shared. This idea means not everyone in a certain area dresses exactly the same and acts exactly the same. But most people in a certain area will act or dress similarly to the rest. A society's culture consists of not only physical objects but also the rules for using these objects, sometimes referred to as technology. The use of symbols is the basis of human culture. Through symbols, we create culture. One of the most obvious aspects of any culture is its language, which is the organization of written or spoken symbols into standardized system. Language and other symbols are important partly because they allow us to communicate our values to one another and to future generations. Values are the shared beliefs about what is good or bad, right or wrong, desirable or undesirable. All groups create norms to enforce their cultural values. Folkways are norms that describe socially acceptable behavior but do not have great moral significance attached to them. Mores have great moral significance attached to them. Societies have established punishments for violating mores in order to protect the well-being, these are formalized into laws.

Sociologists examine culture by breaking it down into levels and studying each level separately. The simplest level of culture is the culture trait. A culture trait is an individual tool, act, or belief that is related to a particular situation or need. Individual culture traits combine to form the next level: culture complexes. A culture complex is a cluster of interrelated traits. Culture complexes combine to form larger levels called culture patterns. A culture pattern is the combination of a number of culture complexes into a interrelated whole.

Cultures can differ widely. But we also share things in common. Some of our needs are so basic that all societies must develop certain features to ensure their fulfillment. These common features to all cultures are called cultural universals. There are two different tribal groups in New Guinea, they live in the same area but are very different. The Arapesh are contented, friendly people. Their society is based on complete cooperation. The children grow up in a very loving society. The girls are taken at age 7 or 8 to be married, picked by the fathers. Most marriages consist of one husband and wife. Unlike the Arapesh, the Mundugumor are aggressive. The men are competitive, jealous, and violent. They delight in fighting. The children tend to push their parent away. They receive physical punishments for violating rules made by the community. These two cultures are very different, but they live in the same area. Sociologists would wonder why they were so different and why they stay living in the same area.

The study of variations in cultures presents challenges for social sciences. Culture variations make the differing societies interesting. The tendency to view one's own culture and group as superior is called ethnocentrism. The belief that cultures should be judged by their own standards rather than applying the standards of another culture is cultural relativism. Some groups in society share values, norms, and behaviors that are not shared by the entire population, these groups from a subculture. Sometimes a group rejects the major values, norms, and practices of the larger society and replaces them with a new set cultural patterns. This is called a counterculture.

As we can see, society and differ, it varies. Sometimes it splits into smaller cultures, sometimes the smaller cultures reject the bigger culture. Culture is a very interesting subject. Sociologists find cultures interesting when they differ.