3.1: Introduction

Figure 3.1 Martial arts has a strong tradition of deep respect for one’s opponent, as these judo competitors display after a match. Even in other styles and other venues such as professional boxing or mixed martial arts, it is common to see opponents showing extreme courtesy and concern for each other despite the level of vitriol before a fight or the violence during it. While certainly echoed in other competitive arenas, this practice is a significant part of combat sports culture. (Credit: Special Olympics Nationale/flickr)

Chapter Outline

3.1 What Is Culture?

3.2 Elements of Culture

3.3 High, Low, Pop, Sub, Counter-culture and Cultural Change

3.4 Theoretical Perspectives on Culture

If you passed someone in a hallway, joined a video conference, or even called into a radio show, it’s likely you and the other people involved would exchange some version of the following question: “Hi, how are you?” You may extend a greeting with the question, or say something similar. Generally, we do not consider responding to these questions from acquaintances as rules. Yet we almost always do it anyway. We simply say, “Hello!” and ask, “How was your weekend?” or some other trivial question, meant to be a friendly greeting rather than a literal request for that information.

Most people adhere to all kinds of rules, expectations, and standards that are created and maintained by our cultures. These rules and expectations have broadly agreed-upon meaning, though there are many ways by which those meanings can be misinterpreted or misunderstood. When we do not meet the expectations of the people around us, we may receive some form of disapproval, such as a look, or a comment informing us that we did something inappropriate.

Consider what would happen if you stopped and informed everyone who asked “Hi, how are you?” exactly how you were doing that day, and in detail. In American society, you would violate informal norms of greeting. Perhaps if you were in a different situation, such as having coffee with a good friend, that question might warrant a detailed response, but when passing an acquaintance in a hallway, it probably does not.

These examples are all aspects of culture, which is comprised of shared values (ideals), beliefs which are statements about the world we consider to be true facts, norms or behavioral expectations, language so that the values can be taught, symbols that form the language people must learn, art and material artifacts, and the people’s collective identities and ideologies. Sociologically, we examine in which situation and context a certain behavior is expected, and in which it is not. People who interact within a shared culture create and enforce these expectations. Sociologists examine these circumstances and search for patterns.

In everyday conversation, people in the U.S. rarely distinguish between the terms 'culture' and 'society,' but the terms have different meanings, and the distinction is important to a sociologist. A culture represents the values, beliefs, norms, language, symbols, and practices of a group, while 'society' refers to the actual people who share a culture. Neither society nor culture could exist without the other.

Within the U.S., many groups of people share a community and a culture. By “community,” sociologists refer to a definable region of a society, as small as a neighborhood (Brooklyn, or “the east side of town”), or as large as a country (Ethiopia, Nepal, or the U.S.A.), or somewhere in between (in the U.S., this might include someone who identifies with Southern or Midwestern regions).

In this chapter, we examine the relationship between culture and society in greater detail and pay special attention to the elements and forces that shape and change culture. A final discussion examines the theoretical perspectives from which sociologists view culture.