ELEMENT OF CULTURE
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE
I. Language
.
A. Language is a set of symbols used to assign and communicate meaning. It enables us to name or label the things in our world so we can think and communicate about them.
B. Language as a social product.
C. Language, communication and interaction.
D. Language, cognition, and reality.
E. Language and culture.
II. Norms.
A. Norms as humanly created rules for behavior.
1. The production of norms.
a. The need for orderly, stable, predictable interactions.
b. The role of power in the production of norms.
2. The reification of norms.
3. Renegotiating and changing norms.
B. Types of norms.
1. Folkways.
2. Mores.
3. Taboos.
4. Rituals.
C. Social Control.
1. Internal social control.
a. Socialization and the internalization of norms.
b. Ideologies, beliefs, and values.
2. External social control.
a. Informal sanctions.
i. Physical and verbal reactions.
ii. Embarrassment and stigma.
iii. Avoidance and ostracization.
iv. The importance of informal sanctions in small groups and organizations.
b. Formal sanctions.
i. Formal sanctions in large organizations.
ii. Governments, laws, and police.
iii. Courts, hearings, trials, and punishments.
D. Theories of deviance.
1. Deviance as functional.
2. Social disorganization and anomie.
3. Control theory.
4. Structural strain theory.
5. Marxist theories.
6. Value conflict theory.
7. The social construction of deviance.
8. Labeling theory.
9. Cultural transmission and differential association.
III. Values.
A. Values are anything members of a culture aspire to or hold in high esteem. Values are things to be achieved, things considered of great worth or value.
1. Values are human creations. They are social products.
2. Values can and do become reified.
3. Values can be renegotiated and changed.
B. While people and groups may disagree as to which are most important, Americans generally value the following.
1. Democracy, liberty, freedom, independence, autonomy, and individual rights.
2. Capitalism, competition, hard work, self-discipline, and success.
3. Wealth, prosperity, materialism, and consumerism.
4. Equity, fairness, and justice.
5. Equality of opportunity.
6. Love, compassion, humanitarianism, charity, service, and respect for others.
7. Tolerance, forgiveness, and acceptance.
8. Faith, religion, family, conformity, and tradition.
9. Nationalism, patriotism, civic responsibility, and loyalty.
10. Health, happiness, and life.
11. Education, knowledge, science, technology, and innovation.
C. Complimentary and conflicting values.
1. A groups values tend to compliment and support one another. They tend to be in agreement and make sense when considered together. A careful look at the values above reveals “sets” of values that seem to go together.
2. However, it is also possible for values to contradict and conflict with each other, especially in complex modern industrial societies. For example, competition and success can be seen as contradictory to humanitarianism, compassion, service and self-sacrafice; while equity and justice contradict forgiveness and conformity and tradition contradict tolerance and acceptance.
3. In fact, many social and political problems can be seen as conflicts between groups emphasizing different values.
D. The relationship between norms and values.
IV. Beliefs and ideologies.
A. Beliefs are the things members of a culture hold to be true. They are the "facts" accepted by all or most members. Beliefs are not limited to religious statements, but include all the things a people know and accept as true, including common sense everyday knowledge.
1. Like all other cultural elements, beliefs are humanly created and produced. They are collective social agreements produced during interaction and reified over time. What is "true" or "factual" for a given people is what they collectively agree to be true at that point in time.
2. Beliefs can and do change, especially in modern industrial societies. Today we laugh at things our grandparents used to believe and chances are that our grandchildren will laugh at many of our beliefs as well.
3. This suggests that their is no absolute knowledge or absolute truth. All knowledge and truth is relative.
B. Ideologies are integrated and connected systems of beliefs. Sets of beliefs and assumptions connected by a common theme or focus. They are often are associated with specific social institutions or systems and serve to legitimize those systems.
1. Some prominent American ideologies.
a. Capitalism.
b. Christianity (Protestantism).
c. Individualism
d. Scientism
e. Sexism.
f. Racism.
2. Ideologies are, themselves, often related and connected to each other in complex ideological systems, such that one ideology "makes sense" when considered with another. They also often serve to legitimize each other. Religious ideologies often encompass or subsume many of a culture's ideologies, giving them added legitimacy.
3. However, it is also possible for a culture to hold ideologies that are conflicting and contradictory.
C. The relationship between beliefs and values.
V. Social Collectives.
A. Social collectives such as groups, organizations, communities, institutions, classes, and societies are also collectively produced symbolic social constructions.
1. Social collectives are symbolic entities. They are defined into existence when people define themselves as a group or are defined as a group by others. They can and do become reified over time, such that they are seen and treated as real objective entities. However, they remain fundamentally symbolic entities and as such can be renegotiated and redefined.
2. The symbolic nature of social collectives means that they are typically justified and maintained by ideological systems and ritualistic behavior.
B. Although symbolic entities, social collectives have a real impact on our lives.
a. Collectives as contexts for interaction.
b. Collectives and local cultures.
c. Collectives, status, roles, identity, and the self.
VI. Statuses and Roles.
A. Status, although related, is not a measure of a persons wealth, power, and prestige. To speak of "high" or "low" status is somewhat misleading. A status is a slot or position within a group or society. They tell us who people are and how they "fit" into the group.
0. Status and group membership.
1. Statuses as collective social agreements that become reified over time, but which can and do change.
2. Society as a network of inter-related statuses.
3. The multiplicity of statuses filled by individuals in modern societies.
4. Ascribed and achieved statuses.
5. Master statuses--age, sex, race, class.
6. Status, prestige, wealth, and power.
7. Status inconsistency.
B. Roles are norms specifying the rights and responsibilities associated with a particular status. The term role is often used to mean both a position in society and role expectations associated with it.
0. Roles define what a person in a given status can and should do, as well as what they can and should expect from others. Roles provide a degree of stability and predictability, telling how we should respond to others and giving us an idea of how others should respond to us.
1. Roles are negotiated and produced during interaction, and often become reified over time. However, roles can be renegotiated and changed.
2. Role set, role strain, role conflict, and role transition.
3. Roles, identity, and the self.
VII. Cultural Integration.
A. Cultural integration refers to how interconnected, complimentary, and mutually supportive the various elements of culture are.
B. Diversity, complexity, and integration.
C. Variation within modern mass cultures.
0. Diversity in historical and cultural traditions.
1. Subcultures.
2. Counter-cultures.
3. Local cultures.
D. The mass media and cultural integration.
E. The relationship between beliefs, values, norms, and behavior.
0. The traditional deterministic view.
1. The culture as resource view.
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CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD READER SHIP
| What GOOD READERS do: | What Struggling readers do: |
| Before Reading: 1. "Activate" their background knowledge on the subject . 2. Question and wonder. 3. Know their purpose for reading. 4. Look for the structure of the piece of reading. 5. Believe they are in control of the reading process | Before Reading: 1. Start reading without thinking about the subject. 2. Do not know why they are reading - |
| During 1. Give their complete attention to the reading task. 2. Keep a constant check on their comprehension of the reading material. 3. Stop to use a "figure- understand what they read. 4. Know that they can make sense of it eventually with use of strategies. 5. Look for important ideas and see how details relate to the whole. 6. Visualize, "Go to the movies in their head." 7. Make inferences and connections. of being frustrated or confused and deal with it. 9. Realize that the problem may be the way the author wrote rather than the reader's inability to understand. | During 1. Do not know whether they understand or do not understand. 2. Do not monitor their own comprehension. 3. Seldom use any "figure- 4. View reading as looking at words and turning pages - 5. Are sometimes adept at phonic analysis but do not go for meaning. 6. (They can say the words but don't know what they mean.) 7. Can be bored by the process of reading. |
| After 1. Decide if they achieved their goal for making meaning from reading. 2. Evaluate their comprehension. 3. Summarize what they read. 4. Seek additional information if curious to know more. 5. Think through the information and decide whether it was useful or not. | After 1. Do not know what they have read. 2. Do not follow reading with comprehension self- 3. See no connections between what they read and anything else. |
| Good readers take chances - | |
| 1. Good readers look for meaning instead of just looking at individual letters or words. 2. Good readers guess at words they are not sure of, or just skip those words (if the words are not essential to the meaning of the text.) 3. Good readers know that reading must make sense. 4. Good readers think about what they already know about a subject, before they start reading. 5. Good readers try not to read too slowly. 6. Use Prior Knowledge 7. Make and Confirm Predictions 8. Adjust 9. Self- 10. Create Mental Images 11. Use Context to Confirm Meaning infer – read between the lines 12. Use Text Structure and Format 13. Use Graphic Aids 14. Use Reference Resources 15. Read Ahead 16. Reread 17. Summarize and Paraphrase 18. Good readers select appropriately leveled reading material and 19. Improve as readers with practice 20. Good readers read for longer periods of time 21. Good readers read fluently, quickly and smooth 22. Good readers use a variety of strategies while reading 23. Good readers are members of a literate community of learners 24. Read from aesthetic (emotional, lived- 25. Read both expository and narrative texts 26. Know that different genre require different reading strategies 27. Spontaneously generate questions at different points in the reading process 28. Are problem solvers who have the ability to discover new information for themselves 29. judge the narrator’s reliability (should we believe the narrator & to what degree) 30. identify plot elements – such as major & minor characters, select main ideas & significant & supporting details | 1. They cannot decode 2. Pauses during word attack, stumbles over the words 3. Doesn’t use pictures (illustrations) for meaning 4. Small vocabulary 5. too few opportunities to read outside of school 6. Poor motivation, lack of confidence or lots of avoidance behavior 7. Unaware of reading strategies – view the purpose of reading as “knowing all the words.” 8. Can’t predict 9. They have a poor attitude 10. Lacks phonemic awareness 11. Often repeats 12. Lacks sight word vocabulary 13. Does not like to read, won’t read 14. Chooses short books and or books with lots of pictures (or library books that are too difficult to impress others) 15. Behavior problem 16. Can’t understand what they have read 17. Lacks background/language experiences 18. Fear of reading out loud in front of peers 19. Low frustration level 20. Easily distracted 21. Lacks confidence – needs lots of teachers support 22. Not a risk taker 23. Needs more parental support with respect to learning, achievements, and school progress 24. View reading as boring and painful |
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