SYG 2000: Lecture 6. Chapter 2: Cultural Universals

I. Value clusters:values fitting into larger whole:eg success/individualism/educ/hard work

A. value contradiction: when don’ t fit, eg racism v. equality, maj source social change

II. Emerging Core Values: includes cluster: leisure, self-fulfill, phys fitness, youthfulness

A. leisure: reflected in big recreation indus: computer games, boats, vacation homes etc

B. self-fulfillment: human potential movement: be “all one can be”; self-help books

C. physical fitness: evident in natural foods craze, fitness centers, joggers, cyclists

D. youthfulness: new sense urgency; popularity of cosmetics to Botox injections

E. value cluster facilitated by econ development freeing from long hours of work

F. Fifth value: concern for environoment: v. extinction bison/passenger pigeon 1915

1. econ dev facilitates: only after basic needs met: worlds poor nations not afford this

G. culture wars: strong resist when change core values threat way of life:eg gender roles

1. traditionalists fiercely defend:historical fam relationships/gender role grew up with

III. Cultural universals: value, norm, or other cultural trait found in every group

A. George Murdock (1945) finds none:specific activity differ marriage,games,laws etc

1. examples: no universal family form, disposing dead, cooking, eating, songs, stories

2. even incest defined differently from group to group:

a, strict: for New Guinea Mundugumors, for each man, 7/8 fems ineligible marriage

a. loose definition: in some groups, allow some men to marry their own daughters!

b. other definition: some groups require that brothers and sisters marry one another!

c. Burundi of Africa: to remove certain curse, son must have sex with mother!

d. No society: permits generalized incest

B. No dietary universals: French v. Asian v. Colombian v. Sudanese culture

1. French: like to eat snails

2. some Asian cultures: chubby dogs and cats are considered a delicacy

3. in the llanos of Colombia: east toasted ants; horrified by thought eating frog’s legs

4. rich in China: spoon out raw brains of just-killed monkey put in center of table

5. Sudan: raw baby camel liver; camel’s milk cheese patties cured in dry camel dung

C. no biological imperative: @ all sociologists reject genes sig influence behavior

1. Sociobiology (neo-Darwinian) offers dif position: biology basic cause of behavior

2. Darwin (1859): genes not distrib = in offspring; char given some improve survival

a. >survival increase chance pass genes:to next generation, making trait >common

3. E.O. Wilson: claims human behavior result of natural selection

a. other claims: sociobiology explains religion, war, slavery, genocide, etc.

4. homosexuals:Peter Conrad:not all gays have Xq28, so-called gay gene; vice-versa

IV. Cultural lag: W. Ogburn (1922/1938):behavior lagging behind technological innovate

A. material culture 1st to change: nonmaterial cult lags behind; sometimes not catch up

1. example: nine-month school year; in late 1800s, when universal schooling devel

a. technology of time: was labor intensive; parents need children help harvest,plant

V. Cultural Leveling: process by which cultures become similar to one another

A. globalization of capitalism: brings Western technology/culture to rest of world

1. Japan: turned into blend of Western/Eastern culture

2. McDonalds ubiquitous: Tokyo,Paris, London,Moscow,Madrid,Beijing, Hong Kong

3. most popular Pinatas in Mexico: not donkeys, but Mickey Mouse/Fred Flinstone