The Cultural Context of Social Life - Questions Chapter 2 Sociology

The Cultural Context of Social Life 
(1) WHAT IS CULTURE? The concept is easier to grasp by de- scription than by definition. For example, suppose that you meet a young woman who has just arrived in the United States from India. That her culture is different is immediately evident. You first see it in her clothing, jewelry, makeup, and hair style. Next you hear it in her speech. Then it becomes apparent by her gestures. Later, you might hear her express unfamiliar beliefs about relationships, or voice other attitudes and opinions unlike yours. These characteristics, especially when they contrast sharply with our own, alert us to broad differences in the way that person was reared-to that person's culture. 

(2) Culture consists of material things, such as buildings, art, weapons, utensils, machines, clothing, makeup, and jewelry. Culture is also nonmater- ial, consisting of the beliefs and patterns of behavior common to a group of people. Nonmaterial (or symbolic) culture is of primary interest to sociolo- gists, for it provides the broad framework that people use to interpret life. Culture is the lens through which we see the world, the basis on which we construct reality and make our decisions. 

(3)  Understanding how culture affects people's lives is essential to attaining a sociological imagination. But while we may become aware of culture's pervasive influence when we meet someone from a different culture, our perception of our own culture is quite another matter. We usually take our speech, our body language, our beliefs, and our ways of doing things for granted. We assume that these are normal or natural, and almost without exception we perform them without question. As Ralph Linton said, “The last thing a fish would ever notice would be water." So it is with us: Except for unusual circumstances, the effects of our own culture generally remain im- perceptible to us. 

(4) Yet culture's significance is profound-not only for our behavior, but also for our orientations to life, and, ultimately, for our very being. It would be difficult to identify any aspect of who and what we are that is untouched by culture. We came into this life without a language, without values, with no ideas about religion, education, war, money, jobs, friendship, love, truth, honesty, honor, humor, family relationships-the stuff that life is made of. At birth, we possessed no such fundamental orientations to social life-which are so essential in determining the type of people we are. Yet now we take them for granted. This, say sociologists, is culture within us. 

(5) These learned and shared ways of believing and of doing things (another way to define culture) penetrate our being at an early age. They become part of our basic assumptions about what normal is. They form the screen through which we perceive and evaluate our world. Seldom do we question these as- sumptions, because like water for a fish, they form our framework for view- ing life but remain beyond our ordinary perception. 

(6) On occasion, however, some unusual event may challenge our back- ground assumptions. This makes our assumptions more visible to us, and, if we are fortunate, it even makes us aware of how arbitrary they are. For ex- ample, when several Americans converge at a ticket booth, they usually line up on the basis of time of arrival. The ticket seller, who shares the same culture, also assumes the normalcy of this behavior and expects to sell tickets on a “first come, first served" basis. To us, this seems the natural way of doing things, and we engage in this behavior routinely, and without thought. 

(7) But in northern Africa, where people's ideas of how to use space sharply contrast with ours, when several people want a ticket each pushes his or her way toward the ticket booth. With no idea similar to our “first come, first served" notion, the ticket seller first dispenses tickets to the noisiest, the pushiest, and (not incidentally) those with the longest arms. 

(8) When I traveled in northern Africa, I found this part of their culture most upsetting. It violated my basic expectations of how people ought to act-expectations that I didn't even know I held until they were challenged so abruptly. At that point I experienced culture shock, the sudden inability to depend on the basic orientations to everyday life learned in childhood. That I was several inches taller than most Arabs, however, and was able to outreach almost everyone, helped me to adjust (partially) to this different way of doing things. I never did get used to the idea that pushing ahead of others was "right," though, and always felt guilty about using the accident of my height to receive preferential treatment. 

(9) It is to sensitize us to this aspect of life in society-to how cultural fac- tors so fundamentally influence our lives-that the selections in this third Part are directed. Each reading introduces us to aspects of our social lives that ordinarily go unquestioned and unnoticed. Horace Miner helps make visible our basic assumptions about taking care of the body; Napoleon Chagnon exposes our taken-for-granted assumptions about sharing, making requests, and how to treat strangers and guests; Edward and Mildred Hall il- lustrate how culture influences our posture, gestures, eye contact, and use of space in face-to-face interaction; Theodore Caplow uncovers the cultural rules, many hidden beneath our consciousness, that govern our giving of Christmas gifts; and Erving Goffman helps us to see how our nonverbal communications are intricate ways by which we attempt to manipulate peo- ple's opinions of us. These analyses of culture can serve as starting points from which we can begin to analyze other assumptions of reality that we un- questioningly hold, and thus gain a startlingly different perspective of social life-and of our own roles in it. 
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Based upon the text and your opinion explain if you agree or disagree with the following quote from the second paragraph. “Culture is the lens through which we see the world, the basis on which we construct reality and make our decisions”.  Be sure to explain yourself and cite text evidence (provide paragraph number) to support your answer.

Looking at paragraph 5 use the main idea of the paragraph to interpret the last sentence. “Seldom do we question these assumptions, because like water for a fish, they form our framework for viewing life but remain beyond our ordinary perceptions”. Lastly, explain if you agree or disagree with this statement.

Have you ever questioned your culture, what caused you to question it? Provide your example or explain why you think you have or have not questioned it?

What does the phrase Culture Shock mean? How does the use of that phrase enhance you as the reader's understanding of the text? Cite an example for the text (provide paragraph number) and or from your own life to support your answer.

Based on your knowledge of your own culture, what do you think is the most shocking aspect of your own culture? (In other words, what do you think would surprise an outsider the most about your culture?)