R E VI EW, R E F L ECT, AND A P P LY Looking Back 1. Culture is an essential part of social life. It must be taught and learned and exists only in the context of groups. 2. The elements of culture include values, beliefs, knowledge, and norms (the ideas of culture); language and other forms of symbolic communication (for transmitting culture); and behaviors and material objects. 3. Within each culture, there is a dominant ideology that generally supports the current social system and serves the interests of authorities. 4. Most societies contain a dominant culture as well as a number of subcultures and countercultures. 5. Multiculturalism refers to the willingness to recognize, value, and protect the distinct cultures that make up a society. 6. Ethnocentrism is the practice of judging another culture by the standards of one’s own. In contrast, cultural relativism is the practice of understanding a culture by its own standards. 7. Examples of cultural activism include cultural pride organizations, religious fundamentalism, and anticorporate activism. 8. Media globalization has primarily taken the form of the massive export of Western—primarily U.S.—media products to poorer nations. The fl ood of U.S. media may have crested, however, as local media industries have begun to take advantage of new digital technologies to compete for local audiences. 82 t h i n k i n g s o c i o l o g i c a l l y a b o u t Culture ■ Culture must be learned and can be thought of as all aspects of society that are transmitted socially rather than biologically. Culture consists of both nonmaterial and material elements: values, beliefs, knowledge, and norms; symbols and language; behavior and objects. ■ Our own culture can be so familiar to us that we often fail to recognize its various elements or even why it matters. A sociological approach illuminates the often hidden ways that culture helps define our identities and our relationship to our broader communities. ■ Sociologists have long paid attention to the assumptions built into any culture, arguing that what we take for granted is one of the keys to recognizing how culture and power are intertwined. ■ Culture is highly diverse, varying across time and among different societies as well as within a single society. Unlike other animals whose social organization is instinctual, and therefore virtually identical wherever they are found, humans meet their basic needs by adopting a variety of culture-specific behaviors. ■ Most societies contain a dominant culture, as well as a number of subcultures. These subcultures—including countercultures—often introduce innovation and change to mainstream culture. ■ Living in a multicultural society gives us an opportunity to learn about and appreciate the rich diversity of human cultures. But diversity also brings challenges and problems; cultural differences are often the basis for inequality and conflict. CHAPTER 3 Culture
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