W4.2 Introduction_to_Sociology/Culture

1) Summarize 

Culture, like most elements of social life, is not necessarily rigid and completely unified.Culture is relatively stable, but there are controversies and conflicts at the same time.Culture is also dynamic. Anthropologists believe that culture is not only the product of biological evolution, but also the complement of biological evolution, which can be regarded as the main means of human adaptation to nature.culture can also be regarded as playing a specific role in social life.On the other hand, culture can also play a role in creating and sustaining social inequalities.There are many reasons for cultural change, including the contact between environment, civilization and other cultures.Several understandings of how cultures change come from anthropology, for example, in diffusion theory, where the form of one thing shifts from one culture to another, but not its meaning.

2) Interesting point


I am interested in the fact that subcultures are often used to refer to the normative systems of smaller groups in communities, emphasizing aspects of these groups that differ from the larger groups to which they belong, such as language, values, religion, food culture and lifestyle.Perhaps the most common use of subcultures refers to an ethnic gathering area (French Canadians in Maine) or a geographical area (subcultures in the South), but clear norms of much smaller and more transient groups (even a particular circle of friends) can also be described as subcultures.The only difficulty in applying the term non-subculture may be the tendency to blur the interpretation of two dimensions of the term: sociological and sociopsychological, which makes it impossible to understand the causal forces at work.Few sociologists agree more than on the harmfulness of reductionism.If a psychologist tries to explain social reality with psychological theory, we throw him a book, probably by Deile Durkheim; we emphasize "the fallacy of deployed constraints."


3) Discussion point 

Can you think of any examples of subculture and counterculture?



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