PAPER 1 Socialisation, Culture And Identity Flashcards
What Is Culture?
What is culture?
The whole system of beliefs and behaviour of a society or group including knowledge, faith, art, music etc. Cultures vary throughout the world
What Is Culture?
What is the Hamar tribe?
- live in Ethiopia
- culture rich in ceremony and ritual
- males must leap onto the backs of cattle to reach adulthood
- women are whipped before this ceremony to prove their devotion to men
What Is Culture?
What is a value?
Values are beliefs and ideas that society sees as important e.g valuing life, success, honesty etc.
What Is Culture?
What are norms?
Norms are expected patterns of behaviour that are based on the values of society. For example it is a norm to where clothes in the UK or eat with a knife and fork.
What Is Culture?
What is Margaret Mead’s study?
- she studied male and female behaviour and gender role expectations in different tribes.
- In the Arapesh tribe, both males and females were gentle and cooperative.
- In the Mundugumor tribe both genders were violent and aggressive.
- In the Tchambuli tribe women were dominant and violent and men were timid and emotional and spent time decorating themselves.
What Is Culture?
Why are norms seen as relative?
circumstance- some things are normal to do in certain circumstances, for example, in the UK it is normal to wear clothes, but would not be seen normal to shower in them.
Time- some norms change over time, for example smoking inside used to be the norm, but now this is seen as socially unacceptable.
culture- some norms may vary from culure to culture, norms from one culture may be seen as deviant to another culture.
What Is Culture?
What is cultural diversity?
differences and variety found in societies. Can be seen between cultures (intercultural diveristy) and within cultures (intracultural diversity).
What Is Culture?
What is an example of an intracural diversity?
The UK- includes the cultures of different ethnic groups.
What Is Culture?
What is a subculture?
A subculture is often defined as a ‘culture within a culture’ where a smaller grouping of people share distinctive norms and values within a wider culture. E.G punks, emos etc.
What Is Culture?
What is cultural hybridity?
A hybrid is a cross or merging between two or more things. The UK is described as hybrid as it contains aspects of English, Scottish and Irish culture but also has influences from other cultures like Asian and Caribbean culture.
What Is Culture?
What is a ‘Brasian’?
The mixing of British and Asian culture. Traditional aspects of Asian culture may be mixed with British culture to make a fusion or hybrid, for example henna or Bhangra music.
What Is Culture?
What is high culture?
- activities and products which are seen to have high status
- these represent the highest achievements in humanity
- examples may be Shakespeare’s plays, operas, Ballet etc
- often appreciated by the rich or highly educated.
What Is Culture?
what is popular culture?
- products and activities enjoyed by the majority of a population.
- e.g going to the cinema, watching TV, playing football etc.
- some argue these are inferior to high culture activities.
- some feel like popular culture is manufactured and is a form of brainwashing or dumbing down’ the population.
- Howerver, Bourdieu argues that the distinction between high and popular culture lies in the power of the group who access and support them.
- It is also argued that the distinction of high and popular culture is breaking down, an example being shakespeare plays have been turned into movies.
What Is Culture?
What is consumer culture?
- the increasing availability of consumer goods and services.
- consumer goods are widely available and regarded as acceptable.
- An example is that people consume branded goods to construct an identity and gain status in the eyes of other.
- reinforced through advertisement and celebrity culture.
What Is Culture?
What is global culture?
- growing trend of activities and products becoming ‘univeral’
- nike, mcdonalds and microsoft are all brands that are recognisable around the world.
- McLuhan argued that the world has become a smaller place and that we now live in a ‘global village’.
What Is Culture?
What is globalisation and culture?
- cultures that can no longer be separate from each other.
- what happens in one society is is increasingly connected to others.
- even in emote societies, people are found drinking coca-cola and watching western TV in their own language.
What Is Socialisation?
What is socialisation?
learning how to fit into culture
What Is Socialisation?
What is the nature/nurture debate?
- debated for years
- most sociologists argue that nurture is more important as some aspects of culture are clearly learned.
What Is Socialisation?
What are twin studies?
Bouchard researched identical twins who were separated at birth. Oskar and Jack were raised separately one was a jew and one was a Nazi. Bouchard recorded many similarities in their behaviours such as likes and dislikes and personality similarities.
What is Socialisation?
Who is Isabel the ‘chicken girl’?
Isabel was left in the chicken coop by her mother who worked in the fields. She could not speak and was not toilet trained. She expressed emotions by beating her arms and drumming her feet. Possibly imitating the behaviour of the chickens.
What Is Socialisation?
Who is Oxana Malaya?
Oxana had been left in the kennel with the family dogs since a young age. She barked like a dog and walked on all fours.
What Is Socialisation?
What is primary socialisation?
The early years of life (0-5) are very important in the learning process. Our family play a key part in teaching us norms and values.
What is Socialisation?
What is the agent of primary socialisation?
We learn through imitation from our parents. We may copy the way our parents talk or their table manners. Children see what is acceptable and unacceptable through a process of trial and error. This is done through positive and negative sanctions. The family also make an important contribution to our identity, e.g class, gender and ethnic identities.
What Is Socialisation?
What are the agents of secondary socialisation?
family, peer groups, education, media, religion and workplace
What Is Socialisation?
How do Peer groups influence or socialisation?
peer groups are an important agent of socialisation from ages (5-18). An individual will learn what behaviour is acceptable due to the desire to ‘fit in’. Youth subcultures like goths and emos resist the norms of society.
What is Socialisation?
How does education influence our socialisation?
Everyone learns through the formal curriculum e.g maths and english. This is based on the language and culture of society. Sociologists also look at the ‘hidden curriculum’ which are the norms and values you learn outside of lesson time. E.g you learn that you get detntions if you disobey, society values achievement and how its measured.
What is socialisation?
How does the media influence our socialisation?
- through its representation of certain groups which may influence our views
- e.g women seen in different ways, Mulvey uses the concept of the ‘male gaze’ when cameras ‘eye uo’ female characters in films.
- media also causes ‘copycat’ violence due to violence expressed in video games.
What is socialisation?
How does the workplace influence our socialisation?
- the workplace contributes to our ‘resocialisation’.
- split into formal and informal
- formal- formal sanctions like warnings and positive sanctions like ‘employee of the month’
- informal- making clear what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.
- ‘canteen culture’- Waddington’ people are socialised to accept norms in work e.g police officers and institutional racism.
What is socialisation?
What is social control?
Behaviour is controlled and reinforced by sanctions. Either positively or negatively.
What is socialisation?
What are the formal mechanisms of social control?
- police, courts and criminal justice system.
- they directly control the behaviour of the population
- uses military some times to control
- education has a formal element- legal requirements to attend.
sanctions include: warnings from the police, sanctions from the court
what is socialisation?
What are the informal mechanisms of social control?
- control our behaviour more subtly
- include: peer group, education, religion and family
- sanctions include: dissapointed reactions from parents, socially excluding someone, celebs being criticised.
What is identity?
What is the concept of identity?
Often defined as how you see yoursel. A product of all experiences you have had through socialisation.
What is identity?
Wht are the seven aspects of identity?
sexuality, nationality, social class, disability, age, gender, ethnicity
what is identity?
What are hybrid identities?
someones sense of who they are is a mixture of two or more influences. Labels such as ‘Brasian’ to define hybrid identities.
What is identity? Ethnicity and Identity
What did Ghumann find about second-generation Asians in the UK.
He found that tradition, religion and family values played an important part of their upbringing. They emphasise the importance of duty, loyalty, honour and religious commitment.
What is identity? Ethnicity and identity
What did Gilroy find out about the identities of young black people?
He used the term ‘Black atlantic’ to describe an identity that was not specifically rooted in the UK or their country of origin. He said that the shared experience of racism and powerlessness can transcend differences in background and history to create a ‘black identity’.
What is identity? Ethnicity and identity
What did Hewitt find out about ‘multiculturalism’ in the UK?
He said that policies designed to achieve equality have been percieved as unfair to the white community, and a white working class person under pressure economicallyhas often reacted with anger at percieved ‘positive discrimination’.
What is identity? Ethnicity and identity?
What does Spencer et al say about the racism and discrimination experienced by eastern europeans?
He said that Eastern European migrants spend little time socialisation with British people, he foun that a Ukranian waitress said that they ‘do not let you in their circles’.
What is identity? ethnicity and identity
What do Cashmore and Troyna say about ethnic minorities response to racism?
They say that they ‘turn inwards’ to seek support from within their own ethnic community as a response to the racism that they experience.
what is identity? ethnicity and identity
What does Jcobson say about young Pakistanis?
He says that many young Pakistanis adopt a strong Islamic identity as a response to social exclusion from white British society.
what is identity? changing ethnic identities
What does Modood argue about the changing identities of ethnic minorities in the UK?
He said that ethnic minorities from both African-Caribban and Asian backgrounds felt much more British than their parents.
What is identity? Changing ethnic identities
What do postmodernists say about changing ethnic identities?
They say that today identity is all about choice and everyone can create their own identities. However, some would disagree as ethnicity and race are still sources of discrimination.
