Because culture is learned, it includes how people think and express themselves. Culture is comprised of all the practices, beliefs, and behaviors of a society. We began this chapter by asking what culture is. Those who believe in symbolic interactionism perceive culture as highly dynamic and fluid, as it is dependent on how meaning is interpreted and how individuals interact when conveying these meanings.
Every object and action has a symbolic meaning, and language serves as a means for people to represent and communicate their interpretations of these meanings to others. This is where the term symbolic comes into play. Proponents of this theory conceptualize human interactions as a continuous process of deriving meaning from both objects in the environment and the actions of others. Interactionists see culture as being created and maintained by the ways people interact and in how individuals interpret each other’s actions. Symbolic interactionism is a sociological perspective that is most concerned with the face-to-face interactions between members of society. culture of capitalism, to illustrate, we continue to strive toward the promise of the American dream, which perpetuates the belief that the wealthy deserve their privileges. This view contrasts with the perspective of functionalism. People who have less power also have less ability to adapt to cultural change. Conflict theorists believe that a society’s system of material production has an effect on the rest of culture. Same-sex marriages are banned in most states, and polygamy-common in some cultures-is unthinkable to most Americans.Īt the core of conflict theory is the effect of economic production and materialism: dependence on technology in rich nations versus a lack of technology and education in poor nations. Although cultural diversity is supposedly valued in the United States, many people still frown upon interracial marriages. Racism and bigotry are very much alive today. Gay and lesbian couples have been denied the right to marry in some states. Women were not allowed to vote in the United States until 1920. Some norms, formal and informal, are practiced at the expense of others. Therefore, a society’s cultural norms benefit some people but hurt others. Inequalities exist within a culture’s value system. Advocacy groups such as the ACLU work to protect the rights of all races and ethnicities in the United States. Senior citizens struggle to protect their rights, their health care, and their independence from a younger generation of lawmakers. Women strive for equality in a male-dominated society. For a conflict theorist, culture is seen as reinforcing issues of "privilege" for certain groups based upon race, sex, class, and so on. His pedestal reads “Truth-Justice-The American Way.” How would a functionalist interpret this statue? What does it reveal about the values of American culture? (Photo courtesy of David Wilson/flickr)Ĭonflict theorists view social structure as inherently unequal, based on power differentials related to issues like class, gender, race, and age. This statue of Superman stands in the center of Metropolis, Illinois. The culture of education-including material culture such as classrooms, textbooks, libraries, dormitories-supports the emphasis placed on the value of educating a society’s members. Education is an important concept in the United States because it is valued.
Just as members of a society work together to fulfill a society’s needs, culture exists to meet its members’ basic needs.įunctionalists also study culture in terms of values.
Cultural norms function to support the fluid operation of society, and cultural values guide people in making choices. In this way, societies need culture to exist. But what do they mean? How do sociologists perceive and interpret culture based on these material and nonmaterial items? Let’s finish our analysis of culture by reviewing them in the context of three theoretical perspectives: functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism.įunctionalists view society as a system in which all parts work-or function-together to create society as a whole. Music, fashion, technology, and values-all are products of culture.