...Joe Calabro, 07 Intro Sociology Cultural Analysis Paper Scuba Diving has been a passion of mine since I obtained my open water diver license in August of 2013. I have always been fascinated with exploring beneath the surface of Earth’s oceans. Since most of the Earth’s surface is underwater, scuba diving is one of the only ways to explore most of the planet. Scuba diving is not only a sport, and a career, it is also a Subculture. Scuba diving is a subculture because we have our own material culture, form of communication, folkways, values, and positive and negative sanctions. There are multiple elements of our material culture that can help others easily identify who we are. An important part of our material culture is the type of clothing and gear that we wear. All divers wear something called a wetsuit. A wetsuit is a tight fitting piece of clothing usually made of neoprene or other types of spandex which we wear while diving to keep us warm. The deeper we dive the colder the water gets that’s why a wetsuit is needed to help combat hypothermia. Another piece of material culture that we use is our fins and mask. Our fins are things we put on our feet to help us move quickly and efficiently beneath the surface. Just like the fins of fish and other aquatic mammals, our fins are flat and sometimes are split down the middle to increase speed. In addition to our fins we also need to wear a mask that covers our eyes so that we can see. Without this there is no point to...
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...Macionis and Plummer (2012, p. 144) defines Culture as a “the values, beliefs, behavior, practices and material objects that constitute a peoples’ way of life”, and Sociology as “the systematic study of human society” (Macionis and Plummer 2012, p.964). In light of this, Cultural sociology demands that culture and social structural forces, especially economic forces to be dissociated in order to allow a form of cultural self-governance, rather than these cultural structures to be seen as external to individuals. The following essay will discuss the frame work of cultural sociology developed by Jeffery Alexander. In order to discuss how important cultural sociology for the development of South Africa is, I will assess to what extent contemporary South Africa embodies the characteristics of a cultural society in comparison to surviving practices and traditional beliefs. Theoretical framework of cultural sociology is best described as the importance of culture being seen an independent variable. Alexander (2003), emphasizes the importance of culture shaping society instead of culture being a product of society. He puts culture first and highlights that, “To believe in the possibility of a cultural sociology is to subscribe to the idea that every action, no matter how instrumental, reflexive or coerced vis-a-vis its external environments” (Alexander 2003:12). Comparatively, “Sociology of culture” implies that institutions, irrespective of how impersonal and technocratic have an...
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...Ethnocentrism in Your United States Tracey Keyes Rasmussen College This written assignment is being submitted on February 22, 2016, for Stacey Trushenski-Carlson’s G142/SYG1000 Introduction to Sociology course. Ethnocentrism in Your United States Ethnocentrism is the following: 1-judging another culture using the standards of your own culture, 2-claiming that another culture is better than your own and 3-people taking pride in their ethnicity. Ethnocentrism can have its positive and negative points as well. Positively it helps people to be proud of their ethnic culture and its traditions. It helps people feel linked to their past and relatives that have passed. Negatively, it’s wrong to think that your culture is superior or makes you more special than another. In the United States we are suppose to accept people of all cultures, religions, colors and races and because of this diversity it makes the United States strong a great nation. But due to ethnocentrism, it can set people apart and there is not always the “Us” but an “Us vs Them” mentality. I have witnessed a different form of ethnocentrism. It does not really have to do with cultures, but it has to do with a person’s title or position in the work place. A company I worked for had a supervisor who took his title way to far. Everyone is to work as a team and respect each other is what I have always been taught and that is most people’s work attitude or ethic. This supervisor treated...
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...Many of us read about different cultures and study the history of other nations through books written in English. What might we be missing or gaining by vieweing these peoples and nations through the lens of English? For instance how would reading a memoir in English about being an Iranian woman be dfferent from reading the same memoir in Farsi? ** Farsi: Offical language spoken in Iran Reading different cultures and study of other nations through books written in English could be challenging to readers if they are not aware of the author’s cultural frame of reference or social development, such as language, religion, tradition of family, community, cultural practices and the social context around them (Andersen and Taylor 9). The Author could use significant or metaphorical key factors or references in their literature, such as Germany in 1939 which represents for cold war, genocide or poverty that could be not easily understood or identified by readers who have insufficient historical or cultural understanding. As a result the reader could operate from an ethnocentric point of views, and fail to comprehend the core message. The reader could thereby miss out and fail to see new or other aspects in life such as how mankind still suffers under hidden discrimination, racism, nepotism, Nazism etc. For instance reading a memoir in English about being an Iranian woman could be different from reading the same memoir in Farsi because culture is symbolic. Symbols are things or...
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...Ethics related to Sociology Introduction Living in this world without any companion is like a world without color. It is like you have drowned from the deepest part of darkness. As the saying “No man is an island”, it is proven that a person can’t live within itself. You must have friends and socialize with them in order for you to make a wonderful living. Having interaction with other people—sharing some beliefs and practices may consider as part of sociology. Sociology itself means “the study of society”, where it came from the Greek word “socio” means “society” and “-logos” mean “the study of”. Sociology is the scientific study of society, of the ways of which society is organized and operates, and of the factors contributing to both societal stability and social change. It is concerned with patterned social regularities rather than with unique personal experiences. Simply means that sociology is the study of the things around the society. Studying the society also involves ethical values where people will be taught how to live doing the right thing over the wrong one. Though people have their own ways of living, each of us may consider that ethics is very important in everyone’s life. Based on Emerita S. Quito, the author of the book “Fundamentals of Ethics”, ethics is from the Greek word “ethos” meaning a characteristic way of doing things, or a body of customs. In general, ethics is meant to be applied in order to teach the people how to live essentially doing the...
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...Tiffany Nelson Sociology Unit #3 08/08/09 Along with a numerous number of countries come a vast number of cultural differences, values, norms, and traditions. With the world consisting of many different people and cultures the expectance of negative aspects, assumptions, or generalizations is not uncommon and can be summed up in the concept of ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is defined as the tendency to believe that one’s own race or ethnic group is the most important and that some or all aspects of its culture are superior to those of other groups. (Wikipedia, 2009) Directed by Patricia Riggen, the film “La Misma Luna” also known as “Under the Same Moon” provides viewers with a glimpse of what life is like in the Mexican culture. While also introducing Mexican values and norms the film also addresses stereotypes and cultural biases distorted throughout the world. The drama, “Under the Same Moon” centers on a young boy’s journey across the US and Mexico border to be reunited with his mother. (Riggen, 2007)The Mexican adolescent, Carlito lives with his grandmother while his mother works as a maid in Los Angeles, California. Carlito’s mother, Rosario hopes to save up enough money and someday send for her child. When the grandmother dies unexpectedly, Carlito must sneak across the border and seek out his mother. Throughout this heartwarming and inspirational film, Carlito’s struggle to cross the border was depicted. Often called the “forgotten people” because of their lack of...
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...relationship to the world. A person worldview influences communication, individual goals, belief system and behavior. Teachers could misapply both cultural knowledge and techniques leading to ethical misunderstandings. The worldview help a teacher go beyond applying general culture information about a student. That way a teacher will know what to expect in the classroom with different students within that room. The five main categories of worldview are nature, time orientation, activity orientation, human relationships and human nature. 2. What some children may do at home they can’t do in school because in school we have rules. Some children don’t have rules at home and when they don’t it cause a problem when they enter school. I think the worldview is great to go over cultural behavior with teachers cause that way you will know what to expect with each student. 3. To be truly effective, a teacher in today's classroom needs to teach from a multicultural perspective. In other words, if educators are to improve the quality of the classroom experience for all of their students, they need to become culturally competent. Cultural competence is the ability to effectively respond to students from different cultures and classes, while valuing and preserving the dignity of cultural differences and similarities between individuals, families and communities. It is an understanding of the hidden rules within different economic and cultural structures in order to have productive relationships...
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...March 2011, VW termed Suzuki as its 'associate' in its annual report. The disagreements between the two partners only escalated. Cultural mismatch In order to the cultural differences, they failed to build mutual trust.European companies were fast in making decisions, but sometimes things are a little different in Japanese culture. Disagreements in technology sharing Volkswagen and Suzuki failed to share technology to each other. They wanted the modern technology from each other but are not willing to reciprocate. Problems in policy and cooperation The media war between the companies got wilder by the day.They damaged each other in their statementand deepened the contradictions between the two companies. 3. What role does culture play in a trans-border / transcontinental alliances? Culture is playing an important role in a trans-border /transcontinental alliances. There are many different culture exist in alliances, even belong to same religion or same nation. There are many culture exist in the world, some culture will affect the alliance by their exclusivity or inclusivity. If there is an alliance has a member which owns an exclusivity culture, it will play a...
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...Importance of cultural, ethnic, gender difference by managers and professional in a business setting. In a professional organization, a successful manager must be able to deal with people with multiple cultural differences and diversity. Diversity is the presence of people from wide range of backgrounds possessing different traits. People tend to prejudge and place stereotypes on others that are not like them, to be an effective, manager and employee must be respectful and recognize each other’s differences. Some contributing factors to diversity include age, race, ethnic origin, culture, physical abilities, religion and sexual orientation. A good manager should be able work with any one regard of their culture or race. In some organizations, women are still regarded as inferior to men, which affects their positions and salary, also some minorities are not getting the position that they deserve, some organization continue to treat minorities as less qualified even though they have the experience and what it take to do they job effectively, the positions are offered to those that are not even qualified just because of the ethnic background. Workplace diversity is very important, understanding cultural, ethnic and gender differences by managers and professional in a business environment can help with the growth of the company, these business can benefit from the different talents, perspectives, experiences...
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...attachment types across different cultures AO1: 1. Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg 1988 Method: meta-analysis of 32 studies. Findings: cultural similarity – secure attachment is most common in both collectivist and individualist societies. Cultural difference – more insecure resistant in collectivist (27% in Japan while 3% in UK). 1.5% greater variation within cultures. Shows there is variation both between and within cultures. 2. Ainsworth Uganda Project 1967 Method: observed different universals in attachment behaviour in SS. Findings: cultural similarity - infants observed in Uganda used mother as a secure base for exploration which is similar to UK and US cultures. Suggests there isn’t cultural variation. 3. Grossman and Grossman 1991 Method: studied German children in SS. Findings: cultural difference – German children found to be more insecure avoidant than securely attached due to individualistic culture and emphasis on independence, unlike collectivist cultures which emphasise dependence and cooperation. Suggests there are cultural differences. AO2: 1. Weakness of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg = small samples. TIAPB only 1 study was in UK, Sweden and China and 2 in Israel, so to base judgement about attachment types of a whole nation on one study is biased not representative of that population. Therefore reliability decreases because findings are hard to generalise as study is not representative or applicable to all children in that culture. 2. Weakness = biased sample...
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...Steven Ward Ahmed Zeedia 3/10/2015 BSAD 550 Dr. Freeman Multicultural theory Multicultural theory or multiculturalism is the theory where we can see here in America. It is the exchange of customs and culture in respect to socioeconomic status, foreign reform, as well as the differences in ethics and religions. Multiculturalism can have an effect in any institution of culture whether it involves government, education, economics, religion, or family. For the purpose of this paper we will focus on strategies and situations many businesses will face. Culture will be defined as “the pattern of shared beliefs and values that give members of an institution meaning, and provide them with the rules for behavior in their organization” (Shafritz, Ott & Jang, 2011, p. 364). We will discuss why the need arises for a business or organization to expand or change their ventures to another vicinity outside of their native culture; what problems can occur during the transition of moving from one culture to the next; and the benefits behind using multiculturalism. Multiculturalism today is met with the demand of the economy on a global scale. Capitalism or the pursuit of profits is a driving factor for businesses to relocate in the hopes of achieving higher margins in profit. The stakeholders, those who have vested both time and resource into a business or organization are persistently pushing businesses for higher profits. Businesses must consider what barriers are necessary to...
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...Cultural identity is the identity of a group, culture, or individual, influenced by one's belonging to a group of culture. Everybody has their own culture and cultural identity. We usually never think about our culture but if you did, what would your cultural identity be? My cultural identity is one big eclectic pasta dish filled with several different ingredients. with an Italian and American family I'm introduced to many different foods and traditions. My family celebrates American holidays and of course, traditional foods come along with them. On Thanksgiving we go visit family friends in Alabama. They live on a farm and we get to ride go karts and see all the animals. I'm always very voracious for Thanksgiving dinner. We eat turkey, ham,...
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...synthesis essay below. What is your cultural identity? There are many different things that describe culture and ethnicity isn't the only one. One source stated, “People from multiple ethnic backgrounds may identify as belonging to the same culture” (Trumbull and Pacheco 9). You don’t have to be all the same ethnicity to belong to the same culture, you could all be something different and still follow the same traditions. For one to truly get a gist of their culture they have to examine it closely in order to better understand it. Trumbull and Pacheco both explain, “Social groups existing within one nation may share a...
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...Cultural identity isn't about who people think you are, it's about who you are as a whole and what defines you as you. For me, my cultural identity comes from YouTube, music, and singing. It’s hard being the youngest out of two and living in a house with eight people. I’m frustrated and angry most of the time, sometimes the only thing that will calm me down is locking myself in my room and going on YouTube to watch funny videos. YouTube helps me calm down because I can laugh at all the stupid things Logan Paul does, he’s a vlogger, he has 11.3 million subscribers watching him do stupid stuff and I’m one of them. I watch him because he has such great personality and he encourages others to be who they are and never give up and he inspired...
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...Culture defined. Culture is defined as the shared patterns of behavior, thoughts, interactions, languages, beliefs and symbols that identify and distinguish members of a society. All these patterns are learned through socializing with each other. Culture is a way of life of people that is passed from one generation to another. Useem (1963) simply defines culture as learned and shared behaviors of a community of interacting human beings. One person can belong to different cultures at a time depending on various factors; ethnicity, language, family status, age, education, religion amongst others. Culture is a lens through which the world is viewed revolving around what one sees, how they make logic of what they see and how they articulate themselves after all this. Dimensions of culture Dimensions of culture refer to a tool that is used to assess cultural differences that are present in communities or organizations. Cultures differ on the line of these dimensions; directness, hierarchy, consensus and individualism. i) Individualism. Individualism is a measure of individual/collective rights that focuses on the degree to which a society reinforces these rights and interpersonal relationships. Simply put, individualism is the potency of ties that exists amongst inhabitants in a community. High individualism means that in a community. There is loose connections and minimal sharing and is viewed as arrogant or self-centered. In a system where individualism is high, members...
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