SOC 104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Marvin Harris, Wodaabe, Social Inequality

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 104
• Professor: Dr. Amrita Ahluwalia

Document Summary

What is culture: culture is the total way of life shared by members of a society. It includes not only language, values, and symbolic meanings but also technology and material objects: culture is essentially the complete way of life shared by people, including both the material and non-material elements. The existence of a mosque (material) is linked both to an islamic belief system and a set of practices (non-material) Socialization: ongoing process by which we learn the various cultural componentes and behavioural expectations of our social world. Theoretical perspective: first approach: is characteristic of structural-functional theory, culture is the underlying basis of interaction. Focuses on why particular aspects of culture develop: example: scholars would be interested in why the content of commercial television is so different from content of public television. Cultural perspective: whether structural functionalists or conflict theorists, sociologists share some common orientations towards culture, culture is problem solving: people share common problems (food, shelter etc. )