SOC 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Cultural Relativism, Five Freedoms, Consumerism
Document Summary
Three main points: language is one of the most important parts of any culture, culture can be viewed as both a freedom and a constraint, canada is a postmodern country, lacking a strong nationalistic identity. The sapir-whorf thesis: holds that we experience certain things in our environment and form concepts about those things. We then develop language to express our concepts. Finally, language itself influences how we see the world. (p. 32-33) Identify five cultural freedoms and five cultural constraints. Five freedoms: better chances to get an education, more opportunities to find employment, increased standard of living, freedom to construct their own identities, freedom to instant global communication. Five constraints: increase in low-paying jobs, government"s ability to respond to needs decrease, health care system in crisis, persistence of discrimination, strong push towards consumerism. Multiple choices: cow worship in india seems irrational to most canadians. Instead, she practises tarot and astrology and also believes in reincarnation.
