SOC101Y1 Lecture Notes - Consumerism, Ethnocentrism, Relativism
Document Summary
Culture is the sum of socially transmitted ideas, practices, and material objects that people create to overcome real-life problems. Culture gives us guidelines for how to act. People tend to use culture when they need it. Eg: the original steam engine was invented in 100 ce and was called aeolopile. It was then forgotten and in the 1800"s, it became it was a wide spread culture because people needed it in the form of a steam engine. Eg: 1939 the electronic computer was developed in the mid west usa. They stopped worked on it and no one found it interesting. But in ww2 a couple of govts recognized it"s potential. It was instrumental in the allies winning ww2. The computer was only part of culture when society needed it. Ethnocentrism involves judging other cultures exclusively by the standards of your own. It impairs your judgement of understanding other cultures. It leads to your belief that other cultures are inferior.
