SOC101Y1 Lecture : Culture
Document Summary
Example: steam engine once used to open doors when it was first created after christ and was promptly forgotten, was revived later on and was improved to fulfill human needs and wants. It then became part of culture, once it became useful (social need for it developed) and not before, before that it was forgotten for 1700 years. People tend to take their own culture for granted. We are often unaware of the dimensions and aspects of culture in our lives. We have trouble understanding the culture of other people. The practices and ideas of cultures other than our own seem odd or irrational and we conclude they are inferior to our own ideas and practices. Ethnocentrism involves judging another culture exclusively by the standard of our own culture. Cultural relativism the belief that all elements of all cultures should be respect as equally valid.
