SOC 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Meritocracy, Cultural Relativism, Nacirema
Why do we have a seven-day week?
It’s a cultural idea, maybe religious but it was organized by humans. It is symbolic and we
embrace it. It is so integrated into our lives that we feel differently. We feel bad on Monday
and happy on Friday. We have an emotional response to the week.
Reification
-Reification: The apprehension of products of human activity as if they were nature
(Berger and Luckmann 1969)
-We believe it is naturally occurring but it has origin in culture not science.
-Examples: economy; number of meals; gender occupations
(division of labor by gender; say that it has origin in biology; women and child care;
damaging idea)
Social Construction of Reality
3 Steps
1.externalization (create it)
-new ways/ideas of being/thinking
2.objectivation (reify it);
-.must rationalize it
3.internalization (constrained by it)
-.These ideas are so ingrained in us that we are constrained by them. If we
don’t like the way we are being constrained then we should make an effort to create
new and more appropriate ideas that we can be constrained by.
-In these three steps, there is the basis for a lot of social inequality.
-How do we justify all this social inequality?
Ideology
-Ideology – Statements or beliefs (especially reasons and purposes) that justify a
group’s actions or interests; they buttress, uphold, or legitimate the existing social
order.
-Lots of groups have different ideology. And it can be used in justification of
social construction ( and social inequality)
-Meritocracy - a social system in which individuals get ahead and earn rewards in
direct proportion to their individual efforts and abilities.
-You get what you worked for and earned
-Book: Meritocracy Myth (for further reading if interested)
Meritocracy and your life
- Meritocracy isn’t true. There are plenty of underprivileged people who have
worked hard and put in a lot of effort.
-It is used as a way to explain social inequality. “they didn’t work hard enough and
that is why they are poor”
Who are the Nacirema?
Anthoropology and sociology behavior in America. Things that feel normal within our
culture and would feel bizarre to an outsider.
Culture
Ethnocentrism – the use of one’s own culture as a yardstick for judging other
individuals or societies, generally involving a negative evaluation
-You look at a culture and think it is weird or bad.
Cultural relativism – not judging a culture, but trying to understand it on its own terms
