SOC100H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: University Of Toronto Mississauga, Marvin Harris, Symbolic Interactionism

• School: UTM
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC100H5
• Professor: Jayne Baker

Document Summary

Culture - the sum of practices, languages, symbols, beliefs, ideologies, and material objects that people create to deal with real-life problems. High culture - culture consumed mainly by upper classes. Popular culture (mass culture) - culture consumed by all classes. These distinctions (high and popular culture) do not capture everything included in the sociological definition of culture. Superstitions are often unique to the individual who create them. Society - a number of people who interact usually in a defined territory and share a culture. Culture is the sum of the socially transmitted ideas, practices, and material objects that enable people to adapt to, and thrive in, their environments. Three kinds of components: abstraction, cooperation and production. Human culture exists only because we think abstractly. Abstraction - the human capacity to create general ideas or ways of thinking that are not linked to particular instances.