Sociology 1020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Ethnocentrism, Symbolic Interactionism, Consumerism
22 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
Culture is the means humans use to solve the challenges of life. Humans turn to their culture for solutions. At the root of culture is solving the problem of meaning. The power is culture is that it makes out sensory experiences meaningful. Once your cultural experience conditions you to interpret concrete experiences a certain way, this becomes your reality. Culture: the shared symbols and their de nitions that people create to solve real-life problems: enables people to adapt to, and thrive in, their environments. Symbols: concrete things or abstract terms that represent something else: symbols are shared. Meaning and signi cance is often rooted in shared symbols. A symbol represents a key de nition by a culture. Language: a system of symbols strung together to communicate thoughts/ ideas/ meanings. Sociologists commonly think of language as cultural invention that distinguishes human from other animals. One of the most fundamental parts of culture.
