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Chapter 3: Culture |
Chapter three examines culture. Though the content of culture
varies from place to place, all human cultures share basic elements:
knowledge, language, symbols, values, norms, and artifacts.
Cultural integration refers to the degree to which all the parts
of a culture fit and work together. The opposite of cultural
integration is cultural diversity, found where minority groups
resist assimilation into the dominant culture in order to maintain
their separate identities. Two very different responses to cultural
diversity are ethnocentrism—the tendency to view one's
own cultural patterns as superior to those of others—and
cultural relativism, which stresses that any element of culture
is meaningful in relation to a particular time, place, and set
of circumstances.
Culture is shaped by many factors and is a dynamic element
in society. Cultural gatekeepers, the media, and public tastes
can all influence the elements of culture. One of the most
significant consequences of the growth of the mass media has
been the internationalization of culture. The emergence of
a single global culture, fostered more than ever today by
the World Wide Web, is a trend that is likely to continue
in the twenty-first century.
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