Society and culture!!!
Uploaded by joeydaprof on Jun 12, 2006
Society and culture!!!
CHAPTER 1- WHAT IS SOCIETY AND CULTURE?
1.1 Intro to society and culture:
The concepts:
o The central concern of Society and Culture in stage 6 is the interaction of persons, societies, cultures, environments and time.
o Through understanding the interaction, you will begin to understand yourself, the society and culture around you, and the societies and cultures of others around them.
o We also recognise four other concepts that are vital to society and culture. These are power, authority, gender and technology.
SOCIETY:
o This concept refers to the way people organise themselves. For example, the people who make up Australian society are linked through institutions, media networks and sporting organisations.
CULTURE:
o Culture generally refers to the values, arts, technology, laws and beliefs that bind a society together.
o It may include examples as diverse as artwork, language, literature, tattoos and religions.
PERSONS:
o This refers to individuals who are shaped by their society and culture.
o They develop a social and cultural identity, and learn to communicate and interact with other persons in a society.
o We are all examples of persons interacting in some way with our society.
ENVIRONMENT:
o This can refer to the physical setting of the society, but there are other types of environments such as the social and psychological environment.
o As persons, our attitude to and interaction with our environment can be critical. The development of individual attitudes in the environment can reflect society’s shared values.
TIME:
o Time is a constant in all societies and cultures. We choose to measure it in terms of past, present and future.
POWER:
o The easiest way to understand power is to think about what is that allows people to bring others to do the things they may not normally do.
o It involves a capacity to influence others to follow a course of action or point of view they would not otherwise follow.
o A clear example was the policy of Australian Governments to displace and break up indigenous families.
AUTHORITY:
o This is often confused for power, and can actually be thought of as a subtype of power. It is difficult to imagine authority without some degree of power.
o Authority implies a legitimate use of influence and/or persuasion.
o Someone in authority has the accepted right to make decisions, someone in power would make decisions regardless of what those affected by the decisions think.
o Police, for e.g. have authority to act in a particular way in specified situations, such as confronting a rioting crowd or a criminal suspect.
GENDER:
o This concept refers to the socially constructed differences...