3.

2 Elements of Culture

Values and Beliefs

The first, and perhaps most crucial, elements of culture we will discuss are its values and beliefs.
Values are a culture’s standard for discerning what is good and just in society. Values are deeply
embedded and critical for transmitting and teaching a culture’s beliefs. Beliefs are the tenets or
convictions that people hold to be true. Individuals in a society have specific beliefs, but they
also share collective values. To illustrate the difference, Americans commonly believe in the
American Dream—that anyone who works hard enough will be successful and wealthy.
Underlying this belief is the American value that wealth is good and important.
Values help shape a society by suggesting what is good and bad, beautiful and ugly, sought or
avoided. Consider the value the culture the United States places upon youth. Children represent
innocence and purity, while a youthful adult appearance signifies sexuality. Shaped by this value,
individuals spend millions of dollars each year on cosmetic products and surgeries to look young
and beautiful. The United States also has an individualistic culture, meaning people place a high
value on individuality and independence. In contrast, many other cultures are collectivist,
meaning the welfare of the group and group relationships are a primary value.
Living up to a culture’s values can be difficult. It’s easy to value good health, but it’s hard to quit
smoking. Marital monogamy is valued, but many spouses engage in infidelity. Cultural diversity
and equal opportunities for all people are valued in the United States, yet the country’s highest
political offices have been dominated by white men.
Values often suggest how people should behave, but they don’t accurately reflect how people do
behave. Values portray an ideal culture, the standards society would like to embrace and live up
to. But ideal culture differs from real culture, the way society actually is, based on what occurs
and exists. In an ideal culture, there would be no traffic accidents, murders, poverty, or racial
tension. But in real culture, police officers, lawmakers, educators, and social workers constantly
strive to prevent or repair those accidents, crimes, and injustices.
One way societies strive to put values into action is through rewards, sanctions, and
punishments. When people observe the norms of society and uphold its values, they are often
rewarded. A boy who helps an elderly woman board a bus may receive a smile and a “thank
you.” A business manager who raises profit margins may receive a quarterly bonus. People
sanction certain behaviors by giving their support, approval, or permission, or by instilling
formal actions of disapproval and non-support.
Sanctions are a form of social control, a way to encourage conformity to cultural norms.
Sometimes people conform to norms in anticipation or expectation of positive sanctions: good
grades, for instance, may mean praise from parents and teachers.

What happens when people go against a society’s values?

When people go against a society’s values, they are punished. A boy who shoves an elderly
woman aside to board the bus first may receive frowns or even a scolding from other passengers.
A business manager who drives away customers will likely be fired. Breaking norms and
rejecting values can lead to cultural sanctions such as earning a negative label—lazy, no-good
bum—or to legal sanctions such as traffic tickets, fines, or imprisonment.
Values are not static; they vary across time and between groups as people evaluate, debate, and
change collective societal beliefs. Values also vary from culture to culture. For example,
cultures differ in their values about what kinds of physical closeness are appropriate in public.
It’s rare to see two male friends or coworkers holding hands in the United States where that
behavior often symbolizes romantic feelings. But in many nations, masculine physical intimacy
is considered natural in public. This difference in cultural values came to light when people
reacted to photos of former president George W. Bush holding hands with the Crown Prince of
Saudi Arabia in 2005. A simple gesture, such as handholding, carries great symbolic differences
across cultures.
3.2 Elements of Culture

Norms
So far, the examples in this chapter have often described how people are expected to behave in
certain situations—for example, when buying food or boarding a bus. These examples describe
the visible and invisible rules of behavior through which societies are structured, or what
sociologists call norms.
Norms define how to behave in accordance with what a society has defined as good, right, and
important, and most members of the society adhere to them.
Formal norms are established, written rules. They are behaviors worked out and agreed upon in
order
to suit and serve the most people. Laws are formal norms, but so are employee manuals, college
entrance exam requirements, and “no running” signs at swimming pools. Formal norms are the
most specific and clearly stated of the various types of norms, and the most strictly enforced. But
even formal norms are enforced to varying degrees, reflected in cultural values.
For example, money is highly valued in the United States, so monetary crimes are punished. It’s
against the law to rob a bank, and banks go to great lengths to prevent such crimes. People
safeguard valuable possessions and install antitheft devices to protect homes and cars. A less
strictly enforced social norm is driving while intoxicated. While it’s against the law to drive
drunk, drinking is for the most part an acceptable social behavior. And though there are laws to
punish drunk driving, there are few systems in place to prevent the crime. These examples show
a range of enforcement in formal norms.
There are plenty of formal norms, but the list of informal norms—casual behaviors that are
generally and widely conformed to—is longer. People learn informal norms by observation,
imitation, and general socialization. Some informal norms are taught directly—“Kiss your Aunt
Edna” or “Use your napkin”—while others are learned by observation, including observations of
the consequences when someone else violates a norm. But although informal norms define
personal interactions, they extend into other systems as well.
Informal norms dictate appropriate behaviors without the need of written rules.
Norms may be further classified as either mores or folkways. Mores (mor-ays) are norms that
embody the moral views and principles of a group. Violating them can have serious
consequences. The strongest mores are legally protected with laws or other formal norms. In the
United States, for instance, murder is considered immoral, and it’s punishable by law (a formal
norm). But more often, mores are judged and guarded by public sentiment (an informal norm).
People who violate mores are seen as shameful.
They can even be shunned or banned from some groups. The mores of the U.S. school system
require that a student’s writing be in the student’s own words or use special forms (such as
quotation marks and a whole system of citation) for crediting other writers. Writing another
person’s words as if they are one’s own has a name—plagiarism. The consequences for violating
this norm are severe, and can usually result in expulsion.
Unlike mores, folkways are norms without any moral underpinnings. Rather, folkways direct
appropriate behavior in the day-to-day practices and expressions of a culture. Folkways indicate
whether to shake hands or kiss on the cheek when greeting another person. They specify whether
to wear a tie and blazer or a T-shirt and sandals to an event. In Canada, women can smile and say
hello to men on the street. In Egypt, it’s not acceptable. In regions in the southern United States,
bumping into an acquaintance means stopping to chat. It’s considered rude not to, no matter how
busy one is. In other regions, people guard their privacy and value time efficiency. A simple nod
of the head is enough.
Many folkways are actions we take for granted. People need to act without thinking to get
seamlessly through daily routines; they can’t stop and analyze every action (Sumner 1906).
People who experience culture shock may find that it subsides as they learn the new culture’s
folkways and are able to move through their daily routines more smoothly Folkways might be
small manners, learned by observation and imitated, but they are by no means trivial. Like mores
and laws, these norms help people negotiate their daily life within a given culture.

What are some folkways of the Pakistani society? Are they punishable if violated?
3.2 Elements of Culture
Symbols and Language
Humans, consciously and subconsciously, are always striving to make sense of their surrounding
world.
Symbols—such as gestures, signs, objects, signals, and words—help people understand the
world. Symbols provide clues to understanding experiences. They convey recognizable meanings
that are shared by societies. The world is filled with symbols. Sports uniforms, company logos,
and traffic signs are symbols. In some cultures, a gold ring is a symbol of marriage. Some
symbols are highly functional; stop signs, for instance, provide useful instruction. As physical
objects, they belong to material culture, but because they function as symbols, they also convey
nonmaterial cultural meanings. Some symbols are only valuable in what they represent.
Trophies, blue ribbons, or gold medals, for example, serve no other urpose other than to
represent accomplishments. But many objects have both material and nonmaterial
symbolic value.
A police officer’s badge and uniform are symbols of authority and law enforcement. The sight of
an officer in uniform or a squad car triggers reassurance in some citizens, and annoyance, fear, or
anger in others. It’s easy to take symbols for granted. Few people challenge or even think about
stick figure signs on the doors of public bathrooms. But those figures are more than just symbols
that tell men and women which bathrooms to use. They also uphold the value, in the United
States, that public restrooms should be gender exclusive. Even though stalls are relatively
private, most places don’t offer unisex bathrooms.

Identify some symbols of the Pakistani society to explain to the class.

Symbols often get noticed when they are used out of context. Used unconventionally, symbols
convey strong messages. A sto p sign on the door of a corporation makes a political statement, as
does a camouflage military jacket worn in an antiwar protest. Together, the semaphore signals
for “N” and “D” represent nuclear disarmament—and form the well-known peace sign (Westcott
2008). Today, some college students have taken to wearing pajamas and bedroom slippers to
class, clothing that was formerly associated only with privacy and bedtime. Though students
might deny it, the outfit defies traditional cultural norms and makes a statement.
Even the destruction of symbols is symbolic. Effigies representing public figures are beaten to
demonstrate anger at certain leaders. In 1989, crowds tore down the Berlin Wall, a decades-old
symbol of the division between East and West Germany, communism, and capitalism.
While different cultures have varying systems of symbols, there is one that is common to all:
language.
Language is a symbolic system through which people communicate and through which culture
is transmitted. Some languages contain a system of symbols used for written communication,
while others rely only on spoken communication and nonverbal actions.
Societies often share a single language, and many languages contain the same basic elements. An
alphabet is a written system made of symbolic shapes that refer to spoken sound. Taken together,
these symbols convey specific meanings. The English alphabet uses a combination of 26 letters
to create words; these 26 letters make up over 600,000 recognized English words (OED Online
2011).
Rules for speaking and writing vary even within cultures, most notably by region. Do you refer
to a can of carbonated liquid as “soda,” pop,” or “Coke”? Is a household entertainment room a
“family room,” “rec room,” or “den”? When leaving a restaurant, do you ask your server for a
“check,” the “ticket,” or your “bill”?
Language is constantly evolving as societies create new ideas. In this age of technology, people
have adapted almost instantly to new nouns such as “e-mail” and “Internet,” and verbs such as
“downloading,” “texting,” and “blogging.” Twenty years ago, the general public would have
considered these nonsense words.
Even while it constantly evolves, language continues to shape our reality. This insight was
established in the 1920s by two linguists, Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf. They believed that
reality is culturally determined, and that any interpretation of reality is based on a society’s
language. To prove this point, the sociologists argued that every language has words or
expressions specific to that language. In the United States, for example, the number 13 is
associated with bad luck. In Japan, however, the number four is considered unlucky, since it is
pronounced similarly to the Japanese word for “death.”

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is based on the idea that people experience their world through
their language, and that they therefore understand their world through the culture embedded in
their language. The hypothesis, which has also been called linguistic relativity, states that
language shapes thought (Swoyer 2003). Studies have shown, for instance, that unless people
have access to the word “ambivalent,” they don’t recognize an experience of uncertainty due to
conflicting positive and negative feelings about one issue. Essentially, the hypothesis argues, if a
person can’t describe the experience, the person is not having the experience.
In addition to using language, people communicate without words. Nonverbal communication is
symbolic, and, as in the case of language, much of it is learned through one’s culture. Some
gestures are nearly universal: smiles often represent joy and crying often represents sadness.
Other nonverbal ymbols vary across cultural contexts in their meaning. A thumbs-up, for
example, indicates positive reinforcement in the United States, whereas in Russia and Australia,
it is an offensive curse (Passero 2002). Other gestures vary in meaning depending on the
situation and the person. A wave of the hand can mean many things, depending on how it’s done
and for whom. It may mean “hello,” “goodbye,” “no thank you,” or “I’m royalty.” Winks convey
a variety of messages, including “We have a secret,” “I’m only kidding,” or “I’m attracted to
you.” From a distance, a person can understand the emotional gist of two people in conversation
just by watching their body language and facial expressions.
Furrowed brows and folded arms indicate a serious topic, possibly an argument. Smiles, with
heads lifted and arms open, suggest a lighthearted, friendly chat.
Breaching Experiments
Sociologist Harold Garfinkel (1917–2011) studied people’s customs in order to find out how
societal rules and norms not only influenced behavior but shaped social order. He believed that
members of society together create a social order (Weber 2011). His resulting book, Studies in
Ethnomethodology, published in 1967, discusses people’s assumptions about the social make-up
of their communities.
One of his research methods was known as a “breaching experiment.” His breaching experiments
tested sociological concepts of social norms and conformity. In a breaching experiment, the
researcher behaves in a socially awkward manner. The participants are not aware an experiment
is in progress. If the breach is successful, however, these “innocent bystanders” will respond in
some way. For example, if the experimenter is, say, a man in a business suit, and he skips down
the sidewalk or hops on one foot, the passersby are likely to stare at him with surprised
expressions on their faces. But the experimenter does not simply “act weird” in public. Rather,
the point is to deviate from a specific social norm in a small way, to subtly break some form of
social etiquette, and see what happens.
To conduct his ethnomethodology, Garfinkel deliberately imposed strange behaviors on
unknowing people. Then he would observe their responses. He suspected that odd behaviors
would shatter conventional expectations, but he wasn’t sure how. He set up, for example, a
simple game of tic-tac-toe. One player was asked beforehand not to mark Xs and Os in the boxes
but on the lines dividing the spaces instead. The other player, in the dark about the study, was
flabbergasted and did not know how to continue. Their reactions of outrage, anger, puzzlement,
or other emotions illustrated the existence of cultural norms that constitute social life. These
cultural norms play an important role. They let us know how to behave around each other and
how to feel comfortable in our community.
There are many rules about speaking with strangers in public. It’s okay to tell a woman you like
her shoes. It’s not okay to ask if you can try them on. It’s okay to stand in line behind someone at
the ATM. It’s not okay to look over their shoulder as they make their transaction. It’s okay to sit
beside someone on a crowded bus. It’s weird to sit beside a stranger in a half-empty bus.
For some breaches, the researcher directly engages with innocent bystanders. An experimenter
might strike up a conversation in a public bathroom, where it’s common to respect each other’s
privacy so fiercely as to ignore other people’s presence. In a grocery store, an experimenter
might take a food item out of another person’s grocery cart, saying, “That looks good! I think I’ll
try it.”
An experimenter might sit down at a table with others in a fast food restaurant, or follow
someone around a museum, studying the same paintings. In those cases, the bystanders are
pressured to respond, and their discomfort illustrates how much we depend on social norms.
Breaching experiments uncover and explore the many unwritten social rules we live by.

Identify some suitable ‘awkward’ things that would serve as good experiments to study and
uncover social norms, values and the overall culture in Pakistan that would elicit unique
responses from other cultures?