Culture free essay sample

The family you grow up In defines your sense of character and background. These are some of the Ingredients that give you a taste of culture. Culture provides a basis for ones sense of normalcy, because anything outside of ones culture is possibly considered a different way of life. How you were raised and where you were brought up defines a persons culture. Culture can be defined for me by Am. Am is my Scottish grandmother. She raised six kids on her own through the great depression and both World Wars. She defined the way my dad grew up and therefore it defined the way I grew up. My culture is defined by my grandmother because she established a background and a way of life that my parents went by. My parents formulated my life around the equation that If I made the right choices that I would make something of myself. First of all, the concept of a subculture must be framed quite broadly so as to include the various ways sociologists have intended the term in their writings. As Honey (2004) observes, subculture is a term used loosely in social science. At the broadest level, the prefix sub simply implies that these groups are mailer and distinct from the larger culture in some way (p. 3). This loose usage of the term subculture has subset neatly caused critics to suggest that the concept has become greatly diminished in its power as an analytical tool (Honey, 2004, p. ). A related problem is whether the field of sociology clearly demarcates the differences between what constitutes a subculture and what constitutes a counterculture-?and also, whether there are any assumptions or attitudes hidden behind the ways sociologists use these terms. Dodd and Dodd (2003) have noted that, although both these terms are quite commonly seed among sociologists, and are nearly always found in basic sociology textbooks, there nevertheless seems to be disagreement over the sociological method for categorizing a group as a subculture. Additionally, there seems to be disagreement in distinguishing what constitutes a subculture and what constitutes a counterculture. The authors state that, when many sociologists describe the concept Of subculture, they tend to make an implicit characterization of subcultures as either deviant, marginalia groups or heroic resisters against the hegemonic culture of global capitalism (Dodd Dodd, 2003, p. 20).If Dodd and Dodd are correct, then this points out that there may indeed be hidden assumptions or attitudes behind some sociologists usage of the term subculture, and this also calls into question how such characterizations of a subculture differ from a counterculture. As we shall see, once we establish the difference between subcultures and countercultures, heroic resisters against the hegemonic culture of global capitalism seems more to describe members of a counterculture than a subculture-?that is, if we initially accept the premise that subcultures and countercultures are ind eed valid classifications.The Postmodern Perspective Shank (2006) observes that some sociologists have rejected the general concepts of subculture and counterculture altogether. These sociologists view the concept of subculture from a postmodern perspective, and have therefore questioned the validity of how other sociologists apply the concept of subculture. According to Shank, sociologists who take a postmodern perspective argue that subcultures have fragmented to the point where there is no longer an identifiable subgroup sharing a common interest (2006, p. ). Shank argues that this perspective shifts the focus to localized object positions that have developed around fashion, lifestyle, and identity, and cites Mafioso who prefers to use the term neutrino or emotional community as a replacement for the traditional concept of subculture. Shank notes that a postmodern sociological view implies that the term subculture, and the parent culture against which it is defined, are not coherent and homogeneous formations that can be clearly demarcated (Shank, 2006, p. 1). Essentially, this makes the argument that we cannot separate our complex postmodern society into an overall parent culture which is most likely perceived as a monoculture) and various subcultures. Though we should more thoroughly understand what it means to take a postmodernist perspective in sociology, and will return to this viewpoint, we should first have a clear understanding of what sociologists have traditionally meant when using the terms subculture and counterculture. A good way to arrive at clearer definitions is to survey the most popular sociology textbooks, correlate their explanations of the terms, and analyze their examples for each. Surveying the Textbooks Dodd and Dodd (2003) have carried out such a survey on 14 of the most molly used sociology course textbooks for the university level, and their survey is quite helpful in better understanding the terms subculture and counterculture.After considering the use of the term subculture in the chosen textbooks, Dodd and Dodd create a definition, though it seems quite similar to the broad definition that Honey offers above. They state, a subculture is usually thought of as a group that is part of the dominant culture but which differs from it in some important respects (2003, p. 22). Although this definition is quite general-?particularly in its assertion that a picture differs from a dominant culture in some important respects-?the definition proposes that a subculture is part of the dominant cu lture.This prompts consideration of whether or not a counterculture is also considered part of the dominant culture. If sociologists do not consider countercultures part of the dominant culture, then this is a basic distinction between the two concepts. However, for various reasons, such basic distinctions often become complicated. Dodd and Dodd (2003) observe that many sociology textbooks, when presenting the concept of subculture, use Chinese immigrants and their descendants living in San Franciscans Chinatown as a prototypical example.The authors note that Chinese immigrants are a good example of a subculture because of their continuing fluency in Mandarin Chinese or a similar dialect, so fluency in a language other than the language of the mainstream culture is apparently one of the common features of a subculture. However, the authors also observe that the Amiss, whose receptiveness, clothing, and cultural practices set them apart from the dominant culture is included in nearly all sociology textbook discussions of subcultures.This indicates that fluency in a second language (and therefore fl uency in a second national or ethnic culture) is not necessary in order for a person to be categorized as belonging to a subculture. The authors note that, in all of the textbooks, the most primary element of a subculture is the use of racial or ethnic groups as prototypical examples of subcultures. The authors state that this use of racial or ethnic groups as examples of subcultures is in fact, the only example that is common to all of the texts, though the chosen racial or ethnic examples among the textbooks vary widely.In the 14 textbooks that Dodd and Dodd analyzed, the specific examples given for racial or ethnic groups include African Americans, Anglo Americans, Chicanes, Chinese Americans, Italian Americans, Native Americans, Norwegian Americans, Orthodox Jews, and Polish Americans (Dodd Dodd, 2003, p. 22). Many of the textbooks also assert that some occupations could be considered subcultures, and several even use sociologists as one example of an occupational subculture. In the textbooks Dodd and Dodd surveyed, other examples of subcultures were based on geographic regions of the country, religion, social class, and interest groups Dodd Dodd, p. 5). Thus, the various divergent examples of subcultures from these textbooks create a problem in clearly defining the conce pt of a subculture-?though it may help to break down the concept of subculture into further subcategories. Dodd and Dodd use the term occupational subculture when discussing occupation as criteria for a subculture, which inherently creates a subcategory, so we can assume that there may be more subcategories of subcultures based on region, religion, interest groups, etc. This also implies that an individual could belong to several subcultures.The authors note that it is common to read in sociology textbooks descriptions Of the subculture concept emphasizing the multiplicity of subcultures to which an individual group member might belong at any one time or at different times in his or her life (Dodd Dodd, 2003, p. 21). Thus, a Chinese American computer programmer who has converted to Islam and lives in the Appalachian Mountains could belong to several subcultures. That example is probably what Honey (2004) means by saying that broad application of the term subculture has greatly diminished the concepts power as an analytical LOL. The Dodd and Dodd textbook survey resulted in the authors p roposing three basic criteria that indicate a subculture. They define the ideal subculture as a group whose members: ; Interact frequently with one another; ; Share a common world-view, or hallucinating, that has at its center the attribute that defines the group most thoroughly; ; Remain unwilling or unable to assimilate into the larger, dominant culture; that is, to have ones identification with the subculture become normalized and unproblematic (Dodd Dodd, 2003, p. 28). Further Insights Types of SubculturesDodd and Dodd also note that some subculture members are distinguishable from members of a dominant cultural group because of physical appearance, style Of clothing and adornment, and other cultural signifier such as language or dialect (2006, p. 1 1 From this definition, they develop an interesting method of categorization based on the likelihood that the subculture member will eventually assimilate into the dominant culture. Using this criterion, the authors propose three basic types of succubus Uterus, ranging from quite likely to assimilate to quite unlikely to assimilate.