1. Summary
Culture melted into our lives more deeply than we think. It defines the meaning of things or actions and gives us norms, values, beliefs. To understand culture, we need to understand that the concept of culture can have multiple levels of meaning and that they can work together. Also, we should be able to distinguish the role of culture and society. We usually think that culture has a positive function, but culture plays a role in creating and maintaining social inequality. The prejudice proceeded from cultural concepts regarding race, class, gender can be used to justify oppression and discrimination.
2. New/Interesting/Unusual things I learned
In Cultural Sociology: Researching Culture part, Anderson described the individuals in light of their clothing, behavior, attitudes, beliefs, and opinions.
“Specifically, individuals dressed in certain outfits behave in similar ways. For instance, those dressed in business attire (even when walking their dogs) – the yuppies – have particular perspectives on the future of the Village: they are interested in increasing property values in order to maximize their investment.”
It was interesting that people dressed in similar outfits behave in similar ways. Individuals have different personalities, but I wonder whether outfits affect the way they behave.
3. Discussion
Anderson cited people dressed in business attire in order to explain the relationship between culture and behavior. Do people wearing similar outfits always behave in a similar way? Someone may consider increasing the property values in the entire village as important, others may concentrate on decorating their own homes, irrespective of whether the value of the village is high or low.
I think you might think so. But what Anderson says does not mean that people in business attire behave the same as 100 percent. It means that there are some errors but many are similar.
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