CULTURE, OBJECTS, SYMBOLS

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CULTURE, OBJECTS, SYMBOLS SOCIAL STRUCTURE
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I)Bronowski"Lower Than The Angels"
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A.What is the "Paradox of Man"?

• 1. Man fits all environments with his
  crude survival skills.
• a. He does not accept the environment, but
  changes it

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• 2. Not driven by immediate
  environment.
• a. Actions not narrated by the present
• b. Imagination, reason and emotion
• 3. What kind of evolution does man have?

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• a.Biological evolution of brain, hands, feet, etc
  give us jigsaw of faculties which facilitate our
  being creative.
• b. Cultural adaptations changeable, not
  irreversible
• 4. We leave traces of what we create, other
  species only leave traces of what they were.

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• 5. Link to Hugues
• a Culture Culture provides the meanings that
  enable human beings to interpret their
  experiences and guide their actions p 42
• b Culture provides us a set of common
  understandings and a framework which binds
  separated lives into a larger whole p 42

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II)Berger "Man needs a world"
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A.Processes in producing a world

• 1. Externalization
• 2. Objectivation
• 3. Internalization

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B. Berger and Bronowski

• 1. Product and Producer
• 2. How is it possible?

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III) Objects, Symbols and Culture
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A. Objects constantly objectifying
environment
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1. Object types

• a. Empirical referents material culture
  Hughes
• b. Non-Empirical referents nonmaterial
  culture Hughes

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2. Object qualities

• a. Intrinsic qualities
• b. Extrinsic qualities

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B. Becker Level of Environmental
Relationships

• 1. S-R Direct Reflex
• 2. Conditioned reflex

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• 3. Created Relationship
• 4. Symbolic Relationship
• a. Difference in kind, not degree

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C. Symbols

• 1. Definition of Symbols
• 2. Meaning action

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D.Key concepts
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1.People as

• a. Creator
• b. Sustainer
• c. Transformer
• Hughes cultural relativism, p 49-50

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2. The social world is

• a. arbitrary
• b. given and given off

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3. People as

• a. meaning seeker
• b. must know definition of situation W I
  Thomas, Hughes p 78

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E. Culture

• 1. Material
• 2. Non-material
• 3. Culture gives us a world
• 4. Culture Total Summation of Meaning
• 5. Condemned to Meaning

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The Lottery The Movie!

• Culture What does it say about culture?
• What does it say about social reality?
• What does it say about commitment?
• What does it say about socialization impression
  management?

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IV) Social Structure and Objects
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A. Meaning/Expectations

• 1. Expectations cluster into structures
• 2. Objects interact under some
  expectations

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B. Self as Object

• 1. Self Objectification
• 2. Experience self as object
• 3. Object self and meaning
• 4. Action toward self

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C. G. H. Mead

• 1. Interaction and Object Self
• 2. Significant others, social situations and
  social structure SI
• 3. We imagine, expect and evaluate

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D. C. H. Cooley"The Looking Glass Self
Reflexive behavior Hughes p 72

• 1. Imagine
• 2. Evaluate
• 3. Pride and Mortification

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E. Ernest Becker

• 1. "Object of Primary Value in a World of
  Meaningful Action"

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F. "Live by Inference

• 1. World is arbitrary
• 2. Impute meaning
• 3. Give and give off information

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G. Erving Goffman

• 1. We can deceive and be deceived
• 2. Social world has too many expectations

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• 3. "Merchant of Morality Impression
  Management Hughes p82
• a. "The Big Con
• b. "Over-socialized
• c. "Role Distance"

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H. Working Consensus

• 1. Making promises and claims
• 2. What makes the world go around?
• a. Tact
• b. Discretion
• c. Commitment

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V) Synthesis (If possible!)
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A. Social Structure Commitment

• 1. "Merchants of Morality"
• 2. Working Consensus Tact and Discretion

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B. Basic Underlying Process

• 1. Symbolic
• 2. Our symbolic environment mediates the
  physical environment so that we do not simply
  experience stimuli, but a definition of the
  situation Hughes p 78

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