Just Mercy Discussion and Unit 2 Review

As students enter class, please take out Just Mercy and look for examples of how the culture constructs the dynamics of the death penalty in the US.

For the Discussion, please keep in mind these criteria:

Just Mercy Chapters 3-4:

Thinking like a symbolic interactionist, how does the language used by the police affect Walter?  How can the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis apply to the interaction between Walter and the police? 

The norms and subculture of death row.

Norms of death row

Norms of trials in deep south.

How institutions reproduce culture.

How institutions like Supreme Court can change culture.

Culture of death penalty in AL and the institution of politics

Cultural values (usefulness, practicality, self-help, individualism) create norms of intolerance

Real culture vs. ideal culture

For thought:

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pg 90-91 “…we would never think it was humane to pay someone to rape people convicted of rape or assault and abuse someone guilty of assault or abuse.  Yet we are comfortable killing people who kill, in part because we think we can do it in a manner that doesn’t implicate our own humanity, the way that raping or abusing someone would.  I couldn’t stop thinking that we don’t spend much time contemplating the details of what killing someone actually involves.”

Review for Unit 2:

Identify the following reactions to culture:

            Culture Shock -

           

Ethnocentrism -

            Cultural Relativity –

How is culture like a fish bowl?

What is material culture?

Why is it important?

           

What are examples of symbolic culture? 

Why is it necessary to understand symbolic culture? 

            What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? What are examples of it in our culture?

            “Social Time; The Heartbeat of a Culture” by Levine and Wolf. 

Norms 

Folkways

Mores

Taboos

           

            Moral holidays

Moral holiday places

Sanctions

What is a subculture?

            What is a counter culture?

            Kohl’s Values Americans Live By.

            

            Why are values important to a culture?

            What are the US values?

            What is ideal culture?

            What is real culture?

            What is a value cluster?

            What is a value contradiction?

Dan Buettner's Thrive.

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