Nonmaterial culture around the world; Symbolic Culture: Gestures and Language Lesson 4 Social Structure

Homework:  Levine, Robert and Wolff, Ellen.  Social Time: The Heartbeat of Culture.  Psychology Today. 1985.       

Sociological Literacy:  Symbolic culture; gestures and language 

(NO GOOGLE FORM TODAY)

Symbolic culture is shared meaning that involves communication such as gestures and language.  

Gestures

What are examples of the importance of gestures?

Gestures are important to understanding and communicating within a culture.  Understanding a culture's gestures can also help us avoid ethnocentrism and culture shock.  Here is a guide for international business travelers to help them understand the impact gestures can have on their interaction with other cultures.  Here is a link to a list of some single-hand gestures from around the world.

Gestures are also an example that culture is a result of shared meaning among people.  And among groups of people, meaning can change over time.  Here is a post about the Bellamy Salute, a gesture that has changed its cultural meaning over time.  Another example of the changing meaning of symbols is the ok gesture which has become associated with white supremacy/white power and it is now listed as a hate symbol by the ADL.  See this link for a detail of that evolution.

Language

Look at these two shapes.  One is called a maluma and one is called takete.  Which is which? Even if you don't know, take a guess. Write it down without telling anyone what your answer is or CLICK HERE to answer.

Shape A                    Shape B

Now Look at these three color chips.  Which one does not belong?

What is the importance of language?

Language is important because it affects how we think. When we think about something, we are using language inside of our heads so if we use certain words or do not have certain words, it may affect how think about things especially how we categorize something.   We even think based on how words sound.  For example, takete and malunga.  Takete sounds harsh and therefore angular.  Malunga sounds softer and rounded.  But these are just made up words.  

What is the Saphir-Whorf hypothesis?

The importance of language was first highlighted by researchers, Saphir and Whorf.  Their hypothesis and conclusion was that language shapes how people think.  

The NY Times ran a story about how the idea of language affecting our thoughts. See that article here. Also, see this post about politics and how the use of English frames every debate especially the debate over gun violence.
Here is a list of untranslatable ideas about love from around the world.
Here is a book that highlights untranslatable words from around the world.

Finally, write down three words to describe a bridge:  


Lera Boroditsky, professor of cognitive science and cultural psychology has published research that concludes language affects how we think.  Her evidence is in the genderization of nouns in different cultures.  Here she is explaining her research at Ted.  Here is an explanation from NPR about Boroditsky's research and how language shapes our description of bridges.

This Psychology Today article explains more about the importance of genderizing nouns in language.


This NPR story highlights how language affects our thinking, especially for bilingual speakers.  

Here (see page 43 of this doc) is a lesson from Carol Mukhopadhyay on classifying in other cultures.  For each of the following sets, choose the item that does not belong:

Set 1. Auto, turtle, basket, bird

Set 2. Laundry, beer, clothing

Set 3. A chair, a spear, a couch 

After you have made your selections, click here for an explanation. 

The ASA's Society Pages shares research by sociologist Matt Wray highlighted on NPR's Code Switch.  Why would using the term "white trash" support white supremacy?

This New Yorker article explains the research of professor Adam Alter on the hidden power of words and naming.

Also, here is a study explaining that without language, numbers do not make sense.

This episode of On Being from NPR is about Rabbi Heschel who insightfully explained "words create worlds."  Here is a link to a medium article about Heschel and words.  And this link to a passage about the importance of words from Heschel to William Blake. 

David Treuer is an Ojibway translator who explains the power and importance of language on this episode of On Being.

The episode Lost in Translation from NPR's Hidden Brain is a social science podcast from NPR and this episode explores how language shapes our thoughts.

In sum,

Gestures and Language are important components of culture.

Language affects how people think about the world.

But, language and gestures can change because culture changes.