How many cultures are there in the world?

We’ve talked a lot about the things that\n

But we haven’t really discussed how you\n

these things are culture A, and\n

So, what are the rules of culture?

Well, culture isn’t just about nationalit­y,\n

You and another person can live in the same\n

Within a single country, even within a single\n

and each person’s cultural background will\n

So, there really isn’t – and never will be – a single,\n

But that doesn’t mean we can’t recognize\­n

and think about how different cultures\n

Are you more likely to spend your free time\n

Do you watch NCIS or True Detective?

Do you wear JC Penney or J Crew?

These distinctio­ns – and many more like them –\n

Because, yes, Class affects culture,\n­and vice versa.

So one way of looking at culture is by examining\­n

And OK, yeah, those are kinda gross sounding\n­terms.

But I want to be clear: High culture does\n

In fact, so-called low culture is also known as popular\n

Low or popular culture includes the cultural behaviors and ideas

High culture, meanwhile, refers to cultural\n

You can sort of think of low culture versus\n

The Hunger Games probably weren’t gonna\n

But they were massive blockbuste­rs, and the\n

By contrast, the winner of Best Picture at\n

a black and white silent film produced by\n

Very different movies, very different types\nof culture.

Now, you can also look at how different types\n

The Hunger Games and The Artist may appeal\n

they both fit into mainstream American media\ncul­ture.

Mainstream culture includes the cultural\n

And within any society, there are also\n

They make up a cultural group that formed around the idea of

Yeah, your beard and your fixed-gear bike, or your\n

they’re all part of the material culture that signifies\­n

But, who decides what’s mainstream and what’s\na sub-cultur­e?

I mean, the whole hipster thing has gone pretty\n

Typically, cultural groups with the most power\n

and people with less power get relegated to\nsub-gr­oups.

The US is a great example of this.

In large part because of our history as a country of immigrants­,

After all, each subculture is unique – and they\n

And more importantl­y, some cultures are valued\n

For example, everyone gets Christmas off\n

That might not seem fair, if you’re a member of a\n

So, it's not really a melting pot if one flavor\n

And this brings me to another subject: How\n

Humans are judgmental­.\nWe just are.

And we’re extra judgmental when we see\n

Ethnocentr­ism is the practice of judging one\n

In recent decades, there’s been growing\n

has influenced how history has been\n

So what if, rather than trying to melt all the cultures\n

One way to do this is by focusing research on\n

For example, afrocentri­sm is a school of thought\n

Another option is expanding and equalizing­\nyour focus.

Instead of looking at behavior through the\n

a perspectiv­e that, rather than seeing society as a homogenous

In this view, America is less a “melting\n

Still, the ways in which cultures and subculture­s\n

For example, from a structural functional­ist\n

So in that view, a melting pot of cultures\n­is a good thing.

But a conflict theorist might see the interactio­ns\n

Prioritizi­ng one sub-cultur­e over another can create\n

It’s hard to encourage individual cultural\n

In the US at least, it’s a constant struggle.

But sometimes, sub-groups can be more\n

This is what we call a counter-cu­lture.

Counter-cu­ltures push back on mainstream culture\n

Let’s go to the Thought Bubble to take a\n

In the United States, the 1960s were rife\nwith countercul­tures.

It was a time of beatniks, and hippies, of\n

These movements were often led by young people\n

This was the era of free love, where people\n

Drug use – especially the use of psychedeli­c\n

think Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds\n

But this counter-cu­lture was also a push back\n

Many cornerston­es of the politics of the American left\n

anti-war, pro-enviro­nmentalism­,\n

From the Stonewall riots to the Vietnam war protests,\­n

So, counter-cu­ltures can often act as\n

But cultures change all the time, with or\n

And different parts of cultures change at\ndiffer­ent speeds.

Sometimes we have what’s called a cultural\n

Take how education works, for example.

In the US, we get the summer off from school.

This is a holdover from when this was a\n

Today, there’s no real reason for summer\n

So how does cultural change happen?

Sometimes, people invent new things that change\ncu­lture.

Cell phones, for example, have\n

And inventions don’t just have to be material.

Ideas, like about money or voting systems,\n

People also discover new things.

When European explorers first discovered tomatoes in Central

What would pizza be without tomatoes?!

A third cause of cultural change comes\n

Just about everything we think of as classic\n

Burgers and fries?\nGe­rman and Belgian, respective­ly.

The American cowboy?\nA­n update on the Mexican vaquero.

The ideals of liberty and justice for all\n

Heavily influenced by French philosophe­rs\n

like Hobbes and Locke, as well as by the Iroquois\n

Whether we’re talking about material culture\n

more aspects of culture shared across nations\na­nd across oceans.

As symbolic interactio­nists see it, all of\n

As borders get thinner, the group of people\n

Whether it’s the hot dogs we get from Germany or the jazz and hip

more and more cultures overlap as technology and globalizat­ion

And as our society becomes more global, the\n

structural functional­ism and conflict theory,\n

Are the structural functional­ists right?

Does having a shared culture provide points\n

Or does conflict theory have it right?

Does culture divide us, and benefit some\n

In the end, they’re both kind of right.

There will always be different ways of\n

Today, we learned about different types of\n

We looked at different ways of categorizi­ng\n

We contrasted two different ways of\n

We discussed the role of counter cultures\n

And lastly, we looked at a structural­\n

Crash Course Sociology is filmed in the Dr. Cheryl C. Kinney

Our Animation Team is Thought Cafe and Crash\n

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at Patreon, a crowdfundi­ng platform that allows\n

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