Week 6: Flashcards on Culture

Culture is a knowledge framework A culture is a system of signs that produces meaning University culture, political culture, a company culture... A cognitive resource for solving needs and achieving goals A reference for communicating / interacting  with members of one's group or other social actors (a family, a school, a professional organization, a confessional group, a state, institutions,...) Studying culture = studying signs and understanding how they create meaning Culture = a system of signs

Written text Audiovisual text (photos, drawings) Gestuality: body movements Artifacts: instruments, tools, monuments, clothing, food Natural objects: rocks Special entities: places, routes Temporal entities: chronologies, agendas Events: Burning Man Anthropomorphic entities: historical or mythical figures, animals, fictitious characters

meaning making

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1. A sign = an object that signifies something to a cognitive agent 2. A sign = any information loaded object that possesses some (cognitive, pragmatic, emotional) relevance to an agent 3. An agent = a cognitive and intentional entitiy, a person possessing a competence for interpreting and producing signs for interaction purposes

To \"signify\" means that an object is the support of some relevant information for an agent An agent = a cognitive and intentional entity A sign is always part of a system

= Mental concept of what the signifier stands for, it could be a concept, object or emotion. Ferdinand de Saussure Swiss linguist, 1857-1913

the material aspect of it, such as the image, mark, sound, written word etc. Ferdinand de Saussure Swiss linguist, 1857-1913

Signs have to be understood with respect to an agent and her knowledge, values, interests... Signs have different functions: Communication Identity Historical transmission Demarcation, marking territory

1. A sign system is a historical construction that has gained a collective acceptance (it feels \"natural\") E.g.: the idea that people can be classified into groups which have different occupations, cf. Martin 2. Systems of signs are conventions that we use to: Interact, specify an identity, deliminate a territory... 3. As conventions, sign systems undergo historical changes

What is the process by which we come to think of social divisions as natural?

Understanding the idea of \"naturalizes the division of labor\" We are taught, as children, the concept of social divisions We are taught (we see it in children's literature) that some people are more talented for certain types of occupations Those narratives shape what feels natural to people Children internalize this idea that there are divisions between people Tie with \"signs\": The division between animals come to signify divisions between humans

system of durable dispositions (Ways of doing and ways of thinking) acquired by individuals during socialization The habitus organizes the representation of the social world and also organizes the way people behave. Categories of thought are not neutral

Durkheim was trying to understand the origin of religion (in this book: The Elementary Forms of Religious Life) Totems are collective symbols The totem is the representation of the clan to its members It is the manifestation of collective consciousness By worshipping the totem, clan-members reinforce social cohesion