Transcript Terms of Culture - Renton School District

Your American Artifact
 Free
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Writing:
Describe your artifact. What is it? Why is it
significant?
Why does your artifact represent American
culture? Would it represent American
culture to just you or would other people
also say it is a representation of American
culture?
Terms of Culture
 Culture:
A shared, learned or symbolic
system of beliefs and attitudes that shape
one’s behaviors. This belief system is used
by members of a society to cope with
their world and one and one another and
it is passed down from generation to
generation.
Terms of Culture
 Diversity:
Ethnic variety, as well as socioeconomic
and gender variety, in a group, society, or
institution
Terms of Culture
 Acculturation:
The gradual process by
which the culture of a person or group is
modified because of contact with
another culture.

Can be forced or willing
Create Your Own Culture
Web: What makes you who you are?
People:
Family
/Friends/
Community
Values &
Beliefs
(politics,
religion,
etc.)
Language(s)
spoken
Norms (rules
by which
people
guide their
lives)
Your
Culture
Race &
Ethnicity
Artifacts
(books,
music,
important
objects)
Background
(Where you are
from, Where
you live, work
and life
experiences)
Diversity Questions
 What
is the value of diversity in American
Culture?
 What are some issues that stem from
diversity in American culture?
 What is American Culture? Create an
active definition based on the webs at
your table and things we have shared
and discussed in class.
“The Quilt” by John Updike
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What is this poem about? How do you know?
Give examples
What does it mean when the poem says,
“Don’t kick your clinging covers son. This bead
is built so you can never shake your clinging
quilt?” What do the covers symbolize?
What does this poem have to do with culture,
hegemony or the American dream?
“This Land is Your Land”
This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and Me.
As I was walking that ribbon of highway,
I saw above me that endless skyway:
I saw below me that golden valley:
This land was made for you and me.
I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding:
This land was made for you and me.
When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.
Censored Lyrics
As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?
Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.
The American Spirit
1.
2.
3.
4.
What do people refer to when they use
the phrase “the American Spirit?”
What ideals does this song promote?
What are the political implications of this
song?
When the omitted lyrics are added is the
song changed? Does its message
change?
“I, too”
 Read
Langston Hughes’ poem “I, too.”
Compare the message of this poem to
original version of the song, “This Land is
your land.” What do we learn about the
American Spirit from reading these two
poems together.
Terms of Culture
 Dominant
culture: a dominant culture is
one that is able, through economic or
political power, to impose its values,
language, and ways of behaving on a
subordinate culture or cultures. This may
be achieved through legal or political
suppression of other sets of values and
patterns of behavior, or by monopolizing
the media of communication.
Sociocultural Perspectives
 Hegemony:
control or dominating
influence by one person or group,
especially by one political group over
society or one nation over others
Terms of Culture
 Meme:
an idea, behavior or style that
spreads from person to person within a
culture. A meme acts as a unit for
carrying cultural ideas, symbols or
practices, which can be transmitted from
one mind to another through writing,
speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable
phenomena.
Sociocultural Perspectives

This is an illustration of the hierarchy created by
dominant culture values in the Antebellum and Jim
Crow South. As you can see by this illustration, wealthy
Whites were on the top which means that they had
control of resources, power and cultural norms.
Wealthy
Country Folk
"White Trash"
Black
Community
•In hegemony, all cultures
must work within the
dominant culture to survive.
This brings tension among
all subordinate cultures, a
pattern you will see
illustrated in the slave tale.
Slave Tale Assignment
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Read the introduction to the slave tales and
write down what struck you and why.
Read the slave tale “When Brer Deer and Brer
Rabbit runned a Race” and take note of how
you heard this story before. What is the more
commonly known ending? Speculate why this
ending was changed.
Answer slave tale questions for homework
(these questions are on the page with “We
Wear the Mask” and “Malindy”
Cultural Perspectives on The American
Dream, the American Reality and the
American Spirit
What ideas do we gather about the American
experience and American Culture when comparing
“This land is your land” to the lessons of The
Awakening, The Color Purple, “Can I ask you a
question?” and “The Quilt?”
• Answer in a well-written paragraph with welldeveloped support