Summary
Contents
Subject index
In the Fourth Edition of Cultures and Societies in a Changing World, author Wendy Griswold illuminates how culture shapes our social world and how society shapes culture. Through this book, students will gain an understanding of the sociology of culture and explore stories, beliefs, media, ideas, art, religious practices, fashions, and rituals from a sociological perspective. Cultural examples from multiple countries and time periods will broaden students' global understanding. Students will develop a deeper appreciation of culture and society from this text, gleaning insights that will help them overcome cultural misunderstandings, conflicts, and ignorance and that will help equip them to live their professional and personal lives as effective, wise citizens of the world.
The Production, Distribution, and Reception of Culture
The Production, Distribution, and Reception of Culture
Many Americans and Canadians proudly display Eskimo soapstone carvings in their living rooms.1 Rounded, polished, and smooth to the touch, these miniature sculptures of polar bears, seals, and fur-wrapped children adorn any number of urban middle-class homes thousands of miles from the Arctic. The carvings seem profoundly natural, the innocent, simple renditions of what the Eskimos see around them. By now, of course, readers of this book have learned to be wary of anything referred to as “natural.” The sociological approach to culture maintains that practices or objects that seem natural, even inevitable, are not. Like Marx's cherry tree, they have a history embedded in social relations—as do the soapstone carvings.
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