Cultural Variation
Each culture
has a unique character. Inuit tribes in northern Canada, wrapped in furs and
dieting on whale blubber, have little in common with farmers in Southeast Asia,
who dress for the heat and subsist mainly on the rice they grow in their
paddies. Cultures adapt to meet specific sets of circumstances, such as
climate, level of technology, population, and geography. Thus, despite the
presence of cultural universals such as courtship and religion, great diversity
exists among the world’s many cultures. Moreover, even within a single
nation, certain segments of the populace develop cultural patterns that differ
from the patterns of the dominant society.
Subculture
Rodeo
riders, residents of a retirement community, workers on an offshore oil rig—all
are examples of what sociologists refer to as subcultures. A subculture
is a segment of society that shares a distinctive pattern of customs, rules,
and traditions that differs from the pattern of the larger society. In a sense,
a subculture can be thought of as a culture existing within a larger, dominant
culture. The existence of many subcultures is characteristic of complex
societies such as the United States.
Members of a
subculture participate in the dominant culture while at the same time engaging
in unique and distinctive forms of behavior. Frequently, a subculture will
develop an argot, or specialized language, that distinguishes it from
the wider society. Athletes who play parkour, an extreme sport that
combines forward running with fence leaping and the vaulting of walls, water
barriers, and even moving cars, speak an argot they devised especially to
describe their feats. Parkour runners talk about doing King Kong vaults—diving
arms first over a wall or grocery cart and landing in a standing position. They
may follow this maneuver with a tic tac—kicking off a wall to overcome
some kind of obstacle (Wilkinson 2007).
Such argot
allows insiders—the members of the subculture—to understand words with special
meanings. It also establishes patterns of communication that outsiders can’t
understand. Sociologists associated with the interactionist perspective
emphasize that language and symbols offer a powerful way for a subculture to
feel cohesive and maintain its identity.
In India, a
new subculture has developed among employees at the international call centers
established by multinational corporations. To serve customers in the United
States and Europe, the young men and women who work there must be fluent
speakers of English. But the corporations that employ them demand more than
proficiency in a foreign language; they expect their Indian employees to adopt
Western values and work habits, including the grueling pace U.S. workers take
for granted. In return they offer perks such as Western-style dinners, dances,
and coveted consumer goods. Significantly, they allow employees to take the day
off only on U.S. holidays, like Labor Day and Thanksgiving—not on Indian
holidays like Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. While most Indian families
are home celebrating, call center employees see only each other; when they have
the day off, no one else is free to socialize with them. As a result, these
employees have formed a tight-knit subculture based on hard work and a taste
for Western luxury goods and leisure-time pursuits.
Increasingly,
call center workers are the object of criticism from Indians who live a more
conventional lifestyle centered on family and holiday traditions. In response
to such negative public opinion, the government of the Indian state where call
centers are located has banned schools from teaching English rather than
Kannada, the local language. Beginning in 2008, some 300,000 students were
affected by the ban (Chu 2007; Kalita 2006).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)