,Answer: features that are common to all cultures,Find the Main Idea What are cultural universals?,Cultural Variations,Subculture Groups that share traits with each other but not the larger society Examples are groups organized by age, gender, politics, or geography Most do not reject all of the values of the larger society Most subcultures do not threaten the larger American culture,Counterculture Countercultures adopt values that are designed to challenge the values of the larger society Examples are groups such as cyberpunks, anarchists, the Mafia, and hippies,Reading Check,Contrast What is the difference between a subculture and a counterculture?,Answer: Subcultures accept most values of the core society, but have certain variations, such as language, not shared by the larger society; counterculture rejects the values of larger society and substitutes its own set of values and cultural patterns.,Cultural Diversity and Sociology,The Adaptive American Culture The long history of immigration to the United States has resulted in an American culture that embraces values, behaviors, and material culture from other cultures around the world.,Latino influence is especially strong as Hispanics are the largest minority group Influences food, clothes, and cars available Latino holidays are celebrated Spanish-language advertisements are common,South Asians are becoming a larger and larger portion of U.S. population Pakistani and Indian food has quickly become more popular Bollywood movies are popular,At a Glance,The American Value System Over the years, sociologists have identified what they believe are the core values of American society. Among these values are work, individualism, morality and humanitarianism, personal achievement, and others. American values have not stayed the same over time, however. New values, such as respect for the environment, regularly develop and become part of American culture.,The American Value System,Main Idea Even though American society is quite diverse, there are certain core values that the vast majority of Americans share.,Reading Focus What are traditional American values? How have our values changed since the 1970s?,American Values Summary,Personal Control Over the Environment Change Time and Its Control Individualism and Equality Orientation to Action Privacy Self-Help Concept Competition and Free Enterprise Direct to an American, it means one is superstitious and lazy, unwilling to take any initiative in bringing about improvement. In the United States, people consider it normal and right that Man should control Nature, rather than the other way around. More specifically, people believe every single individual should have control over whatever in the environment might potentially affect him or her. The problems of ones life are not seen as having resulted from bad luck as much as having come from ones laziness in pursuing a better life. Furthermore, it is considered normal that anyone should look out for his or her own self-interests first and foremost.,Change,In the American mind, change is seen as an indisputably good condition. Change is strongly linked to development, improvement, progress, and growth. Many older, more traditional cultures consider change as a disruptive, destructive force, to be avoided if at all possible. Instead of change, such societies value stability, continuity, tradition, and a rich and ancient heritagenone of which are valued very much in the United States. These first two valuesthe belief that we can do anything and the belief that any change is goodtogether with an American belief in the virtue of hard work and the belief that each individual has a responsibility to do the best he or she can do have helped Americans achieve some great accomplishments. So whether these beliefs are true is really irrelevant; what is important is that Americans have considered them to be true and have acted as if they were, thus, in effect, causing them to happen.,Time and Its Control,Time is, for the average American, of utmost importance. To the foreign visitor, Americans seem to be more concerned with getting things accomplished on time (according to a predetermined schedule) than they are with developing deep interpersonal relations. Schedules, for the American, are meant to be planned and then followed in the smallest detail. It may seem to you that most Americans are completely controlled by the little machines they wear on their wrists, cutting their discussions off abruptly to make it to their next appointment on time. Americans language is filled with references to time, giving a clear indication of how much it is valued. Time is something to be on, to be kept, filled, saved, used, spent, wasted, lost, gained, planned, given, made the most of, even killed.,Individualism and Equality,Individualism and equality are often regarded as the most marked characteristics of American society. Sometimes, people see them as in conflict, and sometimes, they see the