Without culture, we could not have a society. Culture influences not only language but the gestures we use when we interact, how far apart we stand from each other when we talk, and the values we consider most important for our children to learn, to name just a few. Someone who grows up in the United States differs in many ways, some of them obvious and some of them not so obvious, from someone growing up in China, Sweden, South Korea, Peru, or Nigeria. If the culture we learn influences our beliefs and behaviors, then culture is a key concept to the sociological perspective. Because society refers to a group of people who live in a defined territory and who share a culture, it is obvious that culture is a critical component of any society. Instead, kissing seems best understood as something we learn to enjoy from our culture, or the symbols, language, beliefs, values, and artifacts (material objects) that are part of a society. Culture and the Sociological Perspective IntroductionĪs this evidence on kissing suggests, what seems to us a very natural, even instinctual act turns out not to be so natural and biological after all. In one of these, people kiss the mouth and the nose simultaneously, while people in a few other societies kiss only by sucking the lips of their partners (Tanikawa, 1995 Tiefer, 1995). In other societies, people do kiss, but their type of kissing differs greatly from what we are used to. Reflecting the traditional Japanese view, when Rodin’s famous statue The Kiss arrived in Japan in the 1920s as part of a European art show, the Japanese hid it behind a curtain. Until fairly recently, the Japanese abhorred kissing and did not even have a word for it until they created kissu from the English kiss, and even today older Japanese frown on kissing in public. Even in industrial societies, kissing is not always considered desirable. When the Thonga first saw Europeans kissing, they retorted, “Look at them-they eat each other’s saliva and dirt” (Ford & Beach, 1972, p. In traditional societies such as the Balinese and Tinguian of Oceania, the Chewa and Thonga of Africa, and the Siriono of South America, kissing is unknown, as the people there think it is unhealthy and disgusting. Kissing certainly seems a natural, enjoyable act to most of us, but evidence from some societies indicates kissing might not be so natural after all. That kiss is as much a part of growing up as almost anything else we can think of, and many of us can remember when, where, and with whom our first kiss occurred. When we reach puberty, many of us yearn for our first kiss. What we see on the screen reflects our own interest in kissing. When you are in love, what can be more natural and enjoyable than kissing? This simple act is the highlight of countless movies and television shows where two people meet each other, often not liking each other at first, but then slowly but surely fall madly in love and have their first magical kiss. Photo by Yulia Volodina, Creative Commons This news story provides just one of many examples of the importance of cultural differences for beliefs and behaviors.Īlthough kissing certainly seems like a very normal and natural act, anthropological evidence indicates that culture affects whether people kiss and whether they like kissing. The idea of cows with too much gas, or any gas at all, roaming city streets is probably not very appealing, but cow worship is certainly a part of India’s culture. However, India is such a poor country that the prospect of a better diet for livestock remains years away, and the problem of cows with gas will continue for some time to come. One reason Indian livestock emit so much methane, aside from their sheer numbers, is that they are underfed and undernourished better diets would reduce their methane emission. They emit so much methane that scientists think Indian cows, along with some 180 million sheep and goats, are a significant cause of global warming. But one problem of this abundance of cows is the methane gas they excrete as they burp and belch. It is no surprise that India has almost 300 million cows, the highest number in the world, and that they roam freely in Indian cities and towns. They are also an important source of milk and fertilizer. In India, cows are considered sacred by that nation’s major religion, Hinduism. Photo by Isla Haddow-Flood, Wikimedia Commons
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