Sociology › Section C · Culture › Topic C.4
Theoretical perspectives on culture
Why does a culture have the values, rituals and stories it has? Functionalists answer that culture holds a society together, conflict theorists that it often serves the powerful, and symbolic interactionists that people create it afresh in every interaction. Each answer catches something the others miss.
In this topic
- One festival, three readings
- Applying the lenses to culture
- Functionalism: culture holds society together
- Functions and dysfunctions
- Conflict theory: culture and power
- Whose culture counts?
- Symbolic interactionism: culture in the making
- Worked example: Thanksgiving through three lenses
- Worked example: the changing meaning of tattoos
- Strengths, limits and newer views
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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