Discussion Question:
After reading bothchapters 1and 2 in our textbook,please discuss the early sociological thinker Herbert Spencer and identify his sociological perspective (also known as theory) and at least one idea related to the theory.Please be detailed in your answer.
In addition,please define culture, discuss the differences between ideal culture and real culture as well as identify the six (6) components of culture. Additionally,please provide a brief example ofeach of the six (6) components of culture. Please be detailed in your answer.
Your response and DQ answers should be at least 250 - 300 words in length. Please be detailed in your answers to all questions and follow APA guidelines and provide in-text citations as well as include at least two (2) references. Do not attach a document, create a thread, and post your response.
Textbook: Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 14/E James M. Henslin
I quickly scanned the room filled with 100 or so bunks. I was relieved to see that an upper bunk was still open. I grabbed it, figuring that attacks are more difficult in an upper bunk. Even from the glow of the faded red-and-white exit sign, its faint light barely illuminating this bunk, I could see that the sheet was filthy. Resigned to another night of fitful sleep, I reluctantly crawled into bed. I kept my clothes on. The next morning, I joined the long line of disheveled men leaning against the chain-link fence. Their faces were as downcast as their clothes were dirty. Not a glimmer of hope among them. No one spoke as the line slowly inched forward. When my turn came, I was handed a cup of coffee, a white plastic spoon, and a bowl of semiliquid that I couldn’t identify. It didn’t look like any food I had seen before. Nor did it taste like anything I had ever eaten. My stomach fought the foul taste, every spoonful a battle. But I was determined. “I will experience what they experience,” I kept telling myself. My stomach reluctantly gave in and accepted its morning nourishment. The room was strangely silent. Hundreds of men were eating, each one immersed in his own private hell, his mind awash with disappointment, remorse, bitterness. As I stared at the Styrofoam cup that held my coffee, grateful for at least this small pleasure, I noticed what looked like teeth marks. I shrugged off the thought, telling myself that my long weeks as a sociological observer of the homeless were finally getting to me. “It must be some sort of crease from handling,” I concluded. I joined the silent ranks of men turning in their bowls and cups. When I saw the man behind the counter swishing out Styrofoam cups in a washtub of murky water, I began to feel sick to my stomach. I knew then that the jagged marks on my cup really had come from another person’s mouth. How much longer did this research have to last? I felt a deep longing to return to my family—to a welcome world of clean sheets, healthy food, and “normal” conversations. The room was strangely silent. Hundreds of men were eating, each immersed in his own private hell, . . . .1 Explain why both history and biography are essential for the sociological perspective. Why were these men so silent? Why did they receive such despicable treatment? What was I doing in that homeless shelter? After all, I hold a respectable, professional position, and I have a home and family. You are in for an exciting and eye-opening experience. Sociology offers a fascinating view of social life. The sociological perspective (or imagination) opens a window onto unfamiliar worlds—and offers a fresh look at familiar ones. In this text, you will find yourself in the midst of Nazis in Germany and warriors in South America. Sociology is broad, and your journey will even take you to a group that lives in a city dump. (If you want to jump ahead, in Chapter 9 you can see the photos I took of the people who live— and work and play—in a garbage dump in Cambodia.) You will also find yourself looking at your own world in a different light. As you view other worlds—or your own—the sociological perspective enables you to gain a new perception of social life. In fact, this is what many find appealing about sociology. The sociological perspective has been a motivating force in my own life. Ever since I took an introductory course in sociology as a freshman in college, I have been enchanted by the perspective that sociology offers. I have enjoyed both observing other groups and questioning my own assumptions about life. I sincerely hope the same happens to you. Seeing the Broader Social Context The sociological perspective stresses the social contexts in which people live. It examines how these contexts influence people’s lives. At the center of the sociological perspective is the question of how groups influence people, especially how people are influenced by their society—a group of people who share a culture and a territory. To find out why people do what they do, sociologists look at social location, the corners in life that people occupy because of their place in a society. Sociologists look at how jobs, income, education, gender, race–ethnicity, and age affect people’s ideas and behavior. Consider, for example, how being identified with a group called females or with a group called males when you were growing up has shaped your ideas of who you are. Growing up as a female or a male or as a transgender individual has influenced not only how you feel about yourself but also your ideas of what you should attain in life and how you should relate to others. Even your gestures and the way you laugh come from your identifying with one of these groups. Sociologist C. Wright Mills (1959) put it this way: “The sociological imagination [perspective] enables us to grasp the connection between history and biography.” By history, Mills meant that each society is located in a broad stream of events. This gives each society specific characteristics—such as its ideas about what roles are proper for men and women. By biography, Mills referred to your experiences within a specific historical setting, which gives you your orientations to life. In short, you don’t do what you do because you inherited some internal mechanism, such as instincts. Rather, external influences— your experiences—become part of your thinking and motivation. Or we can put it this way: At the center of what you do and how you think is the society in which you grow up and your particular location in that society. Consider a newborn baby. As you know, if we were to take the baby away from its U.S. parents and place it with the Yanomamö Indians in the jungles of South America, his or her first words would not be in English. You also know that the child would not think like an American. The child would not grow up wanting credit cards, for example, or designer clothes, a car, a smartphone, an iPad, video games, and a virtual reality headset. He or she would take his or her place in Yanomamö society—perhaps as a food gatherer, a hunter, or a warrior—and would not even know about the world left behind at birth. And whether male or female, the child would grow up assuming that it is natural to want many children, not debating whether to have one, two, or three children. People around the globe take their own views of the world for granted. Something inside us Americans tells us that hamburgers are delicious, small families desirable, and designer clothing attractive. Yet something inside some of the Sinai desert Arab tribes tells them that warm, fresh camel’s blood makes a fine drink and that everyone should have a large family and wear flowing robes (Murray 1935; McCabe and Ellis 1990). That “something” certainly isn’t an instinct. As sociologist Peter Berger (1963) phrased it, that something is society within us. Although obvious, this point frequently eludes us. We often think and talk about people as though their behavior were caused by their sex (“men are like that”), their race (“those people are like that”), or some other factor transmitted by their genes. The sociological perspective helps us escape from this cramped, personal view by exposing the broader social context that underlies human behavior. It helps us see how social settings shape people’s behavior. If you have been thinking along with me—and I hope you have—you should be thinking about how your social groups have shaped your ideas and desires. Over and over in this text, you will see that the way you look at the world is the result of your exposure to specific human groups. I think you will enjoy the process of self-discovery that sociology offers. We all learn our basic views of the world from the group in which we grow up. Just as this principle applies to this girl of the Txukahamai tribe of Brazil, so it applies to you. You and she are likely to have little in common in how you perceive the world. The Global Context—and the Local How life has changed! Our predecessors lived on isolated farms and in small towns. They grew their own food and made their own clothing, buying only sugar, coffee, and a few other items that they couldn’t produce. Beyond the borders of their communities lay a world they perceived only dimly. To see why sociologists use the term global village to describe life today, look at the labels on your clothing. You are likely to see China, Mexico, Brazil, Hong Kong, Brunei, or Macau. It is the same with the many other imported products that have become part of your daily life. And communications? It is difficult to believe how slow they used to be. I am still amazed at what happened in the War of 1812, a war between the United States and Great Britain. Although the two countries signed a peace treaty in December 1814, two weeks later their armies fought a major battle at New Orleans. Neither the American nor the British forces there had heard that the war was over (Volti 1995). Today, news flashes from around the world are part of our everyday life. We can grab our cell phone and use the Internet to communicate instantly with people anywhere on the planet. Although we are engulfed in instantaneous global communications, we also continue to occupy our own little corners of life. Like those of our predecessors, our worlds, too, are marked by differences in family background, religion, job, age, gender, race–ethnicity, and social class. In these smaller corners of life, we continue to learn distinctive ways of viewing the world. One of the beautiful—and fascinating—aspects of sociology is that it enables us to look at both parts of our current reality: being part of a global network and having unique experiences in our smaller corners of life. This text reflects both of these worlds, each vital in understanding who we are. 1.2 Know the focus of each social science. Just as