Chapter 4: Building Order: Culture and History

Discussion Questions:

1. Identify and describe each of the cultures presented in these articles.
2. What elements of material and nonmaterial culture do you observe in the articles?
3. Can you find examples of sanctions in the articles? If so, what are they?
4. How do researchers understand culture and values in the final article?

Patrick T. Kinkade & Michael A. Katovich
The Driver: Adaptations and Identities in the Urban Worlds of Pizza Delivery Employees
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 25, 421 - 448 (1997)
http://jce.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/25/4/421?ijkey=ALBKA5pdoZqGA&keytype=ref&siteid=spjce
Abstract:
This article explores the solidarity relationships constructed between urban drivers as they take risks and experience dangers associated with pizza delivery. After one of the authors completed working as a driver and participating in drivers' backstage activities, we analyzed their arcane culture as composed of risk takers who receive minimal rewards. In this context, the world of drivers is "hypermasculine," with racist and sexist nuances, and composed of five identifiable types—the comedian, the adventurer, the denier, the fatalist, and the pro. In conclusion, we locate the driver in the context of urban associations where group membership is perceived as or more valuable than monetary rewards and control of time.

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Jason Rodriquez
Color-Blind Ideology and the Cultural Appropriation of Hip-Hop
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 35, No. 6, 645-668 (2006)
http://jce.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/35/6/645?ijkey=Q4Sha2pBg3.p2&keytype=ref&siteid=spjce

Abstract:
This article examines how white youths culturally appropriate hip-hop by adhering to the demands of color-blind ideology. Using ethnographic methods and interviews of members in a local hip-hop scene, I argue that colorblind ideology provides whites with the discursive resources to justify their presence in the scene, and more important, to appropriate hip-hop by removing the racially coded meanings embedded in the music and replacing them with color-blind ones. This research contributes to the existing scholarship on racial ideology by analyzing how it is put into action by individuals in a specific local context in which race is salient. Furthermore, it extends our understanding of how color-blind ideology operates in practice, enabling whites with the discursive resources and racial power to culturally appropriate hip-hop, however unintentionally, for their own purposes.

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Laura Grindstaff
Culture and Popular Culture: A Case for Sociology
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 619, 206 – 222 (2008)
http://ann.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/619/1/206?ijkey=xA6q5NsI2bdvY&keytype=ref&siteid=spann
Abstract:
The study of popular culture has a long and intimate relationship to the field of cultural sociology, being both a subcategory of the field and a separate arena of inquiry taken up by other disciplines. This article examines the intellectual traditions that have shaped the sociology of popular culture, traces the points of connection and difference between sociologists and other scholars studying popular culture, and argues for the continued relevance of cultural sociology for addressing key issues and concerns within the realm of "the popular," broadly conceived. These developments include the rise of new media/communication technologies and the increasing interdependence between popular culture and other arenas of social life.

Whence Differences in Value Priorities?: Individual, Cultural, or Artifactual Sources
Ronald Fischer and Shalom Schwartz
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, October 2011; vol. 42, 7: pp. 1127-1144., first published on September 9, 2010
http://jcc.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/42/7/1127?ijkey=oMq/EXgqLgym.&keytype=ref&siteid=spjcc
Abstract
To what extent do value priorities vary across countries and to what extent do individuals within countries share values? We address these questions using three sets of data that each measure values differently: the Schwartz Value Survey for student and teacher samples in 67 countries (N = 41,968), the Portrait Values Questionnaire for representative samples from 19 European countries (N = 42,359), and the World Value Survey for representative samples from 62 countries (N = 84,887). Analyses reveal more consensus than disagreement on value priorities across countries, refuting strong claims that culture determines values. Values associated with autonomy, relatedness, and competence show a universal pattern of high importance and high consensus. Only conformity values show patterns suggesting they are good candidates for measuring culture as shared meaning systems. We rule out reference-group and response style effects as alternative explanations for the results and discuss their implications for value theory, cross-cultural research, and value-based intergroup conflict.

Howe, P. David
The tail is wagging the dog: Body culture, classification and the Paralympic movement
Ethnography, Dec 2008; vol. 9: pp. 499-517
http://eth.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/9/4/499?ijkey=P37YGg96ndrGg&keytype=ref&siteid=speth
Abstract:
The rules and regulations regarding the classification process through which athletes must be vetted to determine eligibility for Paralympic competition have been transformed drastically over the last two decades. A complex classification system initially developed by the International Organizations of Sport for the Disabled (IOSD) has been the distinctive feature of the Paralympic movement over this period. Key consideration must be given to the equitable nature of any classification system imposed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) in order to comply with the ideology of Paralympism. Paralympism is manifest in the dictum of the Paralympic movement: `empower, inspire and achieve'. Using ethnographic data obtained by the author while a Paralympic athlete and journalist, this article explores recent debates within the sport of athletics surrounding classification. This is achieved by highlighting the process of classification and how, as a result of this process, some bodies are celebrated and others are not within a sporting culture established as a ghetto for imperfection.

Adler, Patricia A., Adler, Peter
Self-Injury in Cyberworld
Contexts, Feb 2012; vol. 11: pp. 59-61
http://ctx.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/11/1/59?ijkey=Lc8QdHyxEgkIw&keytype=ref&siteid=spctx
Abstract:
Cyber communities have facilitated new forms of identity and self-regulation for people engaging in self-harm practices. The authors explore the online worlds of self-injurers and how they offer ways for people to develop new kinds of social order.