Головна

I Vocabulary

  1. Active vocabulary
  2. Active vocabulary
  3. Active vocabulary
  4. Active vocabulary
  5. Active vocabulary
  6. Active vocabulary
  7. Active vocabulary
  1. dimension - 1) измерение, 2) размеры, величина
  2. clarification - прояснение
  3. to circumscribe - описывать
  4. boundaries - границы
  5. flux - течение, поток, постоянная смена
  6. to desire - жаждать, сильно жела
  7. to esteem - оценивать
  8. consequantional distinction - важные отличия
  9. conscience - сознательный
  10. inhanced self-image - завышенная самооценка
  11. cluster - группа
  12. explicit - ясный, подробный
  13. conviction - убеждение, уверенность
  14. immortality - бессмертие, вечность
  15. mutual(ly) - взаимный (взаимно - нареч.)
  16. consistent - совместимый

II Comprehension check

  1. What qualities do values have?
  2. What are values criteria for?
  3. How do people react when a person acts against or in accord with values of conscience?
  4. What values define the central institutional structure of the society?
  5. What is the difference between a belief and a value
  6. Give a summary classification of dominant values.

Text 2

What are "dominant values"? What are value systems? Major value-orientations

What can we say about the hierarchy of values? Are there any "dominent" values? Which values are common (shared), which are intense or less intense, which are persistent or transitory, which take precedence over others? Some concrete tests of value dominance are obviously needed.

Dominant and subordinate values for a group or social system as a whole can be roughly ordered to these criteria:

1. Extensiveness of the value in the total activity of the system. What propotion of a population manifests the value?

2. Duration of the value. Has it been persistently important over a considerable period of time?

3. Intensity with which the value is sought or maintained, as shown by: efforts, crucial choices, reactions to threats etc.

4. Prestige of value carriers - that is, of persons, objects, or organizations considered to be bearers of the value. Culture heroes, for example, are significant indexes of high generality and esteem.

The application of these criteria may be illustrated by the complex we call democracy. Let us define democracy as a combination of (1) high evaluation of individual persons apart from their extrinsic characteristics or positions; (2) elective rather than appointive choice of leaders; (3) reliance upon discussion and group consensus in determination of collective policy; (4) reservation of certain minimal social rights on an equal basis to all group members. How would we, then, test the hypotheses (1) that democracy is or is not highly valued, and (2) that democracy does or does not occupy a dominant position in the value hierarchy?

The first step is to secure evidence of democracy in the various institutions and subcultures of the society. To what extent is there democracy in family, education, religious group, stratification system, government, economic system? At once we are aware of great variation among and within the several institutional sectors. The criteria of democracy are met in full in some sectors of our political system, but hardly at all in others. In the economic system, direction by authority is more usual. The generalized value-orientations which may lie behind specific institutional arrangements are not easily disentangled. Just what standards of value are used for evaluating "democracy" as good or bad? The answer is not obvious, and it is complicated by the fact that such relatively specific evaluations represent a mixture of values, as such, together with knowledge, cognitive beliefs, and a wide variety of other factors particular to the actual social situations in which we look for evidence of values. We cannot remind ourselves too often that values are not identical with institutions and with all behavior.

It is clear that in our society the range of interests, beliefs, values, knowledge, and so on is so great that precise and detailed characterizations can be done only for care segments of the society. Furthermore, values change through time. These considerations explain why we speak of value-systems, rather than of values.

In describing value systems in a society we are mainly concerned with the distinctive elements of these systems, and not with "universal" features shared by the human species as a whole. For example, we do not speak about the unlearned biogenic "drives" or "needs" such as hunger, thirst, sex, activity, rest, and the like. However important, this substratum of behavior is it does not specifically explain problems that are definitely sociogenic or cultural. We shall deal with certain universal social values that exist in cultures. Clashes of value become crucial for social organization when they emerge in those areas of person - to-person interaction that are essential to the maintenance of the system - for example, family life or in work relations. Persistent value-conflicts in these areas will lead, variously, to personality disorganization of the system of interaction. Similarly, in mass behavior, persistent and widespread value-tension leads to political struggle.

We can now outline certain major value-configurations in culture. For convenience, we will proceed by abstracting certain dominant themes from the many important regional, class, and other variations.The simplified picture will be innacurate in every concrete detail - it will be a series of ideal types, subject to numerous exceptions.

Nevertheless, these abstracted patterns will serve as working models and present tendences. As a first approximation, we can use these tentative formulations in each instance as test cases. For each value-pattern let us ask: Is it actually an important value? How do we know whether it is or not? Where does it stand in relation to other values? Within the total society, what groups or subcultures are the main bearers of the value, and what groups or subcultures are indifferent or opposed? How do the mutually supporting or antagonistic value-systems work toward or against the integration of the culture as a whole? We will list a value or theme frequently observed. Some authors list seven major patterns: monogamous marriage, freedom, accquisitiveness, democracy, education, monotheistic religion, freedom and science.

 



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I Vocabulary | Social biology | Culture Lag | V Communicative practice | Language | II Comprehension check | Cultural influences on language | Nonverbal communication | Creating culture | Creating Objective Knowledge |

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