Review Sheet for Exam #1

Sociology of Culture

Spring 2005 semester

I. Format: The exam will be short and/or long essay format (as mentioned, no other format makes sense with this kind of material). You will not need anything but a pen and your brain (hopefully containing knowledge of the subjects we’ve covered so far).

II. Readings: You’ll be responsible for the Introduction and Chapters 1 through 4 in A Disease of One’s Own.

a. For the exam, using the combination of both class lecture and the readings as resources, you should be able to explain each of the key premises, terms and their definitions, that we have covered thus far. The best way to prepare for this is by doing it in advance: i.e., write down, in your own words, what each premise means, what each definition means, etc.

b. Coming of Age in Samoa (The Margaret Mead Video): Technically, of course, not a reading, but her body of work illustrates what ethnographers do, and the kinds of questions they ask. Think about what her (and similar) work and what it tells is about culture. E.G.

i. Adolescence: is it universally a time of interpersonal and individual turmoil? (how does this speak to the importance of culture?)

ii. Childhood (same general point)

iii. American soldiers and British women in World War II (what was the issue? How is it connected to culture?)

III. Key Themes (Class Lectures – these overlap, of course, with the readings)

a. Culture in Classical Theory

i. The Marx-Weber “Debate”

1. what is the debate? Who argued for what points?

2. how this debate is a variant on the long-standing debate in philosophy between idealism and materialism

ii. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

1. the basic structure of Weber’s analysis in this book

a. what were Weber’s general conclusions? And how do those conclusions connect with the Sociology of Culture?

2. how is this book connected with the Marx-Weber debate?

b. Culture and Social Structure (how are they defined? And of what do they consist?)

i. The relationship between culture and social structure: what IS the relationship? Why is it important?

c. Cultural “Products” (what are these? )

i. Under what conditions do cultural products emerge?

ii. The three general types of cultural products

1. reproduction

2. reform

3. revolution

iii. what is the relationship between type of cultural product and the (perceived) relationship between cultural and social structure?

d. Our Analytical Model & Levels of Cultural Analysis

i. Context: Societal, Cultural, Historical

ii. Process: Production, Selection, Institutionalization

iii. Content: “Social Horizon,” “Discursive Field,” “Figural Actions”

IV. Co-Dependency: Discourse as a Cultural Product

a. What is co-dependency? (a diagnosis? A discourse?)

b. What were the indicators that the process of producing, selecting, and institutionalizing co-dependency was underway? (how did it appear on the societal/cultural “landscape”? how/why did it become a topic of study?)

c. What were the key features of the larger cultural, societal, and historical context needed to make sense out of co-dependency’s creation and selection? (remember the treatment industry and the 12-step subculture, here)

Remember: the key to the analytical model is that we cannot fully understand why new “cultural products” are created, selected, etc., unless we examine the larger context in which they emerge, and the content of their message (why do people select this product?)

d. What is the content of the discourse?

i. its theory of causation

ii. its theory of what is being caused

We will review and revisit the levels of cultural analysis after the first exam. Then, having developed our theoretical and conceptual model and some accompanying tools of analysis, we will use those to examine the phenomena of consumption and the beauty culture.

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