Popular Culture

A social gathering, like a concert that one goes to, receives emotional energy from the people that he or she is surrounded by. The Weeknd, who is a singer that almost touches your soul, brings out the groups emotional side. Everyone had almost the same feelings during different songs.

Music is a part of popular culture, especially hip hop. The Juicy J concert was filled with different types of races and both sexes, all who loved and enjoyed his music. It is popular because Juicy J is known worldwide and it is part of culture because a group of people share the love for this music, that has been operating in the global entertainment market.

The Weeknd, another hip-hop singer, is known throughout the world. There were more various types of races at his culture because he is Ethiopian/Canadian. People love him from everywhere and the way he sings and what he sings about makes his music and him, as a person, very popular in everyone's eyes. 

 UCI's Ant Eater is a sacred symbol for all the students who attended this university. People who don't even know each other but know that they both went to UCI automatically say the sacred "zot-zot" to each other. To others, however, the ant eater is just a regular animal. That is how we know that sacred symbols can tell people who is not a part of their group.

Consumption is the interpretation and experience of a culture. Social class does play a role in determining consumption  This Armenian wedding scene is performing a cultural tradition  the brother of the bride is putting her shoes on for her. Through this, we know that this family is part of the upper class. The wedding dress is extravagant  her shoes are a very expensive bran, the decor is beautiful, etc...

Life at Home

This is a family, my family! We are a social group that are bound by biological ties!

Kin is what defines this picture. This is only a quarter of my relatives together dancing. (Armenian kins have at least 80 members)

A nuclear family usually consists of a father, a mother, and their two children. If people had ot picture a family in their head, many will picture a nuclear one.

Exogamy is when someone marries someone else from a different social group. My cousin, who is an Armenian Christian, married a Arab Islam. This is not common at all in the Armenian community!

One needs to perform this instrumental task, washing dishes, in order to maintain a family. Without washing dishes, there wont be any clean plates and cups, nothing to put your food on, and of course, HYGIENE PROBLEMS.

Sex and Gender

Sex means male or female, girl or boy.

According to Talcott Parsons, the men have the instrumental role, which means they go to work and provide the material support in the family. 

Parsons also says that women take the expressive role, meaning that they provide the family with nurture and emotional support. They are like stay-at-home mothers who cook and clean for the family. 

There is inequality between men and women. Language used today is an example. This boy is a stud because he is showing his manliness by taking pictures and holding onto two beautiful women.

If someone sees this pciture, they will infer that the girl in the picture is a slut. The word slut is being used in a way that the girl  is surrounded by the opposite sex and loving all the attention that is given to her.

Race and Ethnicity

There is pluralism in real life! There are areas in the United States, like Chinatown, where people of the same culture keep their bonds and traditions strong. 

Little Armenia is another example of pluralism because there is people, Armenians, who have the same culture that live together, have Armenian supermarkets and stores, and perform all the Armenian traditions together in order to keep their culture alive. 

There were major conflicts between the the Armenians and the Turks from the 1700s. However, killings, murder, rape started to get worse at around the 1800s and in 1915, there was a genocide  The Armenian genocide was planned by the Turks so they can totally wipe out, exterminate, the Armenian race. (A famous Armenian Genocide photo. My great-great-grandmother is the one standing up)

In New Haven, Connecticut, people were very ito St. Patrick's Day. This is an example of symbolic ethnicity because the parade does not impact one's everyday life. It is a specific occasion where people come together and "identify" what the parade is about.

My beautiful pomegranate tree describes one's ethnicity. The pomegranate symbolizes Armenia and its unique culture. 

Social Class and Inequality

Marx Weber argued that class status is made up of wealth, power, and prestige. One can have an idea of your class status by looking at for example a family's living room. Seeing the different sized couches, modern yet causal looking furniture and a t.v., one will realize that this is a middle class family living room.

Examining this living room, one will realize that this is designed in a very modern way. The colors and type of furniture that it is made up of makes us understand that this is a living room of a single man/woman who is part of the upper class.

By looking at the physical things on people, in this case how the women are dressed up, people will know that the women who are well dressed and have lots of jewelry on are part of the upper class (rich), and the ones wearing absolutely no jewelry, looking like maids are from the lower class (poor).

Erving Goffman specifies that there are many things, in this case clothing, that gives others information about ones socioeconomic status. By examining this women, you see that she is wearing a Coco Chanel blazer and pants, Tory Burch flats, Prada purse, and an excess amount of jewelry. One's conclusion will be that she is definitely from the upper class.

By examining this scenery, one will understand that our friends and the activities we do with them also provide others information about our socioeconomic status. These group of boys are skateboarding in a an empty pool because they have no where else to go. By seeing this, one will know that these boys are probably from the middle class.

Deviance and Conformity

 Robbery is an example of a violent crime, which usually has a vilent objective to it. 

This is an example of breaking a norm. Normally, people eat soup with a spoon and not with a fork!

Picking one's nose in public is a deviant behavior. People usually do not do it, it is simply embarrassing!

Another deviant behavior is eating a restaurant naked. Clearly, behavior like this is not allowed but was hilarious to witness.

Property crime is also a major crime done but without any violence. Car theft is an example of property crime.

Life in Groups

This group of high school kids did an English project together. They interacted with one another  and shared the same characteristics. 

Looking at this photo, one will know that this is a family. A family is usually known as a primary group because members in a family are extremely closely associated with one another. 

A neighborhood can be known as an aggregate because it is a specific physical location that is shared by a group of people who do not really have a special connection or relation with each other. 

An example for a secondary group can be my basketball team. It is organized around a specific activity, basketball, and all of us teammates do share a special bond with one another. 

Anomie means normlessness, being separated form a group. A stranger, like this, can have the feeling of anomie because he is alone. I am physically close to him, however, I have absolutely no relation with him.

Socialization:The Self and Social Interaction

Mass media, such as commercials and magazines, act as agents of socialization. It helps teach America to buy and sell  goods, which helps Americas business rate get higher, while making other people poor. 

Schools are veryu important because it teaches kids from a young age to be disciplined and of course  educates them. Whatever children learn will be used in the future late on.  

Family is the most important agent of socialization because it is where one begins to learn about life and everything else that will be used in the future. How one acts represents how their family raised him or her. 

Your peers at school change who you are. One can judge one;s friends by the way that  person acts. It is true that peers are more significant than family, especially when kids go through adolescence. 

There is a major role-taking emotion happening in this picture. One person is crying and the other is trying to show some love and sympathy towards her. The end result shows that all the love given made them both happy in the end. 

Culture

Food is one of the few examples of material culture. "Sarma" is the type of food that is known by every single Armenian in the world! Americans know it as "Wrapped Grape Leaves"

Gesturres are signs that we make using our body that have a specific meaning. Flicking someone off (middle finger up in the air) usually seems that that person is very mad at someone else.

Technology is a vital aspect of material culture that is used in America today. Students in America need their computers and laptops to survive in college. 

Symbolic culture is the ideas that is associated within a culture's group. The Armenian flag symbolizes the Armenian freedom fighters who shed blood for their country (red), the bright blue sky that represents peace in Armenia (blue), and the abundant amount of wheat grown in the farmlands (orange).

Ethnocentrism is the belief in the superiority of one own's ethnic group. Most Americans think eating bugs are not part of their norm, but other types of cultures disagree, clearly...

Sociological Research Methods

The overview of research methods show that the time one study's for any exam will affect that person's exam grade.If one  starts to study for it a week before at around noon, they will be fine for the exam! 

Qualitative research, such as this interview being held by one of the referee's wife to a basketball player in San Diego,can generate large amounts of information because it is being done face-to-face.

A newspaper is an example of an existing source because it already has data that's been recorded by researchers. 

To find out which type of battery lasts the longest and why is an experiment. There are specific tests done to see why these batteries have different life times.   

Surveys, such as this one, ask people from a group to answer specific questions. Researchers look at the large scale social patterns by these surveys and what the majority has chosen to put as an answer.