Work with a small group to come up with an example of a cultural inconsistency between ideal and real culture in the United States. Can you come up with an example that relates to the family, higher education, consumer culture, or the workplace, for example?
With a group of your peers, describe the norms that govern your college or university. Discuss whether these norms are folkways, mores, or taboos. Debate why these norms exist in this particular social setting.
Visit the American Sociological Association’s section on Body and Embodiment blog at http://sectionbodyembodiment.weebly.com/blog/archives/07-2016. Read the July 2016 interview with sociologist Heather Laine Talley and Professor Anna Akbari about fashioning the body. Relate this interview with how one’s body and clothing becomes an integral part of material and nonmaterial culture. Think about your own body, how do you “fashion” your body as a response to either material or nonmaterial culture?
Consider the following popular extracurricular collegiate activities: member of a sports team, actor in a theater production, school club member, band member, and fraternity or sorority member. Describe how your habitus has encouraged or hindered your likelihood to participate in these activities.
Consider a piece of material culture and a global commodity like the cell phone. As a cultural object, the cell phone can be subjected to social norms. Try this out: Visit The Society Pages website at https://thesocietypages.org/toolbox/social-norms-cellphones/. Read through the short essay, which also includes a short video clip from Larry David’s show Curb Your Enthusiasm. Answer the questions at the end of the essay in your own words.
