This chapter will help you do the following:

1. Describe the structure (the “hardware”) of our social world.

2. Illustrate how culture affects individuals, groups, and societies.

3. Provide examples of microcultures, subcultures, countercultures, and global cultures.

4. Compare key ideas in the symbolic interactionist, functionalist, and conflict perspectives on culture.

5. Explain why culture (the “software”) from one society does not always “fit” with the structure (“hardware”) of another society.