Lawsuits are thus uncommon;

If beliefs about voting for an African American had not changed, Barack Obama would almost certainly not have been elected in 2008

In the United States, abortion was not illegal until 1828,

Values are another important element of culture and involve judgments of what is good or bad and desirable or undesirable.

generally felt that abortion was not murder if it occurred within the first several weeks after conception.

rituals are not limited to preindustrial societies.

If a boy being circumcised shows signs of fear, he might well be ridiculed

In many societies, rituals help signify one’s gender identity

Even nudity is considered terrible, and people on Inis Beag keep their clothes on while they bathe. The situation is quite different in Mangaia, a small island in the South Pacific. Here sex is considered very enjoyable, and it is the major subject of songs and stories.

Table manners are a common example of informal norms, as are such everyday behaviors as how we interact with a cashier and how we ride in an elevator.

We already saw that the nature of drunken behavior depends on society’s expectations of how people should behave when drunk. Norms of drunken behavior influence how we behave when we drink too much.

et the body of work supporting contact theory suggests that efforts that increase social interaction among people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds in the long run will reduce racial and ethnic tensions.

To what extent does language influence how we think and how we perceive the social and physical worlds? T

More generally, the use of racist terms may reinforce racial prejudice and racial stereotypes.

Language and sexism.

One of the most important developments in the evolution of society was the creation of written language

Humans have a capacity for language that no other animal species possesses. Our capacity for language in turn helps make our complex culture possible.

Whereas many cultures attach no religious significance to these shapes, for many people across the world they evoke very strong feelings of religious faith. Recognizing this, hate groups have often desecrated these symbols.

However, the same gesture can mean one thing in one society and something quite different in another society

As this definition suggests, there are two basic components of culture