IN THIS CHAPTER...

THE LAST CHAPTER argued that the self is a social fact developed in concert with the people around us. This chapter explores those people. Its main argument is that all human groups have unique cultures, a word we use to describe shared ideas, as well as objects, practices, and bodies that reflect them.

Humans engage with their natural environment, but they also act in relation to an intricate series of social constructs, defined as influential and shared interpretations of reality that vary across cultures.

We learn these social constructs through socialization, a lifelong learning process by which we become members of our cultures and subcultures. Media is a source of this socialization. So are the people around us.

Socialization is also a force behind what we value. Both our sense of right and wrong, and our rationales for why we believe what we do, have culture as their source. Hence, sociologists warn against ethnocentrism, or assuming that one’s own culture is superior to the cultures of others.

Two research methods round out this chapter:

Social network analysis involves the mapping of social ties and exchanges between them.

Biosocial research methods investigate relationships between sociological variables and biological ones.

“The easiest way to get brainwashed is to be born.”

—ROBERT ANTON WILSON

In 1893, the U.S. Supreme Court convened to decide a fateful case. Its task: to determine, once and for all, whether the tomato was a fruit or a vegetable. The case was brought by a family with the last name of Nix who had a tomato-importing business. At the time, the law required that taxes be

collected on imported vegetables but not fruit. The lawyers for the Nix family argued that the tomato was a fruit and, therefore, exempt from taxation.

Science was on their side. Botanists define fruit according to whether the structure plays a role in plant reproduction. Any plant product with one or more seeds is a fruit, whereas vegetables don’t have seeds. All other plant products—stems, roots, leaves, and some seeds themselves—are vegetables. We call children the “fruit of our loins” (and not the “vegetables of our loins”) for exactly this reason.

Most of us are not botanists, however; we’re people who put food in our mouths. That is, we’re generally more interested in how we use the parts of plants than in how plants use them. In the United States, we tend to divide plant products according to whether they’re sweet or savory. If we eat them for dinner, they’re vegetables. And if we eat them for dessert, they’re fruit.

When the Nix family brought their question to the Court and the botanists made their case about the tomatoes, the justices said, “We don’t care,” or something to that effect. Here’s some of the text of their unanimous opinion:

Botanically speaking, tomatoes are the fruit of a vine. ...... But in the common language of the people, whether sellers or consumers of provisions, all these are vegetables which are grown in kitchen gardens, and which, whether eaten cooked or raw, are ...... usually served at dinner in, with, or after the soup, fish, or meats which constitute the principal part of the repast, and not, like fruits generally, as dessert.1

Tomatoes are fruit, in other words, but Americans prefer to think of them as vegetables. So, the Nix family had to pay the tax.

What is the tomato? Yes, it’s a reproductive strategy for a plant indigenous to Mexico, but it’s more than that to us. It’s salsa, spaghetti with meatballs, a Bloody Mary, a BLT. To the Nix family, the tomato was their livelihood.

To the Supreme Court, it was commerce: a product that could be taxed to build roads and bridges. To the chef, it’s an ingredient: a source of sauces,

carrier of spices, and symbol of summertime. To the heckler, it’s used as a classic insult, thrown at an entertainer who’s bombing on stage. The tomato is all these things. In this the Supreme Court was right. What really matters to us isn’t what the tomato is, but what we make of it.

The tomato is also an example of something that makes humans unusual among animals. Thanks to our powerful brains, we don’t just encounter the world; we embellish it. We layer an intricate fantasy world onto reality. Just as we see criticism in a tossed tomato, we see love in a golden ring, rage in a middle finger, and friendship in a bracelet made of string. For humans, reality is embroidered with meaning, adorned with significance, and heavy with value.

We pay attention to this fantasy world if we know what’s good for us. A red light doesn’t mean stop—not really—but to ignore one is to risk injury, a fine, or a lawsuit. The lines on the map we call borders aren’t natural, but cross one without a country’s permission and we can get thrown in jail. We can try to use our middle finger to say “I love you,” but it will take quite a bit of explaining. And if we keep putting tomatoes in the fruit salad, we’ll stop getting invited to potlucks.

This chapter is about the ideas with which humans elaborate their lives. It’s an introduction to culture, the word we use to describe differences in groups’ shared ideas, as well as the objects, practices, and bodies that reflect those ideas. It’s also an exploration of socialization, that lifelong learning process by which we become members of our cultures. Through socialization, we become culturally competent, able to understand and navigate our cultures with ease. Let’s start with social construction.

Glossary

 

culture

differences in groups’ shared ideas, as well as the objects, practices, and bodies that reflect those ideas

socialization

the lifelong learning process by which we become members of our cultures

culturally competent

able to understand and navigate our cultures with ease

Endnotes

 

Note 01: Nix v. Hedden, 149 U.S. 304 (1893).Return to reference 1

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION

By virtue of being different things to different people, the tomato is a social

construct, an influential and shared interpretation of reality that will vary

across time and space.2 Social constructs emerge out of social construction,

the process by which we layer objects with ideas, fold concepts into one another, and build connections between them. Generally, members of the same culture share similar social constructs. For this reason, they have staying power; no one person can change them at will. We can try, of course

—hence, the tomato going all the way to the Supreme Court—but real change requires a culturewide shift.

Essentially all human communication depends on social constructs, starting with language. Even saying “hello” depends on them. An h represents a huh sound. Add it to the other line drawings—the swirly e, upright l s, and self-contained o—and you have a collection of letters and series of sounds we recognize as a friendly greeting. Language is merely a very complex and evolving set of social constructs.

But human language is far more expressive than mere letters and sounds.

Everything is steeped in meaning. We communicate with cowboy hats, by how we cross our legs, and by whether we own a pit bull or a poodle. We can tell someone we love them with words. Or we can tell them with a thoughtful gift, a home-cooked meal, walks in the park, slow dancing, a hand on the small of the back, long mornings in bed, a “good night” text, or a soft touch. Thanks to social construction, everyday life is exponentially more eloquent than it would be otherwise.

Social constructs are often quite formidable social facts. Consider one of the most essential social constructs in American life: the zinc and copper coins, green pieces of paper, and electronic code we call money. These are mostly worthless in and of themselves, but we’ve agreed that they stand in for values. Thus, we’re able to exchange them for an unimaginably wide range of necessities, luxuries, and experiences.

Money is entirely made up. A fiction. A lie. But it’s powerful and coercive.

In exchange for it, many of us will strain and sweat, tolerate boredom or disgust, spend our time and energy on strangers, and do things we quite dislike or perhaps even believe immoral. We do this with half or more of our waking lives, often until we’re too old to do much of anything at all.

Because money is how we survive in the world today, the vast majority of us are forced to do something to make it. And, if we can’t make enough, we really do suffer.

As illustrated in Table 2.1, social constructs come in many varieties. Rings, middle fingers, and bracelets made of string—like dollar bills—are a type of social construct called a signifier, a thing that stands for something else: in these cases, love, anger, and friendship. Language is made up largely of signifiers. An h signifies huh and the word hippopotamus signifies a giant, gregarious, aquatic artiodactyl with stumpy legs and thick skin.

TABLE 2.1: Types of Social Constructs

 

 

 

 

Social

Definition

Examples