Course: Introduction to Sociology (SOC 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Adeyemi
Module: Week 3 of 16 · Fall 2026 · in-person, two 75-minute sessions
Objective covered: Objective 3 — Analyze culture — its material and nonmaterial elements, values, norms, symbols, and the major perspectives on it — and apply the concepts to real cultural phenomena.

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Module 3 Overview page ("Start Here") and (B) the Welcome Announcement that drips out when the module opens. Dates below assume a Tuesday/Thursday session pattern with Week 3 meeting Tue Sep 15 and Thu Sep 17, and end-of-week work due Sunday Sep 20, 11:59 p.m. Adjust the day-of-week and times to match your section.

(A) Module 3 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Week 3: Culture

This is your home base for the week. Read it first, then work the checklist below from top to bottom. Everything you need is linked inside the module.

We've learned to think like sociologists (Week 1) and to gather and read evidence (Week 2). Now we turn to the thing that shapes almost everything you do without your noticing: culture. Culture is the shared way of life of a group — its values (what's good), its beliefs (what's true), its norms (how to act), its symbols and language, and the physical objects it makes and uses. The sociologist's move this week is to make the invisible script visible: to see that the everyday "rules" you follow without thinking — how you greet people, how close you stand, what you wear where — are culture, not just "the normal way things are."

The week's big question

"How does culture work like an invisible script we follow without noticing — and why do three different perspectives explain it so differently?"

By Friday you'll separate material from nonmaterial culture, rank norms from folkways to mores to taboos, define values/beliefs/norms/sanctions/symbols, handle ethnocentrism vs. cultural relativism and subculture vs. counterculture, and run a cultural phenomenon through all three perspectives.

By the end of this week, you can…

Use this as a checklist. If you can do all four out loud, you're ready for the quiz.

• [ ] Define culture and split it into material culture (tangible objects: tools, buildings, technology) and nonmaterial culture (intangibles: values, beliefs, norms, language).
• [ ] Distinguish the building blocks — values (what's desirable), beliefs (what's held true), and norms (rules for behavior) — and rank norms by seriousness: folkways (etiquette), mores (moral norms), taboos (the strongest), all enforced by sanctions (positive/negative, formal/informal).
• [ ] Explain symbols and language — including the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (linguistic relativity) as a hypothesis, not a settled fact — plus cultural universals, culture shock, and cultural lag (Ogburn).
• [ ] Contrast ethnocentrism and cultural relativism and subculture and counterculture, and apply the three perspectives (functionalist, conflict, interactionist) to a real cultural phenomenon.

What's due this week, and when

Work these in order — each one gets you ready for the next.

Heads-up on the AI tools: you'll use a chatbot to draft and explain, and then you judge its work. Culture is one of the easiest places for a chatbot to go wrong — it will confidently stereotype a whole group ("people from X all believe Y"), state the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis as proven fact, or invent a statistic about a country or community. Catching the model is the point — and it's the whole skill the Workshops build.

Late policy reminder: 10% off per day late. If life happens, reach out before the deadline — I'd much rather hear from you early.

How to succeed this week

• Lead with the idea, not the jargon. Culture is just "the shared way of life we learn." A norm is just a rule for behaving; a folkway is just an everyday custom; a more is a rule with moral weight. The vocabulary comes after the idea clicks.
• Memorize three tiny hooks. "Material = touch it; nonmaterial = the idea behind it." "Folkways = rude · mores = wrong · taboos = unthinkable." And "Values (good) → beliefs (true) → norms (act)."
• Use the touch test. Stuck on material vs. nonmaterial? Ask: can I physically touch it? A phone is material; the belief that you should silence it in class is nonmaterial.
• Watch the relativism line — both ways. Ethnocentrism judges others by my standards; cultural relativism understands them on their standards. The discussion asks the hard question — whether relativism has limits — and there's a fair case on each side.
• Treat the chatbot as a smart intern, not an oracle. It drafts; you check every claim about a culture and every figure. With culture, the trap is the confident stereotype.

You don't need any background for this week — just curiosity about why your own everyday habits feel so "natural." Come to class ready to notice the rules you've never thought about. See you Tuesday.

(B) Welcome Announcement — Module 3

Release setting: post on the module's start day (offset = 0 days from Week 3), i.e., Tue Sep 15, 2026 — not before. If your platform won't preserve the scheduled date on import, post this as a draft labeled "Release: Tue Sep 15."

Subject: Welcome to Week 3 — let's see the rules we never notice 👋

Hi everyone, and welcome to Week 3!

Quick warm-up: the last time someone passed you and said "How are you?", you probably said "good" and kept walking — without deciding to. Now imagine stopping to give each of them a full, honest report on your week. You'd be breaking a norm of greeting, and people would react. That tiny rule you follow without thinking is culture — and this week we're going to make the whole invisible script visible.

This week — Culture — we tackle the big question: How does culture work like an invisible script we follow without noticing, and why do three different perspectives explain it so differently? By Friday you'll split material from nonmaterial culture, rank norms from folkways (etiquette) to mores (moral rules) to taboos (the strongest), define values, beliefs, sanctions, and symbols, and handle ethnocentrism vs. cultural relativism and subculture vs. counterculture.

Four things not to miss:
1. Lecture Tutorial 3 — work through the week's ideas with one approved chatbot (Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT) and submit the share link. You'll catch the model's mistakes, not just trust it — and culture is where chatbots love to stereotype. Due Sun Sep 20.
2. Quiz 3, Discussion 3, and Assignment 3 also close Sun Sep 20 — the discussion ("Is there a limit to cultural relativism?") is a quick AI dialogue you summarize and post, so start early and leave time to reply to classmates.
3. Workshop 3 — "Culture Audit" — our signature weekly activity. This week you'll observe a media artifact or a public space and catalog the values, norms, and symbols it encodes, then fact-check an AI's reasoning. Due Sun Sep 20.
4. Open the Start Here page first — it lays out everything in order with due dates.

One promise: by Friday, you'll never look at an ad, a greeting, or a "that's just weird" reaction the same way again. You'll see the values and norms underneath — and you'll know to ask whose culture gets to count as "normal."

Bring your curiosity (and maybe an example of a rule you've always followed without knowing why) to class on Tuesday.

See you soon,
Prof. Adeyemi