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Children learn language from their culture just as they learn about shaking hands, about gestures, and about the significance of the flag and other symbols. How will you get help? What will you do? Is there any way to communicate your plight?Īs this scenario suggests, language is crucial to communication and thus to any society’s culture.
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Worse yet, you forgot to bring your dictionary that translates their language into yours, and vice versa, and your iPhone battery has died. For example, imagine you are in a foreign country where you do not know the language and the country’s citizens do not know yours. By the same token, differences in languages can make it quite difficult to communicate.
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As long as we agree how to interpret these words, a shared language and thus society are possible. In Spanish, the word silla means the same thing. In English, the word chair means something we sit on. Perhaps our most important set of symbols is language. Certain parts of the Middle East and Asia would be offended if they saw you using your left hand to eat, because they use their left hand for bathroom hygiene. “Thumbs up” in the United States means “great” or “wonderful,” but in Australia it means the same thing as extending the middle finger in the United States. In Bulgaria, however, nodding means no, while shaking our head back and forth means yes! In the United States, if we make an “O” by putting our thumb and forefinger together, we mean “OK,” but the same gesture in certain parts of Europe signifies an obscenity. In the United States, for example, if we nod our head up and down, we mean yes, and if we shake it back and forth, we mean no. However, the same gesture can mean one thing in one society and something quite different in another society (Axtell, 1998). Probably all societies have nonverbal symbols we call gestures, movements of the hands, arms, or other parts of the body that are meant to convey certain ideas or emotions. It commonly conveys friendship and is used as a sign of both greeting and departure.
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A common one is shaking hands, which is done in some societies but not in others. As the symbolic interactionist perspective discussed in Chapter 1 “Sociology and the Sociological Perspective” (Links to an external site.) emphasizes, shared symbols make social interaction possible. Some symbols are actually types of nonverbal communication, while other symbols are in fact material objects. The complexity of environmental challenges demands that we all participate in finding and implementing solutions leading to long-term environmental sustainability.Every culture is filled with symbols, or things that stand for something else and that often evoke various reactions and emotions. Our challenge is to acquire an improved understanding of Earth’s complex environmental systems systems characterized by interactions within and among their natural and human components that link local to global and short-term to long-term phenomena, and individual behavior to collective action. The global scale and rate of environmental change are beyond anything in recorded human history. Our future depends on our ability to understand and evaluate evidence-based arguments about the environmental consequences of human actions and technologies, and to make informed decisions based on those arguments.įrom global climate change to habitat loss driven by human population growth and development, Earth is becoming a different planet-right before our eyes. The need for equitable, ethical, and sustainable use of Earth’s resources by a global population that nears the carrying capacity of the planet requires us not only to understand how human behaviors affect the environment, but also the scientific principles that govern interactions between the living and non-living. 1.1 The Earth, Humans, & the Environment What is Environmental Science?Įnvironmental science is the dynamic, interdisciplinary study of the interaction of living and non-living parts of the environment, with special focus on the impact of humans on the environment. The study of environmental science includes circumstances, objects, or conditions by which an organism or community is surrounded and the complex ways in which they interact.