CH3 LECTURE - Chapter 3 Culture Chapter 3 covers the topic...


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C C hapter 3 hapter 3 Culture Culture Chapter 3 covers the topic of culture, and it is paired with North and South Korea. Many Americans are surprised to learn that the U.S. military has been in Korea since 1945. In that year, World War II ended, and Japan surrendered the Northern half of Korea (shown in green on the map) to the then-Soviet Union. Japan also surrendered the Southern half of Korea (shown in yellow on the map) to the United States. Since that time, about seven and a half million Americans have served, fought, and died in Korea to maintain the division between the North and South. The Korean War Veterans Memorial, located on the National Mall in Washington, DC, captures in ghost-like fashion the faces of Americans who have served in Korea. The United States’ long time military commitment is the reason that I chose to pair North and South Korea with culture. Of course, sociologists are interested in this question: How has the 60 year U.S. military presence affected (for better or worse) the cultures of North and South Korea? I am not exaggerating when I say that the permanent division of Korea into the North and South has affected the life of every Korean who lived through the event and who has been born since. Five million Koreans were separated from their families, never to see or talk to them again, when the borders between the two countries closed. As a result of this long separation, the two countries have very different cultures. In this chapter, you will learn how sociologists analyze culture. One especially interesting concept is cultural diffusion, a process by which one culture borrows something from a foreign source. Such borrowing can occur whenever two people from different cultures interact. In this regard, you should not be surprised to learn that Korean and American soldiers play pick-up basketball games together and that the Korean military shares tae kwon do techniques with its American counterparts. Keep in mind that the chapter focuses on American and Korean cultures, but the concept and theories can be used to analyze any culture. Chapter Outline I. Why Focus on North and South Korea?
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A. U.S. military involvement on the Korean Peninsula dates back to the end of World War II. B. North Korea possesses a communist-style government and has one of the most isolated and centrally planned economies in the world. C. South Korea is a republic, and its economy ranks among the top 20 in the world. D. The Korean War and the subsequent division of the Korean Peninsula into North and South have had a profound effect on Korean culture and on the meaning of being Korean. II.
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