Our Environment - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 314

are singled out for unequal treatment and who regard themselves as objects of collective
discrimination.

Gender

Gender stratification refers to males' and females' unequal access to power, prestige, and
property on the basis of their sex. Gender is especially significant because it is a master sta-
tus that cuts across all aspects of social life. Sex refers to the biological characteristics that
distinguish males from females; gender refers to the social characteristics that a society con-
siders proper for its males and females. Although human beings are born male or female,
they learn how to be masculine or feminine. This process of gender socialization begins at
birth and continues through life. In short, we inherit our sex, but learn our gender.
In practically every society, greater prestige is given to male activities, regardless of the
nature of these activities. There are many forms of gender inequality in various aspects of
everyday life that continue to persist. Among these are a devaluation of things feminine,
violence against women, and sexual harassment.
Women are not usually associated with mining, and very few professions attract fewer
women than mining. Modern mining equipment has improved working conditions,
and female equipment operators have become a common sight at mines, but min-
ing remains 'a man's world'. The influx of thousands of male mine worker into a new
mining area causes social changes that extend well beyond the borders of the mine.
Gender issues become important, within the families of mine workers and in adjacent
communities.

Modern mining equipment have
improved working conditions,
and female equipment operators
have become a common sight
at mines, but mining remains 'a
man's world'.

Culture, Norms and Values

The concept of culture is sometimes easier to grasp by description rather than definition.
All human groups possess material and non-material culture. Material culture consists of
art, buildings, weapons, jewellery, and all other man-made objects that are passed from one
generation to the next. Non-material culture includes a group's ways of thinking (beliefs,
values, and other assumptions about the world) and patterns of behaviour (language, ges-
tures, and other forms of social interaction). Sociologists sometimes refer to non-material
culture as symbolic culture, since the central component of non-material culture is sym-
bols. Symbols include gestures, language, values, norms, sanctions, folkways, and mores.
Gestures involve the ways in which people use their bodies to communicate with one
another. Although people in every culture use gestures, the gestures people use and the
meanings they associate with those gestures vary greatly from one culture to another.
Language is the basis of culture. It is critical to human life and essential for cultural
development. Among other things, language allows people to communicate with each
other and for human experience to be accumulated. It also provides people with the capac-
ity to share understandings about the past and develop common perceptions about the
future. Like gestures, all human groups have language. And like gestures, the meanings
that people associate with different sounds and symbols can vary greatly from one culture
to another.
Culture's effects are profound and pervasive, touching almost every aspect of people's
lives. Cultures may contain numerous subcultures, a group whose values and related behav-
iours set it apart from the larger culture. All groups have values (beliefs regarding what is
desirable or undesirable, good or bad, beautiful or ugly), which they channel into norms