Our Environment - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 315

(expectations, or rules of behaviour, that develop out of values). Human groups need norms
to exist. By making behaviour predictable, norms make social life possible.
Most people are generally unaware of their own culture; it is so ingrained into their
beings that it is often taken for granted. People may become more aware of their own
culture when their cultural assumptions are challenged by exposure to other people's cul-
ture, particularly those with fundamentally different ways of believing and doing. When
people come into contact with cultures that significantly differ from their own, they often
experience cultural shock - a condition of disorientation that requires them to question
the cultural assumptions that they previously took for granted.
Mining projects do interfere with local culture. There is an influx of outsiders with
different cultural backgrounds into the project area, in high numbers during the rela-
tively short construction period, and in reduced numbers during the longer mine opera-
tion period. Mining projects also eventually influence local technology, which is central to
a group's material culture, and also provides the framework for its non-material culture.
When technology changes, society also changes. William Ogburn (1922) understands
technology as the basic cause of social change. According to Ogburn, technology changes
society through invention, discovery, and diffusion. Ogburn also coined the term, 'cul-
tural lag', to describe how some elements of a culture typically lag behind the changes
that come from invention, discovery, and diffusion. Cultural lag develops if a group's
non-material culture lags behind its material culture. Changes in technology often signif-
icantly change social organization, ideology, values, and social relationships. Eventually
however, social change, the alteration of culture and societies over time, is a vital part of
social life. The society of today is not the society of yesterday, nor will it be the society of
tomorrow.
Not all societal changes are necessarily good. As developing countries rush to indus-
trialize, they are also damaging the environment, often causing even greater damage to
the environment than occurs in developed countries. This is because they lack the pollu-
tion controls, anti-pollution laws, and experience in dealing with environmental issues.
Concerns about the environment have sparked a worldwide environmental movement.
Today, there is a mutual concern for a sense of harmony to be developed between technol-
ogy and the natural environment.

People may become more
aware of their own culture when
their cultural assumptions are
challenged by exposure to other
people's culture, particularly
those with fundamentally
different ways of believing and
doing.

When technology changes,
society also changes.

Religion

Religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things. A strong
relationship exists between society and religion with religion commonly playing an
important role in people's lives. Durkheim states that religion is defined by three ele-
ments: beliefs, practices, and a moral community (Giddens 1972). He also argues that all
religions separate the profane (common elements of everyday life) from the sacred (things
set apart or forbidden, that inspire fear, awe, reverence, or deep respect). Through the
use of religious symbols, rituals, and beliefs, people build and maintain a community of
similar-minded people. All religions use symbols to provide identity and social solidarity
for its members.
Religion meets basic human needs by providing answers to questions about ultimate
meaning, emotional comfort, social solidarity, guidelines to everyday life, social control,
adaptation to a new environment, support for government, and occasionally an impe-
tus for social change. Many of the functions that religion provides can also be fulfilled
by functional equivalents (other components of society that serve the same functions as
religion).