Chapter 15: Cultural Influences

Question 1

What is Culture?

Answer 1

Culture is the accumulation of shared meanings, rituals, norms, and tradition.
Culture is society’s personality

Question 2

Functional Areas in a Cultural Sytem

Answer 2

Ecology
Social Structure
Ideology

Question 3

Ecology

Answer 3

the way a system adapts to its habitat.The technology a culture uses to obtain and distribute resources shapes its ecology.

Question 4

Social Structure

Answer 4

The way people maintain an orderly social life.This includes the domestic and political groups that dominate the culture.

Question 5

Ideology

Answer 5

The mental characteristics of a people and the way they relate to their environment and social groups. This relates to the idea of a common worldview. Members of a culture tend to share ideas about principles of order and fairness.

Question 6

Power Distance

Answer 6

Way members perceive differences in power when they form interpersonal relationships.

Question 7

Uncertainty Avoidance

Answer 7

Degree to which people feel threatened by ambiguous situations.

Question 8

Masculine versus Feminine

Answer 8

Degree to which sex roles are clearly delineated.

Question 9

Individualism vs. Collectivism

Answer 9

Extent to which culture values the welfare of the individual versus that of the group.

Question 10

Enacted Norms

Answer 10

Specifically chosen (Traffic Lights)

Question 11

Crescive Norms

Answer 11

Discovered as we interact

Question 12

Customs

Answer 12

Norms handed down from the past that control basic behavior

Question 13

Mores

Answer 13

Custom with a strong moral overtone. Often involves taboo or forbidden behavior.

Question 14

Conventsion

Answer 14

Norms regarding the conduct of everyday life. Often deal with subtleties of consumer behavior like the right way to host a dinner.l

Question 15

Cultural Stories

Answer 15

Every society has superstitious beliefs that help people deal with feeling powerless.

Question 16

Myths

Answer 16

Stories with symbolic elements that represent the shared emotions/ideals of a culture.

Question 17

Story characteristics

Answer 17

Conflict between opposing forces.
Outcome is moral guide for people.
Myth reduces anxiety by providing guidelines.

Question 18

Functions of Myths

Answer 18

Metaphysical
Cosmological
Sociological
Psychological

Question 19

Metaphysical

Answer 19

help explain origins of existence

Question 20

Cosmological

Answer 20

Emphasize that all components of the universe are part of a single picture

Question 21

Sociological

Answer 21

Maintain social order by authorizing a social code to be followed by members of a culture.

Question 22

Psychological

Answer 22

Provide models for personal conduct

Question 23

Monomyths

Answer 23

A myth that is common to many cultures (Spider-Man and Superman)

Question 24

Rituals

Answer 24

Sets of multiple, symbolic behaviors that occur in a fixed sequence and that tend to be repeated periodically.

Question 25

Fortress Brands

Answer 25

Those that have become embedded in our ceremonies

Question 26

Ritual Artifacts

Answer 26

Products specifically created and supplied for rituals of customers. Wedding cakes, Diplomas, Trophies, greeting cards. Etc.

Question 27

Specific Ritual Types

Answer 27

Grooming, Gift-giving, holiday, rites of passage

Question 28

Grooming Rituals

Answer 28

Transition from private to public self / Work to leisure self

Question 29

Gift-Giving Rituals

Answer 29

Economic, symbolic exchange, social expression. All cultures prescribe certain occasions and ceremonies for giving gifts.

Question 30

Gestation (In gift giving)

Answer 30

Giver is motivated by an event to procure a gift.

Question 31

Structural event

Answer 31

Prescribed by culture (Christmas)

Question 32

Emergent Event

Answer 32

More Personal occasion

Question 33

Presentation (in gift-giving)

Answer 33

Process of gift exchange when recipient responds to gift and donor evaluates response.

Question 34

Reformulation (in gift-giving)

Answer 34

giver and receiver adjust the bond between them.

Question 35

Holidays

Answer 35

Times during which more ritualistic behaviors are performed.The clash of Gift Giving and Ritual Artifact Marketing.

Question 36

Rites of Passage

Answer 36

special times marked by a change in social status.

Question 37

Separation (stage of Rite of Passage)

Answer 37

First Stage: One detaches from their group or status state.

Question 38

Liminality

Answer 38

Second Stage: Person in question is in between two states.

Question 39

Aggregation

Answer 39

Third State: Person returns to society with his/her new status

Question 40

Sacred Consumption

Answer 40

Involves objects and events that are set apart from normal activities that are treated with respect or awe.

Question 41

Profane Consumption

Answer 41

Involves consumer objects and events that are ordinary and not specil

Question 42

Sacralization

Answer 42

occurs when ordinary objects, events, and even people take on sacred meaning.

Question 43

Objectification

Answer 43

Occurs when we attribute sacred qualities to mundane items, through processes like contamination.

Question 44

Collecting

Answer 44

They systematic acquisition of a particular object or set of objects

Question 45

Sacred Places

Answer 45

Religious/mystical and country heritage, such as Stonehenge, Mecca, Ground Zero...

Question 46

Sacred People

Answer 46

celebrities, royalty

Question 47

Sacred events

Answer 47

Athletic events, religious ceremonies.

Question 48

Sacred Souvenir Icons

Answer 48

Local products, pictorial images, "Piece of the rock," literal representations, and markers (logo-oriented t-shirts)

Question 49

Desacralization

Answer 49

When a sacred item/symbol is removed from its special place or is duplicated in mass quantities (becomes profane)