Chapter 2: Culture Flashcards
(34 cards)
Culture
The language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that characterize a group and are passed from one generation to the next.
Material culture
The material objects that distinguish a group of people, such as their art, buildings, weapons, utensils, machines, hairstyles, clothing, and jewelry
Nonmaterial culture
A group’s ways of thinking (including its beliefs, values, and other assumptions about the world) and doing (its common patterns of behavior, including language and other forms of interaction); also called symbolic culture
Culture shock
The disorientation that people experience when they come in contact with a fundamentally different culture and can no longer depend on their taken-for-granted assumptions about life.
Ethnocentrism
The use of one’s own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of other individuals or societies, generally leading to a negative evaluation of their values, norms, behaviors, and beliefs.
Cultural relativism
not judging a culture but trying to understand it on its own terms
Symbolic culture
Another term for nonmaterial culture
symbol
Something to which people attach meaning and then use to communicate with one another
Gestures
The ways in which people use their bodies to communicate with one another
Language
A system of symbols that can be combined in an infinite number of ways and can represent no only objects but also abstract thought
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf’s hypothesis that language creates ways of thinking and perceiving.
Values
The standards by which people define what is desirable or undesirable, superior or inferior, good or bad, beautiful or ugly.
Norms
Expectations of “right” behavior
Sanctions
Either expressions of approval given to people for following norms or expressions of disapproval for violating them.
Positive sanction
A reward or positive reaction for following norms, ranging from a smile to a material reward
Negative sanction
An expression of disapproval for breaking a norm, ranging from a mild, informal reaction, such as a frown, to a formal reaction such as a prize or a prison sentence.
Folkways
Norms that are not strictly enforced
Mores
Norms that are strictly enforced because they are thought essential to core values or the wellbeing of the group
taboo
A norm so strong that it brings extreme sanctions, even revulsion, if violated
Subculture
The values and related behaviors of a group that distinguish its members from the larger culture, a world within a world
Counterculture
A group whose values, beliefs, norms, and related behaviors place its members in opposition to the broader culture.
Pluralistic society
A society made up of many different groups
Core values
the values that are central to a group, those around which a group builds a common identity
Value cluster
Values that together form a larger whole
