Chapter 3 - Key Terms - Culture

Question 1

culture

Answer 1

The knowledge, language, values, customs and material objects that are passed from person to person and from one generation to the next in a human group or society.

Question 2

material culture

Answer 2

A component of culture that consists of the physical or tangible creations - such as clothing, shelter, and art - that members of a society make, use and share

Question 3

technology

Answer 3

the knowledge, techniques, and tools that make it possible for people to transform resources into usable forms, as well as the knowledge and skills required to use them after they are developed.

Question 4

nonmaterial culture

Answer 4

component of culture that consists of the abstract or intangible human creations of society - such as attitudes, beliefs, and values - that influence people’s behaviour

Question 5

cultural universals

Answer 5

customs and practices that occur across all societies

Question 6

language

Answer 6

a system of symbols that expresses ideas and enables people to think and communicate with one another

Question 7

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Answer 7

the proposition that language shapes its speakers view of reality

Question 8

values

Answer 8

collective ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad, and desirable or undesirable in a particular culture

Question 9

value contradictions

Answer 9

values that conflict with one another or are mutually exclusive

Question 10

ideal culture

Answer 10

the values and standards of behaviour that people in a society profess to hold

Question 11

real culture

Answer 11

the values and standards of behaviour that people actually follow (as contrasted with ideal culture)

Question 12

norms

Answer 12

established rules of behaviour or standards or conduct

Question 13

sanctions

Answer 13

rewards for appropriate behaviour or ‘ for inappropriate behaviour

Question 14

folkways

Answer 14

informal norms or everyday customs that may be violated without serious consequences within a particular culture

Question 15

mores

Answer 15

strongly held norms with moral and ethical connotations that may not be violated without serious consequences in a particular culture

Question 16

taboos

Answer 16

Mores so strong that their violation is considered extremely offensive and even unmentionable

Question 17

laws

Answer 17

formal, standardized norms that have been enacted by legislatures and are enforce by formal sanctions

Question 18

cultural lag

Answer 18

William Ogburn’s term for a gap between the technical development of a society (material culture) and its moral and legal institutions (nonmaterial culture)

Question 19

discovery

Answer 19

The process of learning about something previously unknown or unrecognized

Question 20

invention

Answer 20

The process reshaping existing cultural items into a new form

Question 21

diffusion

Answer 21

The transmission of cultural items of social practices from one group or society to another

Question 22

subculture

Answer 22

a group of people who share a distinctive set of cultural beliefs and behaviours that differ in some significant way from those of the larger society

Question 23

counterculture

Answer 23

a group that strongly rejects dominant societal values and norms and seeks alternative lifestyles

Question 24

ethnocentrism

Answer 24

the tendency to regard one’s own culture and group as the standard-and thus superior - whereas all other groups are seen as inferior

Question 25

cultural relativism

Answer 25

the belief that the behaviours and customs of any culture must be viewed and analyzed by the cultures on standards

Question 26

cultural imperialism

Answer 26

the extensive infusion of one nation’s culture into other nations