Chapter 3 - Summary - Culture

Question 1

What is the importance of culture in our lives and those of others in society?

Answer 1

• encompasses knowledge, language, values and customs from one generation to the next
• essential for individual survival, as we are not born with instinctive info
• stabilizing force for society - provides continuity
• can generate discord, conflict and violence

Question 2

What are material expressions of culture?

Answer 2

physical creations of society

Question 3

What are nonmaterial expressions of culture?

Answer 3

abstract ideas, values, beliefs

Question 4

What are the essential components of culture?

Answer 4

• symbols
• language
• values
• norms

Question 5

What causes cultural change in societies?

Answer 5

• discovery
• invention
• diffusion

Question 6

Compare and contrast ethnocentrism and cultural relativism as approaches to examining cultural differences

Answer 6

• Ethnocentrism: assumption that one’s own culture is superior
• Cultural relativism: counters culture shock and ethnocentrism by viewing and analyzing another culture in terms of its own values and standards

Question 7

How does the functionalist perspective view culture?

Answer 7

assumes that a common language and share values help produce consensus and harmony

Question 8

How does the conflict perspective view culture?

Answer 8

culture may be used by certain groups to maintain privilege and exclude others

Question 9

How does the symbolic interactionalist perspective view culture?

Answer 9

people create, maintain and modify culture as they go about their everyday lives

Question 10

How does the postmodernist perspective view culture?

Answer 10

• believe that there are many cultures in Canada alone

- believe that we need a new way of conceptualizing culture and society