Module 2:2 and 2:3 Flashcards
Definition of Culture
A culture is a way of life of a group of people – the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.
Why do symbols represent the outer most layer of culture?
symbols can change, develop, disappear, and be used by another group easily,
What roles do hereos play in culture?
A model for behavior
What is the core of culture?
Value
Why is the core of culture so difficult to study?
many values remain unconscious to those who hold them therefore cannot be discussed or observed
Explain cultural relativism
The anthropological attitude that a society’s customs and ideas should be described objectively and understood in the context of that society’s problems and opportunities
What was meant by the term “Noble Savage?”
Someone from a primitive culture who is supposedly uncorrupted by contact with society.
Define ethnocentrism
The evaluation of other cultures based on one’s own which causes misunderstanding and distortion in communication between human beings
What are the three general sources of influence or pressure that facilitate or hinder change?
- Forces at work within a society
- Contact between societies
- Changes in the natural environment
Explain cultural diffusion
The movement of things and ideas from one culture to another.
The form of a trait moves from one society to another, NOT its original cultural meaning
Define acculturation
What happens to an entire culture when alien traits diffuse in on a large scale and substantially replace traditional cultural patterns.
What happens to immigrant when they are “assimilated”
When an immigrant is assimilated to a culture, this means that they have successfully learned the language and accepted that culture’s patterns and ideas
Explain “stimulus diffusion.”
A genuine invention that is sparked by an idea from another culture
