3.1 intro to culture Flashcards
culture
The shared beliefs, values, practices, behaviors, and technologies of a society.
cultural traits
Visible and invisible attributes that combine to make up a group’s culture. Examples include:
Artifacts
Sociofacts
Mentifacts
Artifacts
Visible, physical objects created by a culture.
Houses
Clothing
Architecture
Toys
Tools
Furniture
Sociofacts
The ways in which a society behaves and organizes institutions.
Family
School/Education
Government
Religion
Land Use
Gender Roles
Mentifacts
The ideas, beliefs, values and knowledge of a culture.
Religious Beliefs
Language
Food Preferences & Taboos
Local/Traditional Culture
small, homogenous (similar) groups of people, often living in rural areas that are isolated and unlikely to change.
cultural Traits of Local/Traditional Culture
Architecture:
Materials from the local physical environment.
Snow, mud, stone, bricks, wood, pelts, grass
Land-Use:
Agricultural
Sense of place: Unique attributes of a specific location - cultural influences and feelings evoked by people in a place. Distinctiveness.
Global/Popular Culture:
Global/Popular Culture: large, heterogeneous groups of people, often living in urban areas that are interconnected through globalization and the internet/social media. Quick to change, time-space compression.
Cultural Traits of Global/Popular Culture
Cultural Traits of Global/Popular Culture
Architecture:
Materials from factories & manufactured.
Glass, steel, drywall, cement
Land-Use:
Urban & suburban
Placelessness: loss of uniqueness of place in the cultural landscape so that one place looks like the next or does not inspire any strong emotional or cultural ties. Uniform landscape.
Cultural Norms
Cultural Norms: Agreed upon cultural practices or standards that guide the behavior of a culture.
Cultural Taboos.
Cultural Taboos: Behaviors heavily discouraged by a culture.
Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism: Judging other cultures in terms of one’s own standards and often includes the belief that one’s own culture/ethnic group is better than others.
Cultural Relativism
Cultural Relativism: An unbiased way of viewing another culture, the goal of this is to promote understanding of cultural practices that are not typically part of one’s own culture. Leads to the view that no one culture is superior to another culture when compared.
