Ch 2 Flashcards
Culture
Language, beliefs, values, norms passed from one generation to the next
Material culture
Physical things
Ex. Jewelry, buildings, art
Nonmaterial culture
A group’s way of thinking
Ex. Beliefs, values, language, interaction
Culture shock
Disorientation when experiencing new culture
Ethocentrism
- Tendency to use your own group’s ways of doing things as a yardstick for judging others
- William Sumner
- positive: in group loyalties
- negative: lead to discrimination against people whose ways differ from ours
Cultural relativism
- Understand a culture on its own terms
- looking at how the elements of a culture fit together without judging those elements as superior or inferior
Symbolic culture
- nonmaterial culture
- symbol: something to which people attach meaning and use to communicate
- gestures, language, norms, sanctions, folkways, mores
Gestures
movements of the body to communicate
Language
Symbols (words) that can be combined in an infinite number of ways for the purpose of communicating abstract thought
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Challenges common sense: language determines consciousness not objects or events
Values
Ideas of what is desirable in life
Norms
Expectations/ rules of behavior that develop out of a group’s values
Sanctions
Reactions people receive for following or breaking norms
Positive vs Negative sanction
- Approval for following a norm
Ex. Prize, smiles, raise in work - disapproval for breaking a norm
Ex. Fined, stares, fired
Folkways
- Norms that are not strictly enforced
- we expect people to comply but we don’t make a big deal if they don’t
Ex. Shirtless man
Mores
essential to our core values and wed insist on conformity
Ex. steals, rapes violates mores
Taboo
- A norm so strongly ingrained that even the though of its violation is greeted with revulsion
- Sanctions are severe: jail, banishment
Ex. Cannibalism
Subcultures
- Groups of people who occupy some small corner of life tend to develop specialized ways to communicate with one another
- to outsiders, it can seem like a foreign language
- world within a larger world of dominant culture
Ex. Same Job, teenagers
Countercultures
When a group’s values and norms place it at odds with the dominant culture
Ex. Motorcycle enthusiasts vs motorcycle gangs
Pluralistic society
- made up of different many groups
Ex. U.S.
Core values
Shared by most of the groups that make up a society
Ex. In U.S.: achievement, hard work, freedom
Value clusters
Values that cluster together to form a larger whole
Ex. Success: hard work, education, comfort
Value contradictions
Ex. Group superiority vs freedom in U.S.
Culture wars
Clash in values between traditionalists and those advocating for change
