Ch.2: Culture Flashcards
What is culture?
It is the complex system of meaning and behavior that defines the way of life for a given group or society.
Describe the difference between material and nonmaterial culture.
Material culture consists of actual objects created in society, while nonmaterial culture consists of nontangible things such a norms.
Define Ethnocentrism.
The habit of only seeing things from your own POV within your own group.
Define Cultural Relativism.
The idea that something can be understood and judged only in relationship to the cultural context in which it appears.
Define culture shock.
The feeling of disorientation when one encounters a new or rapidly changed cultural situation.
Culture has many characteristics. Name all 5 of them.
Culture is shared, learned, taken for granted, symbolic, and varies across time and place.
What is a symbol?
A thing or behavior to which people give meaning.
What are the 4 elements of culture?
Language, norms, beliefs, and values
Define language.
A set of symbols and rules which, put together in a meaningful way provide a complex communication system.
Define norms.
The specific cultural expectations for how to behave in a given situation.
Describe folkways and mores.
Folkways are the general standards of behavior adhered to by a group, while mores are more strict norms that control moral behavior.
What are social sanctions?
Mechanisms of social control that enforce folkways, norms, and mores.
What are beliefs?
Strongly shared ideas about the nature of social reality
What are values?
The abstract concepts in a society that define the worth of different things and ideas.
What tends to bind people in society?
Beliefs
What is a dominant culture?
The culture of the most powerful group in society
What is a subculture?
Those whose values and norms differ to some degree from those of the dominant culture
Define mass media.
The channels of communication that are available to wide segments of the population.
What makes mass media important regarding culture?
It has the extraordinary power to shape culture, including what people believe and the information available to them.
Define social media.
Vast networks of social interaction that new media has inspired.
Describe the reflection hypothesis.
The belief that the mass media reflects the values of the general population.
What is cultural diffusion?
The transmission of cultural elements from one society to another
How does cultural innovation create dramatic change is society?
Modern technology is changing the character of cities
What do functionalists believe about culture?
They believe that norms and values create social bonds that attach people to society. Culture provides coherence and stability to society.
What do conflict theorists believe about culture?
They see culture as influenced by economic interests and power relations in society. (Control over communcations = ability to distribute/produce culture)
Define cultural capital.
Cultural resources that are socially designated as being worthy and give advantages to groups possessing possessing such capital.
What do Symbolic Interaction theories believe about culture?
They believe that culture is socially constructed. Culture is produced through social relationships and in social groups.
What do feminist theorists believe about culture?
They believe that mean still dominate both popular and elite culture. They bring up gender stereotypes and challenge sexism.
Define culture lag.
The delay in cultural adjustments to changing social conditions.
What are the 4 things that cause cultural change?
A change in societal conditions, cultural diffusion diffusion, innovation, and the imposition of cultural change by an outside agency.
