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
