ch3 vocab

Question 1

culture

Answer 1

values, norms, and material goods characteristic of a given group

Question 2

society

Answer 2

A group of people who:
live in a particular territory
are subject to a common system of political authority
are aware of having a distinct identity from other groups; some are small, others are large

Question 3

cultural universals

Answer 3

values or modes of behavior shared by all human cultures

Question 4

marriage

Answer 4

socially approved sexual relationship between two individuals; historically has involved two persons of opposite sexes, but in the past decade marriage between same-sex partners has been legalized in a growing number of states and nations throughout the world; forms the basis of a family of procreation—that is, it is expected that the married couple will produce and bring up children

Question 5

nonmaterial culture

Answer 5

cultural ideas that are not themselves physical objects

Question 6

material culture

Answer 6

the physical objects that a society creates that influence the ways in which people live

Question 7

values

Answer 7

ideas about what is desirable, proper, good, and bad

Question 8

norms

Answer 8

rules of conduct that specify appropriate behavior in a given range of social situations; a norm either prescribes a given type of behavior or forbids it; all human groups follow definite norms, which are always backed by sanctions of one kind or another, varying from informal disapproval to physical punishment

Question 9

symbol

Answer 9

an item used to stand for or represent another

Question 10

signifier

Answer 10

any vehicle of meaning and communication

Question 11

semiotics

Answer 11

the study of the ways in which nonlinguistic phenomena can generate meaning
e.g. traffic lights

Question 12

language

Answer 12

the primary vehicle of meaning and communication in a society; a system of symbols that represent objects and abstract thoughts

Question 13

linguistic relativity hypothesis

Answer 13

based on the theories of Sapir and Whorf; perceptions are relative to language

Question 14

cultural turn

Answer 14

the recent emphasis on the importance of understanding the role of culture in daily life

Question 15

hunting and gathering societies

Answer 15

societies whose mode of subsistence is gained from hunting animals, fishing, and gathering edible plants

Question 16

pastoral societies

Answer 16

societies whose subsistence derives from the rearing of domesticated animals

Question 17

agrarian societies

Answer 17

societies whose means of subsistence are based on agricultural production (crop growing)

Question 18

industrialization

Answer 18

the process of the machine production of goods

Question 19

industrialized societies

Answer 19

strongly developed nation-states in which the majority of the population works in factories/offices rather than in agriculture; and most people live in urban areas

Question 20

nation-states

Answer 20

particular types of states, characteristic of the modern world, in which governments have sovereign power within defined territorial areas, and populations are citizens who know themselves to be part of single nations

Question 21

colonialism

Answer 21

the process whereby Western nations established their rule in parts of the world away from their home territories

Question 22

cultural capital

Answer 22

the accumulated cultural knowledge within a society that confers power and status

Question 23

emerging economies

Answer 23

developing countries that over the past two or three decades have begun to develop a strong industrial base

Question 24

cultural appropriation

Answer 24

when members of one cultural group borrow elements of another group’s culture

Question 25

subcultures

Answer 25

values/norms distinct from those of the majority, held by a group within a wider society

Question 26

countercultures

Answer 26

cultural groups within a wider society that largely reject the values and norms of the majority

Question 27

assimilation

Answer 27

the acceptance of a minority group by a majority population in which the new group takes on the values and norms of the dominant culture

Question 28

multiculturalism

Answer 28

a condition in which ethnic groups exist separately and share equally in economic and political life

Question 29

ethnocentrism

Answer 29

the tendency to look at other cultures through the eyes of one’s own culture, and thereby misrepresent them

Question 30

cultural relativism

Answer 30

the practice of judging a society by its own standards

Question 31

sociobiology

Answer 31

an attempt to explain the behavior of both animals and human beings in terms of biological principles

Question 32

instincts

Answer 32

fixed patterns of behavior that have genetic origins and that appear in all normal animals within a given species.

Question 33

nationalism

Answer 33

a set of beliefs and symbols expressing identification with a national community

Question 34

cultural lag

Answer 34

William Ogburn; the idea that changes in cultural values and norms take time to catch up with technological developments