Chapter 2: Culture and Society

Question 1

cultural appropriation

Answer 1

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

Question 2

culture

Answer 2

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

*culture is one of the most distinctive properties of human social association

Question 3

values

Answer 3

ideas held by individuals or groups about what is desirable, proper, good, and bad;

what individuals value is strongly influenced by the specific culture in which they happen to live

Question 4

norms

Answer 4

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 5

language

Answer 5

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

Question 6

linguistic relativity hypothesis

Answer 6

a hypothesis that perceptions are relative to language (“Sapir-Whorf hypothesis”)

–Edward Sapir & Benjamin Lee Whorf

Question 7

material culture

Answer 7

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

ex: food we eat, clothes we wear, cars we drive, homes we live in, tools and technologies we use to make those goods, towns and cities we build as places to live and work

Question 8

signifier

Answer 8

any vehicle of meaning and communication

ex: sounds made in speech, marks made on paper, dress, pictures or visual signs, modes of eating, forms of building or architecture

Question 9

society

Answer 9

a group of people who live in a particular territory, are subject to a common system of political authority, and are aware of having a distinct identity from other groups

Question 10

sociobiology

Answer 10

an approach that attempts to explain the behavior of both animals and human beings in terms of biological principles

Question 11

instinct

Answer 11

a fixed pattern of behavior that has genetic origins and that appears in all normal animals within a given species

Question 12

biological determinism

Answer 12

the belief that differences we observe between groups of people (ex: men and women) are explained wholly by biological causes (and not social)

Question 13

subcultures

Answer 13

cultural groups within a wider society that hold values and norms distinct from those of the majority

Question 14

countercultures

Answer 14

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

Question 15

assimilation

Answer 15

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 16

multiculturalism

Answer 16

the viewpoint according to which ethnic groups can exist separately and share equally in economic and political life

Question 17

ethnocentrism

Answer 17

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

Question 18

cultural relativism

Answer 18

the practice of judging a society by its own standards

Question 19

cultural universals

Answer 19

values or modes or behavior shared by all human cultures

Question 20

What are examples of cultural universals?

Answer 20

Grammatically complex language, 
family systems, 
care of children, 
marriage, 
religious rituals, 
property rights, 
incest prohibition, 

art, dancing, bodily adornment, games, gift giving, joking, and rules of hygiene,

ways of communicating and expressing meaning,
material objects in daily life

Question 21

marriage

Answer 21

a socially approved sexual relationship between two individuals

normally, marriage forms the basis of a family of procreation and it is expected that a married couple will produce and raise children

Question 22

What are 3 (5) types of premodern societies?

Answer 22

Hunters and Gatherers,
Pastoral and Agrarian Societies,
and Traditional Societies or Civilizations

Question 23

pastoral societies

Answer 23

societies whose subsistence derives from the rearing of domesticated animals

Question 24

agrarian societies

Answer 24

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

Question 25

industrialization

Answer 25

the emergence of machine production, based on the use of inanimate power resources (such as steam or electricity)

Question 26

industrialized societies

Answer 26

highly developed nation-states in which the majority of the population work in factories or offices rather than in agriculture and in which most people live in urban areas

Question 27

nation-state

Answer 27

a particular type of state, characteristic of the modern world, in which a government has sovereign power within a defined territorial area and the population are citizens who know themselves to be part of a single nation

Question 28

colonialism

Answer 28

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

Question 29

developing world

Answer 29

the less-developed societies, in which industrial production is either virtually nonexistent or only developed to a limited degree

Question 30

emerging economies

Answer 30

developing countries that, over the past two or three decades, have begun to develop a strong industrial base (such as Singapore and Hong Kong)

Question 31

nationalism

Answer 31

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