Chapter 3

Question 1

Culture

Answer 1

a system of behaviors, beliefs, knowledges, practices, values, concrete materials including buildings, tools, and sacred items

Question 2

2 types of cultures and 2 central oppositions

Answer 2

• Dominant culture vs. subculture and counterculture
• high culture vs. popular and mass culture

Question 3

Dominant culture

Answer 3

the culture that is able to impose its values, language , and ways of behaving and interpreting behaviour in a given society

Question 4

Dominants

Answer 4

people who are closely linked with the cultural mainstream

Question 5

Minority Cultures

Answer 5

cultures what fall outside the cultural mainstream. includes 2 subcategories: counterculture and subculture

Question 6

counterculture

Answer 6

minority cultures that feel the power of the dominant culture and exist in opposition to it (e.g. clothing styles or sexual norms)

Question 7

subcultures

Answer 7

minority cultures that differ in some way from the dominant culture but don’t directly oppose it

Question 8

high culture

Answer 8

the culture of the elites, a distinct minority. it is often associated with the arts (e.g. theatre, opera, ballet, etc)

Question 9

social capital

Answer 9

consists of the economic resources garnered from human interactions. the resources tangible and non-tangible assets, such as info, etc

Question 10

popular culture

Answer 10

the culture of the majority. especially those who do not have much social power

Question 11

mass culture

Answer 11

e.g. big companies dictate what people watch, buy, value or believe), created by those in power for the masses

Question 12

Norms

Answer 12

the rules or standards of behaviour that are expected of a group, society, or culture

Question 13

sanctions

Answer 13

rewards and punishment in response to a particular behaviour (includes positive and negative sanctions)

Question 14

positive sanctions

Answer 14

rewards for doing the right thing (e.g. smiles, high fives, bonus)

Question 15

Negative sanctions

Answer 15

reactions to tell offenders they have violated a norm (e.g. a glare, eyeroll, fine, etc)

Question 16

the 3 kinds of norms

Answer 16

1. Folkways (etiquette like when to wear a hat, not double-dipping chips, etc)
2. Mores (formalized norms such as not stealing, lying, bullying, etc)
3. Taboos (norms deeply ingrained in society that causes disgust or revulsion when broken- incest, child pornography, etc)

Question 17

Symbols

Answer 17

cultural items that hold significance for a culture or subculture (flags, songs, events, etc)

Question 18

Values

Answer 18

standards used by a culture to describe abstract qualities such as goodness, beauty, and justice to assess the behaviour of others

Question 19

ideal culture

Answer 19

is what people believe in (e.g. environmentalism)

Question 20

actual culture

Answer 20

what really exists (e.g. driving large SUVs)

Question 21

Ethnocentrism

Answer 21

occurs when someone holds up one culture as being the standard by which all cultures are to be judged (product of a lack of knowledge or ignorance)

Question 22

Cultural Globalization

Answer 22

the intensification and expansion of cultural flows across the globe (e.g. The “Americanization” of the world)

Question 23

Cultural relativism

Answer 23

an approach to studying and understanding an aspect of another culture within its proper social, historical, and environment context

Question 24

presentism

Answer 24

the act of judging historical figures by todays standards

Question 25

sociolinguistics

Answer 25

• the study of language as part of culture
• sociolinguistics look at language in relation to sociological factors as race, ethnicity, age, gender, and region

Question 26

Dialect

Answer 26

a variety of a language that differs from others in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar (not the same thing as an accent)

Question 27

Linguistic determinism

Answer 27

the theory that the way an individual understands the world is shaped by the language they speak. the concerns with this theory is the suggestion that some groups are capable of more complex thought than others

Question 28

linguistic relativity

Answer 28

the view that language and culture have a unique relationship in each society (emphasizes culture, or environment and upbringing, over nature and innate capability