Chapter 3 Flashcards
What is a symbol?
Anything that carries a meaning recognized by people who share a culture
Material culture
The tools and techniques that enable people to accomplish tasks
Non-material culture
Composed of symbols, norms, and values that shape society
What are beliefs?
Cultural statements that define what community members consider real
What are norms?
Generally accepted ways of doing things
Examples of norms
Folkways, mores, taboos, laws
What is social organization?
The orderly arrangement of social interaction
The ability to create a complex social life by establishing norms and values is called?
Cooperation
What is abstraction?
Creating general concepts to organize sensory experiences
What is production?
Making and using tools and technology
What is cultural relativism?
Belief that all cultures have equal value
Ethnocentrism
Judging other cultures by the standards of our own
What is consumerism?
The tendency to define ourselves in terms of the goods we purchase
Counter cultures
Subcultures that oppose dominant values
What is rationalization?
The most efficient way of attaining goals and the unintended consequences
