Chapter 3

Question 1

Define culture

Answer 1

Everything humans create in establishing our relationships to nature and with each other.

Question 2

Define society

Answer 2

The structure of relationships within which culture is created and shared through regularized patterns of social interaction.

Question 3

Define cultural universals

Answer 3

A common practice or belief shared by all societies.

Question 4

Define innovation

Answer 4

The process of introducing a new idea or object to a culture through discovery or invention.

Question 5

Define discovery

Answer 5

The process of uncovering or revealing an existing aspect of reality.

Question 6

Define invention

Answer 6

The combination of existing cultural artifacts to create something new.

Question 7

Define diffusion

Answer 7

The process by which a cultural item spreads from group to group or society to society.

Question 8

Define material culture

Answer 8

Our physical modification of the natural environment to suit our purposes.

Question 9

Example of material culture

Answer 9

Consumer goods

Question 10

Define cognitive culture

Answer 10

Our mental and symbolic representations of reality.

Question 11

Example of cognitive culture

Answer 11

Language

Question 12

Define normative culture

Answer 12

Consist of the ways we establish, abide by, and enforce principles of conduct.

Question 13

Example of normative culture

Answer 13

Laws

Question 14

Define norms

Answer 14

An established standard of behavior maintained by a society.

Question 15

Define folkways

Answer 15

Norms governing everyday behavior, whose violation raises comparatively little concern.

Question 16

Define mores

Answer 16

Norms deemed highly necessary to the welfare of a society.

Question 17

Define formal norms

Answer 17

A norm that generally has been written down and that specifies strict punishments for violators.

Question 18

Define laws

Answer 18

Formal norms enforced by the state.

Question 19

Define informal norm

Answer 19

A norm that is generally understood by not precisely recorded.

Question 20

Define sanction

Answer 20

A penalty or reward for conduct concerning a social norm.

Question 21

Define dominant ideology

Answer 21

A set of cultural beliefs and practices that legitimates existing powerful social, economic, and political interests.

Question 22

Define subculture

Answer 22

A segment of society that shares a distinctive pattern of mores, folkways, and values that differs from the pattern of the larger society.

Question 23

Define argot

Answer 23

Specialized language used by members of a group or subculture.

Question 24

Define counterculture

Answer 24

A subculture that deliberately opposes certain aspects of the larger culture.

Question 25

Define culture shock

Answer 25

The feelings of disorientation, uncertainty, and even fear that people experience when they encounter unfamiliar cultural practices.

Question 26

Define ethnocenterism

Answer 26

The tendency to assume that one’s own culture and way of life represent what’s normal or are superior to all others.

Question 27

Define culture relativism

Answer 27

The viewing of people’s behavior from the perspective of their own culture.