Chapter 3 Key Term

Question 1

culture

Answer 1

The values, norms, and material goods characteristic of a given group. Like the concept of society, the notion of culture is widely used in sociology and the other social sciences (particularly anthropology). Culture is one of the most distinctive properties of human social association.

Question 2

society

Answer 2

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. Some societies, such as hunting and gathering societies, are small, numbering no more than a few dozen people. Others are large, numbering millions. Modern Chinese society, for instance, has a population of more than a billion people.

Question 3

cultural universals

Answer 3

Values or mode of behavior shared by all human cultures

Question 4

marriage

Answer 4

A socially approved sexual relationship between two individuals. Marriage historically has involved two persons of opposites 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. Marriage normally 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 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 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

One item used to stand for or represent another, as in the case of a flag symbolizing a nation

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, as in the example of a traffic light

Question 12

language

Answer 12

The primary vehicle for meaning and communication in a society, language is a system of symbols that represent objects and abstract thoughts.

Question 13

linguistic relativity hypothesis

Answer 13

A hypothesis, based on the theories of Sapir and Whorf, that perceptions are relative to language

Question 14

cultural turn

Answer 14

Sociology’s 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 or 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 such as India and Singapore, 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 and 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 norm 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 group 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

n approach that attempts 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. (biologically fixed patterns of action found in all cultures)

Question 33

nationalism

Answer 33

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

Question 34

cultural lag

Answer 34

The idea introduced by William Ogburn, that changes in cultural values and norms take time to catch up with technological development.