Chapter 3 Slides Flashcards
What can culture be constituted by?
Clothes, norms, ways of speak, values, food, lifestyle, art etc
How does the text define culture?
The sum total of the social environment in which we are raised in and continue to be socialized throughout our lives
What is the second definition of Culture?
The texts and practices in everyday life
What is the general definition of culture?
All the ideas, customs, behaviors, and practices that happen out there outside of us that we also engage with, adopt, and often reproduce ourselves. Culture is something we are socialized into that continues throughout our whole lives
What was the Postmodern Perspective again?
Rapid changes from manufacturing products to meet basic needs to focus on the production of ideas and images
What are Cultural Universals?
The idea that we have to meet the same basic needs of securing food, clothing, shelter, communication, familial structures, developing and using tools, developing ways to express ourselves
What is Material?
Physical matter
What is Nonmaterial?
Things without physical form, like ideas
What is Material Culture?
Tangible or physical items that people have created for use and give meaning to in a given culture (pens, paper)
What is Nonmaterial culture?
Intangibles produced by intellectual or spiritual development; also the use of artifacts in a given culture (capitalism, feminism, family)
What three ways does Culture shape understanding?
Language
Norms
Values
What is Language?
A shared system of communication that included spoken, written, and signed forms of speech as a well as non-verbal gestures to convey meaning. This includes verbal speech, written language, sign language, and body language
What are Norms?
Society’s expectations for how we are supposed to act, think, and look
What are Values?
Collectively shared criteria by which we determine whether something is right wrong or good or bad
What is Culture Shock?
A sense of disorientation and confusion that results when placed in unfamiliar surroundings where objects, practices languages and rules are new and unknown
Why is Language important?
It allows us to engage with one another and with ideas. It lets us express ourselves, it allows for transmission of knowledge over time through documents or oral information
What is a Mother tongue?
The first language learned at home in childhood that is still understood by an individual
What does the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis describe?
The idea that language shapes reality for those experiencing it
What are the two principles involved in the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
Linguistic Determination and Linguistic Relativism
What is Linguistic Determination?
The idea that language shapes how we think about things
What is Linguistic Relativism?
The idea that language has a particular meaning within the given culture in which it occurs
What are Folkways?
Informal Norms based on accepted traditions (for example holding the door open or joining a line)
What are Mores?
Institutionalized norms embedded in laws used to help maintain social control (for example theft and vandalism)
What are Taboos?
Mores that are considered wrong in and of themselves (for example incest, murder and rape)
What are Prescriptive norms?
Things that you should be doing like studying study for exam or covering your mouth when you sneeze
What are Proscriptive norms?
Things you should no be doing like cheating on exams, talking with your mouth full, touching strangers
How are values and norms related?
Values reflect group ideas and norms are those ideas translated into expectations about both how people should act
Who are the two important functionalists?
Durkheim and Parsons
How does Durkheim see norms?
Social facts which are observable social phenomena outside of people that exercise power over them. He says they’re internalized so people follow them without thinking
How does Parsons discuss norms?
He says the norms and values come together within social institutions like families, schools, governments, etc. to keep society running
What does a functionalist perspective on family look like?
The division of labour based on gender
What is the conflict perspective focused on?
Power and emancipation, and that idea that society is characterized by conflict over scarce resources
How are Norms related to the the Conflict perspective?
This perspective can be used to point out the break we can often see between cultural values and norms. We might say we value one thing but if the policies that would follow from that value would threaten our hold over the resources we have we may be less likely to support them in practice
What is Ideal Culture?
The Values that the majority of us hold
What is Real Culture?
The practices that the majority of us engage in reality
Why is there a gap between Ideal and Real culture?
Contemporary practices may clash with traditional beliefs and Cultural Relevatism
What is Cultural Relativism?
An ability to understand another culture in its own terms sympathetically enough so that the culture appears to be a coherent meaningful design for living. Basically the belief that one cultures beliefs are superior and should be used as a standard
What are Subcultures?
Groups that can be differentiated from mainstream (that is, the predominate) culture by their divergent traits involving language, norms, beliefs, and or values
What are counter cultures?
Cultures that are not just identifiable by their different traits but by their direct opposition to some core aspects of mainstream culture. They are against mainstream culture like hippies
What is High Culture?
Defined as those practices of the social elite
What is Mass Culture?
Material products produced by the capitalist to exploit the masses
How does Fiske use the term Popular Culture?
Intangible components of culture experienced by the masses
What are Culture Omnivores?
People of high social standing who enjoy both high culture and non-elite culture
