Chapter 4

Question 1

Describe CULTURE

Answer 1

CULTURE is a system of
BEHAVIOR, BELIEFS, KNOWLEDGE, PRACTISES, and
PHYSICAL materials like buildings, tool and sacred items. It is NOT THE SAME as TRADITION.

Everyone has a culture that is a varying form of what they think a culture(s) should be, so there DOES NOT need AGREEMENT.

Question 2

Describe CONTESTED

Answer 2

To describe a practise where its MORAL GOODNESS, DEVIANCE and PREDOMINANCE is DISPUTED by members of society.

AUTHENTICITY is often contested because cultural traits are dynamic and vary between perspectives (ie. colonials vs. aboriginals) in Edward Said’s Orientalism. Total agreement can still exist however.

It is also a mistake to think a culture is being contested because of its dynamic change and leads to stereotypes out of irrational intolerance.

Question 3

Describe DOMINANT Culture

Answer 3

The culture in a society that asserts its VALUES, LANGUAGE and ways to interpret behaviour. This is often from political and economic POWER.
People who conform to the dominant culture are called DOMINANTS.
ie. White English European Christian Middle Class Men in Canada.
Other factors to include are:
-Sex. orientation
-Education
-Health

Question 4

Describe MINORITY Culture

Answer 4

MINORITY cultures are NOT included in the cultural MAINSTREAM of society.
There are 2 types:
1.Counter-cultures
2.Sub-cultures

Question 5

Describe COUNTER Culture

Answer 5

COUNTERCultures are groups that live in OPPOSITION to DOMINANT Culture.
Some include Hippies, Biker gangs, Goths.

ALTERNATIVE Culture describes culture where MUSIC and FASHION oppose mainstream values.

Question 6

Describe SUB Culture

Answer 6

SUBCultures are groups that LIVE INSIDE DOMINANT culture but DIFFER from it in CERTAIN ASPECTS, but DO NOT OPPOSE dominant culture.

Question 7

Describe HIGHCulture

Also called ELITE Culture

Answer 7

HIGHCulture is the culture of ELITE minority.
Associated with theatre, opera, serious literary works and “films” and “cultivated palate” (fancy diet).

PIERRE BOURDIEU made CULTURE CAPITAL:
knowledge and skills needed to get and attain elite culture tastes. The larger your cultural capital, the higher your cultural class.

Question 8

Describe POPULAR Culture

Hint:
Which one is the more popular scientific term used to address an object’s posteriority: mass or weight?

Answer 8

Culture of the MAJORITY POPULATION in society, often the PEOPLE WHO DO NOT HAVE POWER.
People have LOTS OF AGENCY in the culture they consume, and they take an ACTIVE ROLE in shaping their culture.
THE INTERNET is a treasure for popular culture.

Question 9

Describe MASS Culture

Answer 9

Culture of the MAJORITY POPULATION where people have LITTLE/NO AGENCY in the culture they consume.
POWERFUL AGENCIES DICTATE the culture.

Question 10

Describe
JEAN BAUDRILLARD’s
SIMULARCA

Answer 10

JEAN BAUDRILLARD
SIMULARCA are STEREOTYPICAL cultural images made like commodities by MEDIA and SCHOLARS.

SIMULARCA are HYPERREAL: They DISTORT REALITY by making the stereotype more real than the actuality are.
eg. GPS Makes its directions hyperreal.
WOMD

Question 11

Describe VICTIMOLOGY

Answer 11

VICTIMOLOGY is OBSERVING an OUTLOOK that inaccurately asserts that GROUPS are unable to help themselves or have LITTLE AGENCY.

Question 12

Describe JOHN FISKE’s special
POPULAR Culture perspective
Retort to
Mass Culture

Answer 12

In POPULAR CULTURE the POWERFUL INSTITUTIONS introduce resources PEOPLE RESIST, and this causes VICTIMOLOGY that is covered by mass culture!

Question 13

Describe the differences between DECIPHERMENT and READING

decipherment -> mass

reading -> popular

Answer 13

DECIPHERMENT is looking in a TEXT for DEFINITIVE INTERPRETATION, to find the INTENTION(s) of the Cultural industry for publishing that text. Used by MASS Culture sociologists.

READING is treating a text provided by cultural industry as a RESOURCE. Reading however lets the USER INTERPRET the text in any way they want, even if IF it contradicts the creator’s intention. Used by POPULAR Culture sociologists.

Mass Media manipulation is caused by READING. ie. propaganda

Question 14

Describe NORMS

Answer 14

NORMS are RULES or STANDARD behaviours EXPECTED from individuals within a group/culture/society. They are dynamic and differ in-between cultures.
Norms are expressed and enforced thru 4 common ways:
-Sanctions
WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER DISTINCTIONS
-Folkways
-Mores
-Taboos

Question 15

Describe SANCTION

\+ = good
- = bad

Answer 15

SANCTIONS are human BEHAVIOURS OR ACTIONS that respond to an individual’s action to address whether or not they are “doing the right thing” wrt their culture.

Question 16

Describe FOLKWAYS

WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER

Answer 16

FOLKWAYS are norms that GOVERN DAILY MATTERS, that you “should” not violate, and are the LEAST RESPECTED and SANCTIONED actions. Etiquette can be a folkway.

Question 17

Describe MORES

WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER

Answer 17

MORES are taken MUCH MORE SERIOUSLY.
ie. murder, rape, stealing…criminal activity.

MORES are FOWL and may cause severe contestment
ie. people have different beliefs about “cleanliness” in-between cultures.

Question 18

Describe TABOO

WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER

Answer 18

TABOOS are norms that are deep and a slight MENTION will cause GREAT DISGUST.
ie. cannibalism, me eating pork
Some taboos differ a lot in-between cultures.

Question 19

Describe SYMBOLS

Answer 19

SYMBOLS are CULTURAL items that mean a lot within a culture. They can be:
TANGIBLE (physical objects)
or IN-tangible (ideas).
Cultural symbols are contested differently within and outside the culture.

Question 20

Describe VALUES

Answer 20

VALUES are STANDARDS used by a culture to describe ABSTRACT QUALITIES and assess behaviour.
Values remain difficult to understand and accurately represent because the values people commit to are not always expressed.
eg. Max Weber’s Protestant Work Ethic

Question 21

Describe ETHNOCentrism

Answer 21

ETHNOCENTRISM is when someone believes that ONE culture SHOULD BE the UNIVERSAL CULTURE for every society, and that this is the only right way to do everything.

It is the product of ignorance and aims to conquer a culture by assimilating its people such as indigenous colonization in Canada by English. pg. 93

Question 22

Describe EUROCentrism

Answer 22

EUROCentrism is using the EUROPEAN (Western) CULTURE to address ALL OTHER CULTURES and assuming that AUDIENCE WANTS to share it. It only recognizes European contributions/discoveries and
ignores all non-Europen ones.

Question 23

Describe CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION

Answer 23

CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION is the INTENSIFIED EXPANSION of Cultural flows across the world, often by aggressive media companies bent on reaping profits. The greatest study is the spread of Western ideas through the rise of the English language and media into the global gossip market.
Interpretations of globalized American culture are varying across the world.

Question 24

Describe REVERSE Ethnocentrism and

NOBLE SAVAGE

Answer 24

REVERSE Ethnocentrism is a person assuming that a certain culture IS BETTER than their practised culture: “You are better than us (in some ways).”

NOBLE SAVAGE is a myth that asserts a primitive culture is ideal when free of corruption in civilization.
Opponents of globalization use this by pointing to the flaws of the Western world institution conditions (not being good) with their noble intentions.
This is unfortunately common with immigrant children and adapting to their western environment by forgetting about their previous worse one…

Question 25

Describe CULTURAL RELATIVISM

Answer 25

CULTURAL RELATIVISM is the opposite METHOD used to STUDY CULTURES by appreciating the context when evaluating culture. It has greater appreciation of for understanding and evaluating culture. It studies 2 fields:

The holistic LEVEL OF UNDERSTANDING of cultures, it tries to study HOW CULTURES EXIST the way they do WITH their SOCIAL, HISTORICAL and ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXTS using logic.

Study the INFLUENCE OF VALUE JUDGMENT within that culture: to what extent individuals are JUDGED by living up to their cultural practises and beliefs (choice, actions, image).

Question 26

Describe SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Answer 26

SOCIOLINGUISTICS is the study of the role of LANGUAGE AS PART OF CULTURE and its relation with social factors like race, ethnicity, age, religion, gender…

A DIALECT is a version of a language that uses certain different words and constructions. Distinctions between dialect and language are often the product of social factors. They are evaluated according to whether they present proper, casual, serious versions.

Question 27

Describe SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS

Remember this!

Answer 27

The relationship between LANGUAGE and CULTURE has been discussed in terms of the SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS, which asserts the existence of
LINGUISTIC DETERMINISM: states that individual WORLDVIEWS ARE SHAPED by the LANGUAGES people SPEAK. Different ways of categorizing words, like the division of nouns into classes, can strengthen the beliefs that exist within the culture to which the language belongs. In sociology a WEAK DETERMINISM perspective is favoured because we cannot transliterate and their are fundamental culture differences.
This can be seen in gendered pronouns, which exist in English and French but not in many Aboriginal languages.