Chp 2 Practice Q's Flashcards
What is the purpose of culture?
a) to solve real-life problems
b) to define meaning of symbols
c) to develop a common language
d) to generate a connected system
a) to solve real-life problems
Which term is defined as “a number of people who interact, usually in a defined territory, and share a culture”?
a) organization
b) country
c) society
d) federation
c) society
Culture consumed by which of the following is known as popular culture?
a) the elite
b) all classes
c) North Americans
d) adolescents
b) all classes
Which part of our culture includes the widely held belief that anyone can become rich if he or she works hard and makes smart choices?
a) subordinate
b) mass
c) popular
d) dominant
d) dominant
Which norm specifies social requirements?
a) mores
b) taboos
c) sanctions
d) folkways
a) mores
Anthony attends university but also must work 30 hours a week to afford to do so. Both of his parents are employed, but they cannot afford to contribute to his university education. As a family, they believe in the importance of working hard in school and at work, maintaining the idea that their efforts and good decisions will improve their position in the socioeconomic hierarchy. However, they are also skeptical of the likelihood of this actually happening, especially when they see other friends and family working similarly hard but remaining low-income. According to the text, what is this skepticism a part of?
a) dominant culture
b) skeptical culture
c) subordinate culture
d) socioeconomic culture
c) subordinate culture
As people conform to norms, they usually come to accept common ideas about what is desirable and important. These ideas distinguish one culture from another. What are these common ideas called?
a) beliefs
b) folkways
c) sanctions
d) values
d) values
Which argument suggests that there is a connection between experience, language, and thought?
a) functionalism
b) Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
c) symbolic interactionism
d) the Building Blocks of Society thesis
b) Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
In what year was the last residential school in Canada closed?
a) 1972
b) 1984
c) 1996
d) 2008
c) 1996
Marvin Harris argues that many Western observers’ understanding of cow worship in rural India is faulty due to an ethnocentric perspective. When examining cow worship from the point of view of the functions it fulfills in Indian society, how could cow worship be understood?
a) as a practice of social solidarity
b) as a practice of sentimental emotionality
c) as a rational economic practice
d) as a meaningful religious practice
c) as a rational economic practice
What concept do we better understand through Harris’s functionalist analysis of “cow love” among Hindus?
a) abstraction
b) high culture
c) ethnocentrism
d) consumerism
c) ethnocentrism
Which term refers to the judging of another culture by the standards of one’s own culture?
a) egocentrism
b) cultural appropriation
c) ethnocentrism
d) culture shock
c) ethnocentrism
The change in how father figures are depicted on television from the 1950s to today demonstrates which characteristic of postmodernism?
a) an eclectic mixing of elements from different times and places
b) the erosion of authority
c) the growth of religious conservatism
d) a loss of confidence in political leaders
b) the erosion of authority
Which group of theorists view culture as an independent variable?
a) feminists
b) functionalists
c) conflict theorists
d) symbolic interactionists
d) symbolic interactionists
According to anthropologist /sociologist Louis Dumont, what gave rise to the system of inequality known as the caste system?
a) Hinduism
b) colonization
c) patterns of land ownership
d) reverse ethnocentrism
a) Hinduism
The growth of different religious beliefs and practices is a characteristic of which form of culture?
a) postmodern
b) modern
c) industrial
d) premodern
a) postmodern
Which of the following best describes postmodernism?
a) respect for authority
b) consensus around core values
c) an eclectic mix of cultural elements
d) belief in the inevitability of progress
c) an eclectic mix of cultural elements
Which statement is a criticism of multiculturalism?
a) It focuses only on the interests of the “charter groups” in Canada.
b) It leads to cultural relativism.
c) It discourages ethnocentrism.
d) Its focus on cultural diversification hurts the interests of the poor.
b) It leads to cultural relativism.
When did the United Nations proclaim the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
a) 1928
b) 1938
c) 1948
d) 1958
c) 1948
According to the text, culture provides people with opportunities to exercise their freedom. Which of the following does culture also do?
a) It dictates all our actions.
b) It constrains us.
c) It fascinates us.
d) It alarms us.
b) It constrains us.
What term refers to using the most efficient means of achieving a given end despite any negative consequences of such means?
a) routinization
b) space-time compression
c) ritualization
d) rationalization
d) rationalization
Which statement best describes consumerism?
a) It is a lifestyle marked by sharing and an emphasis on democracy.
b) It is a lifestyle in which people are besieged by first-world problems.
c) It is a lifestyle marked by behavioural refinement, style, and grace.
d) It is a lifestyle that involves people defining themselves by what they buy.
d) It is a lifestyle that involves people defining themselves by what they buy.
Rationalization and consumerism are examples of which of the following?
a) postmodernism
b) culture as constraint
c) globalization
d) diversity
b) culture as constraint
In Weber’s opinion, the development of rationalization was exemplified by the growth of which institution?
a) modern labour unions
b) modern bureaucracies
c) modern armies
d) modern corporations
b) modern bureaucracies
What is a subculture?
a) an emergent culture
b) an inferior culture
c) a culture that the status quo perceives to be inferior
d) a set of distinctive values, norms, and practices within a larger culture
d) a set of distinctive values, norms, and practices within a larger culture
Which expression did Weber coin to illustrate the constraining effect that increased rationalization has had on modern society?
a) steel trap
b) iron cage
c) velvet glove
d) iron fist
b) iron cage
Cultural freedom has its limits. Which twin forces govern or define these limits in our society?
a) technology and consumerism
b) commodification and consumerism
c) rationalization and technology
d) rationalization and consumerism
d) rationalization and consumerism
Jason is a consultant who is hired by companies to do time-and-motion studies of workers at their jobs. He makes recommendations to company owners and managers about subdividing work tasks to achieve greater efficiency. What major idea is being used in these studies?
a) economization
b) space-time compression
c) profitability
d) rationalization
d) rationalization
Punk rockers espoused values that were anti-establishment. Punkers shunned regular employment, took drugs, and had a clothing style of their own. The lyrics to their songs berated the established order. According to sociologists, what kind of group has such antisocial values?
a) youth culture
b) protest culture
c) subculture
d) counterculture
d) counterculture
