Chp 2 Terms - Culture Flashcards
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A core norm that most people believe is essential for the survival of their group or their society.
norms
Generally accepted ways of doing things.
production
The human capacity to make and use tools. It improves our ability to take what we want from nature.
folkway
The least important type of norm-a norm that evokes the least severe punishment when violated.
taboo
The strongest type of norm.
When someone violates a taboo, it causes revulsion in the community, and punishment is severe.
symbols
Things that carry particular meanings, including the components of language, mathematical notations, and signs. Symbols allow us to classify experience and generalize from it.
culture
The socially transmitted practices, languages, symbols, beliefs, values, ideologies, and material objects that people create to deal with real-life problems.
abstraction
The human capacity to create general ideas or ways of thinking that are not linked to particular instances.
cooperation
The human capacity to create a complex social life by sharing resources and working together.
society
A number of people who interact, usually in a defined territory, and share a culture.
subculture
A set of distinctive values, norms, and practices within a larger culture.
countercultures
Subversive subcultures that oppose dominant values and seek to replace them.
rationalization
The application of the most efficient means to achieve given goals and the unintended, negative consequences of doing so.
consumerism
The tendency to define ourselves in terms of the goods and services we purchase.
rights revolution
The process by which socially excluded groups have struggled to win equal rights under the law and in practice.
cultural relativism
The belief that all cultures have equal value.
postmodernism
Culture characterized by an eclectic mix of cultural elements from different times and places, the erosion of authority, and the decline of consensus around core values.
rites of passage
Cultural ceremonies that mark the transition from one stage of life to another (e.g., baptisms, confirmations, weddings) or from life to death (e.g., funerals).
multiculturalism
A federal government policy that promotes and funds the maintenance of culturally diverse communities, thus strengthening the trend toward cultural diversification.
ethnocentrism
The tendency to judge other cultures exclusively by the standards of your own.
rape culture
A culture in which sexual harassment, slut-shaming, the trivialization of rape, victim-blaming, and sexual assault are widespread, and, for large sections of the population, these actions seem normal.
language
A system of symbols strung together to communicate thought.
caste
Hereditary class authorized by religion
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Holds that we experience certain things in our environment and form concepts about those things. We then develop language to express our concepts. Finally, language itself influences how we see the world.
subordinate culture
Contests dominant culture to varying degrees.
popular culture (or mass culture)
Culture consumed by all classes.
high culture
Culture consumed mainly by upper classes.
dominant culture
Helps rich and powerful categories of people exercise control over others.
material culture
The tools and techniques that enable people to accomplish tasks.
