Culture

Question 1

argot

Answer 1

specialized language used by members of a group or subculture

Question 2

counterculture

Answer 2

a subculture that deliberately opposes certain aspects of the larger cultures

Question 3

cultural capital

Answer 3

noneconomic goods, such as family background and education, which are reflected in a knowledge of language and the arts

Question 4

cultural relativism

Answer 4

the viewing of people’s behavior from the perspective of their own culture

Question 5

cultural universal

Answer 5

a common practice of belief found in every culture

Question 6

culture

Answer 6

the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects, and behavior

Question 7

culture lag

Answer 7

a period of maladjustment when the nonmaterial culture is still struggling to adapt to new material conditions

Question 8

culture shock

Answer 8

the feeling of surprise and disorientation that people experience when they encounter cultural practices that are different from their own

Question 9

diffusion

Answer 9

the process by which a cultural item spreads from group to group or society to society

Question 10

discovery

Answer 10

the process of making known or sharing the existence of an aspect of reality

Question 11

dominant ideology

Answer 11

a set of cultural beliefs and practices that helps to maintain powerful social, economic, and political interests

Question 12

ethnocentrism

Answer 12

the tendency to assume that one’s own culture and way of life represent the norm or are superior to all others

Question 13

folkway

Answer 13

a norm governing everyday behavior whose violation raises comparatively little concern

Question 14

formal norm

Answer 14

a norm that has been written down and that specifies strict punishments for violators

Question 15

informal norm

Answer 15

a norm that is generally understood but not precisely recorded

Question 16

innovation

Answer 16

the process of introducing a new idea or object to a culture through discovery of invention

Question 17

invention

Answer 17

the combination of existing cultural items into a form that did not exist before

Question 18

language

Answer 18

an abstract system of word meanings and symbols for all aspects of culture; includes gestures and other nonverbal communication

Question 19

law

Answer 19

governmental social control

Question 20

material culture

Answer 20

the physical or technological aspects of our daily lives

Question 21

mores

Answer 21

norms deemed highly necessary to the welfare of a society

Question 22

nonmaterial culture

Answer 22

ways of using material objects, as well as customs, beliefs, philosophies, governments, and patterns of communication

Question 23

norm

Answer 23

an established standard of behavior maintained by a society

Question 24

sanction

Answer 24

a penalty or reward for conduct concerning a social norm

Question 25

society

Answer 25

a fairly large number of people who live in the same territory, are relatively independent of people outside their area, and participate in a common culture

Question 26

sociobiology

Answer 26

the systematic study of how biology affects human social behavior

Question 27

subculture

Answer 27

a segment of society that shares a distinctive pattern of customs, rules, and traditions that differs from the pattern of the larger society

Question 28

symbol

Answer 28

a gesture, object, or word that forms the basis of human communication

Question 29

technology

Answer 29

cultural information about the ways in which the material resources of the environment may be used to satisfy human needs and desires

Question 30

value

Answer 30

a collective conception of what is considered good, desirable, and proper–or bad, undesirable, and improper–in a culture