Culture Flashcards
What is culture?
The relationship between individuals and society. Culture is the sum total of socially transmitted ideas, practices, and material objects. It is the knowledge, language, values, customs and material objects passed to others over time to help us deal with real life issues.
What are the two types of culture?
1) Material Culture: Tangible artifacts, physical objects.
2) Non-Material Culture: Values, beliefs, and traditions.
What were Brym’s idea of culture?
Culture helps us understand all aspects of life, and help us deal with our day-to-day lives.
What are the five features of culture?
1) Learned (Values)
2) Shared (Symbols)
3) Inter-generational (Transmitted from generation to generation)
4) Cumulative (Builds upon itself)
5) Human (Culture is what distinguish us from other animals)
What are the three things culture needs?
1) Abstraction, the ability to use symbols such as language.
2) Cooperation, the ability to construct norms and laws.
3) Production, using tools and techniques used to take and create what we want.
What are the building blocks of culture?
1) Values, general beliefs of right and wrong.
2) Norms, specification of appropriate behaviour.
3) Laws, codified norms.
4) Sanctions, reward and punishment.
What did Sumner say about norms?
Norms can be divided into two categories:
1) Folkway, norms that are customary behaviours. Folkways are like manners.
2) Mores, norms that carry serious moral condemnation. Mores are not laws, but are still seen as horrible acts. Examples would be cheating on your partner, or committing incest.
Explain cultural relativism versus ethnocentrism.
Culture exists on a continuum. Cultural relativism is the side that believes all cultures are equal, when ethnocentrism is the belief that your culture is superior to all others.
What are the “two faces of culture”?
Freedom and constraint.
What are the aspects of freedom given by culture?
Multiculturalism, as it provides minorities with rights and avoids tyranny of a majority. Globalization, as it increases trade, communication, and production. Rights Revolution, as culture contributed to the universal declaration of humans rights that was give in 1948.
Explain postmodernism. What has postmodernism done to our culture?
Postmodernism is a mixing of elements from different times and places. Because of postmodernism in our diverse Canada, an erosion of authority and ‘elitist’ has occurred, as there is a decline in consensus of our shared core values. Because of this, we are less likely to quickly accept what authority states.
Define werkglocken.
An example of rationalization in culture. Werkglocken refers to the work clock, and the judging of production within certain time frames.
What are the aspects of constraint in culture?
Rationalization and consumerism.
Define McDonaldization.
An idea put out by George Ritzer, referring to the fact that main aspects of our lives have turned impersonal, and standardized to become more time efficient similar to a fast food restaurant.
What idea did Sapir and Whorf put out?
Language is an important symbolic system of culture. Language is not simply a means of communication, but language also affects, determines, and controls our thought processes.
