Culture

Question 1

Culture

Answer 1

Sum of practices, rituals, values, norms, ideologies, beliefs, languages, symbols, and material objects that people create. Connects people and forms divisions

Question 2

Values

Answer 2

moral beliefs about what is good/bad that guide behavior

Question 3

Norms

Answer 3

Rules/expectations that guide behavior, based on values, often informal

Question 4

Beliefs

Answer 4

Convictions that people believe to be true, and which align with norms/ values

Question 5

Ideology

Answer 5

Set of shared beliefs that explain the world and guide behavior

Question 6

Symbols

Answer 6

Material/non-material objects to which cultures assign meaning

Question 7

Rituals

Answer 7

Important, routinized group activities (ex. weddings, graduation, etc.)

Question 8

Material Culture

Answer 8

Physical goods/objects that represent a given culture

Question 9

Symbolic Culture

Answer 9

Aspect of culture that includes beliefs, values, norms, and language

Question 10

High Culture

Answer 10

Cultural products made for elite groups (ex. fine arts, expensive gourmet foods, opera, etc.)

Question 11

Socioeconomic Class

Answer 11

Groups who share a similar position due to their income, wealth, education, and/or occupation

Question 12

Subcultures

Answer 12

Groups that have values and practices that distinguish them form the wider society (ex. goths, biker clubs, etc.)

Question 13

Counterculture

Answer 13

Reject mainstream values and norms and replaces them with different ones (ex. hippies, cults)

Question 14

Culture Wars

Answer 14

Friction between cultures because of different ideas, values, beliefs, etc. (ex. political battles)

Question 15

Consumer Culture

Answer 15

Cultures in which consumption is tied to identity and is attached with meaning. Relationship between the consumer and the goods

Question 16

Conspicuous Culture

Answer 16

The practice of overtly displaying the consumption of expensive cultural items/services to gain prestige

Question 17

Culture Industry and its key characteristics

Answer 17

Industries that produce products of mass culture (ex. music, TV, films, radio, advertising, podcasts, etc.)

Key characteristics:
Uniformity, standardization, and repetition; diversity is usually limited
Pseudo individuality - believe that we’re making choices about our consumption that reflect our personality. Choices are pre-fabricated by the culture industry

Question 18

Corporate Consolidation

Answer 18

Acquisition of smaller corporations by larger ones, meaning a handful of large companies control a majority of the culture industry

Results in homogenous symbolic and material cultural landscape and shaped cultural innovation

Question 19

Cultural Capital

Answer 19

Non-economic resources such as particular types of knowledge, skills, tastes, appearances, hobbies, and behaviors. Often informal. Formal example is an educational degree

Question 20

Habitus

Answer 20

Learned dispositions and a way of thinking, behaving, and navigating the world that feels like “common sense”

Question 21

Ethnocentrism

Answer 21

Evaluating another culture negatively because it differs form one’s own culture

Question 22

Cultural Relativism

Answer 22

Assessing a culture by its own standards, not ones imposed by other cultures

Question 23

Cultural Imperialism

Answer 23

When one culture imposes its cultural values and norms on another culture. Local cultures–including values, beliefs, and traditions–can fade/disappear

Example: Americanization - Importation of cultural characteristics from the US (ex. movies, fast food, etc.)

Question 24

Globalization and Hybridity

Answer 24

Globalization are exchanges of cultural ideas and values between cultures around the world.
Hybridity are new cultural practices, norms, beliefs, and language that arise due to cultural exchange

Question 25

Cultural Appropriation

Answer 25

When members of a dominant culture adapt cultural practices/values from another culture

Question 26

Multiculturalism

Answer 26

Diversity of cultures within one society, like Canada

Question 27

Sanctions

Answer 27

Using punishments (negative) or rewards (positive) to reinforce norms

Question 28

Folkways

Answer 28

Norms that are unimportant (ex. texting during class)

Question 29

Mores (Moray)

Answer 29

More serious social norms and can have severe negative sanctions (ex. students who use phones to cheat on exams)

Question 30

Ideal Culture and Real Culture

Answer 30

Ideal culture are norms and values of society that lead us to think what people should believe and do
Real culture is what people actually think and do

Example: people should vote, but most don’t

Question 31

Assimilation

Answer 31

Integrating the minority group into the mainstream

Question 32

Low (Popular) Culture

Answer 32

Associated with the masses, seen as the homogenized and standardized product of massive corporations. Views as lacking in redeeming aesthetic qualities (ex. Nickelback, “Twilight,” etc.)