Culture Flashcards
Culture
Sum of practices, rituals, values, norms, ideologies, beliefs, languages, symbols, and material objects that people create. Connects people and forms divisions
Values
moral beliefs about what is good/bad that guide behavior
Norms
Rules/expectations that guide behavior, based on values, often informal
Beliefs
Convictions that people believe to be true, and which align with norms/ values
Ideology
Set of shared beliefs that explain the world and guide behavior
Symbols
Material/non-material objects to which cultures assign meaning
Rituals
Important, routinized group activities (ex. weddings, graduation, etc.)
Material Culture
Physical goods/objects that represent a given culture
Symbolic Culture
Aspect of culture that includes beliefs, values, norms, and language
High Culture
Cultural products made for elite groups (ex. fine arts, expensive gourmet foods, opera, etc.)
Socioeconomic Class
Groups who share a similar position due to their income, wealth, education, and/or occupation
Subcultures
Groups that have values and practices that distinguish them form the wider society (ex. goths, biker clubs, etc.)
Counterculture
Reject mainstream values and norms and replaces them with different ones (ex. hippies, cults)
Culture Wars
Friction between cultures because of different ideas, values, beliefs, etc. (ex. political battles)
Consumer Culture
Cultures in which consumption is tied to identity and is attached with meaning. Relationship between the consumer and the goods
Conspicuous Culture
The practice of overtly displaying the consumption of expensive cultural items/services to gain prestige
Culture Industry and its key characteristics
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
Corporate Consolidation
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
Cultural Capital
Non-economic resources such as particular types of knowledge, skills, tastes, appearances, hobbies, and behaviors. Often informal. Formal example is an educational degree
Habitus
Learned dispositions and a way of thinking, behaving, and navigating the world that feels like “common sense”
Ethnocentrism
Evaluating another culture negatively because it differs form one’s own culture
Cultural Relativism
Assessing a culture by its own standards, not ones imposed by other cultures
Cultural Imperialism
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.)
Globalization and Hybridity
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
Cultural Appropriation
When members of a dominant culture adapt cultural practices/values from another culture
Multiculturalism
Diversity of cultures within one society, like Canada
Sanctions
Using punishments (negative) or rewards (positive) to reinforce norms
Folkways
Norms that are unimportant (ex. texting during class)
Mores (Moray)
More serious social norms and can have severe negative sanctions (ex. students who use phones to cheat on exams)
Ideal Culture and Real Culture
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
Assimilation
Integrating the minority group into the mainstream
Low (Popular) Culture
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.)
