Culture Concepts Flashcards
Culture
The way of life of a particular society / social group. it includes, beliefs, values, and attitudes, norms of behaviour, customs, traditions and rituals. Culture is learned and shared; transmitted from one generation to the next. A group of people who share a whole set of ideas about what is right and what is wrong are said to belong to a culture.
Cultural diversity
Cultures can be very diverse, i.e. differ a great deal, e.g. many British Muslims refuse to eat pork; many non-Muslim British people enjoy pork.
Cultural universal
An element, pattern, trait, or institution that is common to all human cultures worldwide, e.g. many see the family as a cultural universal.
Social construction of culture
A social construction is any idea that is created and given special meaning by people. Culture is a social construction because it varies from social group to social group. Cultures can vary significantly, and so too can what cultures see as normal and the correct way to act.
Cultural relativity
Cultural norms and values derive their meaning within a specific social context, i.e. they are not fixed but vary from place to place and time to time.
Master status
The defining social position a person holds, meaning the title the person most relates to when trying to express him or herself to others. Master status lies at the core of a person’s social identity and influences that person’s roles and behaviours in a societal context.
Resocialisation
Can mean learning how to act in new circumstances or else tearing down and rebuilding an individual’s role and socially constructed sense of self.
Cultural Transmission
The way a group of people within a society or culture tend to learn and pass on new information.
Social control
The ways in which norms are enforced through sanctions, i.e. rewards & punishments. People’s behaviour and thoughts are regulated by society through agents of socialisation, which are also agents of social control.
Social conformity
Social conformity reflects a behavior that is a response to a perceived group pressure.
Collective conscience
Durkheim’s term for shared beliefs, e.g. he claimed religion embodied the collective conscience because it established the principles and beliefs that make society both stable and well-ordered.
Reference group
A group toward whose interests, attitudes, and values the individual is oriented.
Crisis of masculinity
The status of masculinity is changing and this is partially because society is changing economically, socially and especially in relation to the position of women, e.g. female educational achievement.
Nationality
Culture and nation overlap, but nationhood is linked to a specific geographical region. Civic nationalism – unites different groups of people together, e.g. USA national flag in schools. Extreme nationalism – intolerance of others, e.g. Nazi Germany.
