P&E Chapter 8 ON EXAM Culture Flashcards
culture
a people’s ethose (how people feel about the world around them) and worldview (how people perceive the world around them), all of which is encoded in how people construct and employ meanings that guide their perceptions and behavior in multiple contexts.
material culture
meaning-making activities: music, dance, art, language, clothing, literature, stories and narratives, architecture and shelter
features of life which are not static nor changing very rapidly
ethnic customs, traditions, values, beliefs and notions of common sense
misunderstandings
arise when we use our own understandings we have constructed both about ourselves and about how the world does and should operate to categorize and rank others
practice orientation
a contemporary approach to understanding culture by thinking of human action as a product, producer, and transformer of history and social structures.
nondominant group response to dominate culture
assimilation, accommodation, acculturation and/or bicultural socialization
identities and resources are based on
political, social, and economic structures and processes
a multidimensional understanding of cutlure
is necessary to grasp the increasing complexity of the construction and employment of meaning regarding identities and the distribution of resources
norms
the culturally defined standards or rules of conduct
examples of cultures
U.S. culture, family culture, school culture, digital culture, consumer culture, peer culture, gender culture, entertainment culture, work culture, religious or spiritual culture, identity culture
multifaceted contexts of lives
economics, race/ethnicity, traditions and customs, gender, political processes, immigration, popular culture, psychology, academic processes, technology and other factors
enumeration of social content
that complex whole that includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and other capabilities and habits acquired by humansas members of society; the sum total of human achievement
social heritage/tradition
learned repertory of thoughts and actions exhibited by members of a social group, independently of genetic heredity from one generation to the next. the sum total and organization of social heritages that have acquired social meaning because of racial temperament and the historical life of the group.
rule or way of life
the sum total ways of doing and thinking, past and present, of a social group. the distinctive way of life of a group of people; their complete design for living
psychological and social adjustment and learning
*the total equipment of technique mechanical, mental and moral-by sue of which the people of a given period try to attend their ends. sum total of material and intellectual equipment whereby people satisfy biological. and social needs and adapt to the environment. learned modes of behavior that are socially transmitted from one generations to another within a particular society that may be diffused from onne society to another.
ideas and values
an organized group of thoughts, havits adn conditioned emotional responses shared by members of a society. acquired or cultivated behavior and thought of individuals.
Patterning and symbols
a system of interelated and interdependent habits of response. organization of conventional understandings manifest in art and artifact that characterize a human group. semiotics - webs of public meaning people have spun by which they are suspended. distinct order or classs of phenomena that we have termed symboling; or material objects, acts, beliefs and attitudes that function in contexts characterized by symboling
culture
a set of common understandings manifest in act and artifact both inside somebody’s head as understandings and in the external environment as act and artifact, including both behavior (act) and material outcomes of that behavior (artifacts, or things we construct from the material and technological world around us). both constrains and is constrained by nature, biology, social conditions and other realities of human existence.
traditional understandings of culture 18th and 19th centruy enlightenment and romanticism
rankings of logic, reason, art and technology to judge cultures as better than other cultures
culture seizing nature
psychic unity of humankind
cultural relativism (traditional understanding of culture)
cultures are relatively equal in value, differences in culture reflect different frameworks of meaning and understandings and thus result in different lifestyles.
biological determinism (traditional understanding of culture)
the attempt to differentiate social behavior largely on the basis of biological and genetic endowment
othering (traditional understanding of culture)
labeling people who fall outside of your own group as abnormal, inferior or marginal
basics about culture
Culture is learned through social interaction.
A society may have customary practices, but not all members have same knowledge or attach same significance.
culture seizes nature, humans seek to control nature and shape it according to their own needs and interest
culture is patterned, culture is symbolic and culture is both adaptive and maleadaptive
additional concepts that help discussion of past and present conceptions of culture
ideology (set of shared beliefs about the way things are and should work).
ethnocentrism (tendency to elevate own ethnic group and social cultural processes over others)
cultural symbols (something verbal or nonverbal, that comes to stand for something else: race, ethnicity, gender)
worldview and ethos (idea of reality, concept of nature, of self, of society; tone character and quality of people’s life, its moral and aesthetic style in mood; underlying attitude towards themselves and their world)
cultural innovation
cultural conflict (conflict over meanings
culture of poverty
way of life developed by poor people to adapt to the difficult circumstances of their lives
cultural heemony
the dominance of a particular way of seeing the world; reproduce structures when we assume the rightness of our values, beliefs and meaning and see no need to change them
human agency
people are active participants in history and structure; capable of exercising their will to shape their lives, helps to counteract cultural hegemony
common sense
a cultural system, what people have come to believe everyone in a community or society should know and understand as a matter of ordinary social competence. becomes self serving for those in a position of power to determine what it is and who has it
customs
cultural practices
tradition
process of handing down from one generation to another particular beliefs and practices
processes of cultural change
assimilation
acculturation
accommodation
bicultural socialization
assimilation
process in which cultural uniqueness of the minority group is abandoned, and its members try to blend invisibly into the dominant culture.
accommodation
process of partial or selective cultural change non dominant groups follow the norms, rules and standards of the dominant culture only in specific circumstances and contexts.
acculturation
mutual sharing of culture, culture groups remain distinct, certain elements of their culture change and they exchange and blend preferences in food, music, clothing, dance, etc.
bicultural socialization
process of nonmajority group or member mastering both the dominant culture and his or her own. necessary in societies that have relatively fixed notions about how a person should live and interact in school, work, court, financial institutions and the like. dual identity
race
system of social identity which is socially constructed and meaning shifts depending on the social, economic and political context
ethnicity
static traditions, customs, and values that reflect a deep and enduring cultural identity and a desire to keep that identity intact
ethnic identity
how groups define themselves and maintain meaning for living individually and as a group
socioeconomic status SES
a form of cultural inequality as well as imperfections in our capitalist economic system. a way of ascribing status, prestige and power based on education income and occupation
gender
what our culture symbolizes and means by maleness and femaleness, prescribed roles of men and women, boys and girls, husbands and wives. physical characteristics of male and female combined with their reproductive functions
family
a set of relationships among two or more people to carry out various social and biological functions such as support, nurturance, sexual mating, procreation and child rearing.
