Powerpoint #3 - Culture

Question 1

What is culture?

Answer 1

“foundation of human society”

-combination of ideas, behaviors, and material objects that people have created/adopted for carrying out necessary tasks of daily life

Question 2

What is the “foundation of civilization”?

Answer 2

handing down culture from generation to generation

Question 3

Who was Ralph Linton?

Answer 3

stated that culture = social heredity, many things in our culture were invented elsewhere

Question 4

What are the components of culture?

Answer 4

1. Material culture: physical things created by a society
   - ->art, architecture, technological artifacts (either good or bad)
2. Non-material culture: symbols, language, values/beliefs, norms

Question 5

What are cognitive elements?

Answer 5

expressing thoughts, beliefs, preferences

–> ex. symbols, values, beliefs

Question 6

What are normative elements?

Answer 6

expressions of how we should behave

–> ex. norms

Question 7

What are values?

Answer 7

standards of desirability, rightness, or importance in a society

Question 8

What are norms?

Answer 8

expectations of how you should behave
-play more to roles that individuals play, not individuals themselves
(two types: folkways and mores)

Question 9

What are folkways?

Answer 9

rules governing everyday conduct that are not considered to be morally important and are not strictly enforced
–> ex. wearing a tie to church

Question 10

What are mores?

Answer 10

really important, serious norms that are strictly enforced/may become laws
–> ex. do not murder/cheat on a test

Question 11

What are sanctions?

Answer 11

acts designed to encourage behaviors conforming to norms and discourage behavior that violates (punishment vs. reward)

Question 12

What is dominant culture?

Answer 12

the culture that takes precedence in activities/events involving people of many categories of population

• we oftentimes don’t question the dominant culture
• supports those who have the greatest influence through ideologies, values, and beliefs
  (ex. swearing oath on the Bible)

Question 13

What are subcultures?

Answer 13

culture that maintains many aspects of dominant culture, but has some unique characteristics to distinguish its members
-may be based on ethnic heritage, lifestyle choices, social class, age, race, gender, etc

Question 14

What are countercultures?

Answer 14

subculture that challenges important aspects of the dominant culture, such as beliefs, attitudes, or values
-seek to create alternate lifestyle

Question 15

What is multiculturalism?

Answer 15

perspective that recognizes the contributions of diverse groups to our society, none is better than the other

Question 16

What is ethnocentrism?

Answer 16

your own culture is the standard in which others can be judged right or wrong

Question 17

What is the Functional View of culture?

Answer 17

societies have structures which can have positive or negative consequences on society

Question 18

Who was Robert Murdock?

Answer 18

examined hundreds of cultures and identified dozens of cultural universals (ex. food, calendar system, language)

Question 19

What is the Interactionist View of culture?

Answer 19

examines how we come to define meaning of cultural elements through social interaction

Question 20

What is the Conflict View of culture?

Answer 20

high culture: artifacts, values, knowledge, and other cultural elements that societal elites use to distinguish them from the masses
strategy of distinction: differentiating the elite from the masses by resources that may be unaccessible to those of the lower classes

Question 21

What is popular culture?

Answer 21

elements of culture that appeal to the masses

–> cannot distinguish yourself by pop culture

Question 22

What is cultural lag theory?

Answer 22

technological changes propel some aspects of culture while others remain lagging behind technology

Question 23

What is cultural diffusion?

Answer 23

spread of cultural elements such as objects and ideas from one culture to another

Question 24

What is cultural leveling?

Answer 24

the reduction of differences (good or bad) between cultures resulting in a loss of cultural uniqueness and cultural heritage

Question 25

Who was Marshall McLuhan?

Answer 25

first heralded “the global village”

Question 26

What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

Answer 26

a hypothesis that argues that language shapes thought

Question 27

What is work ethic?

Answer 27

appreciation for people who work hard and the sense that hard work should be rewarded

Question 28

Who was William Graham Sumner?

Answer 28

distinguished the two kinds of norms (folkways and mores)

Question 29

What is internalization?

Answer 29

adopting a norm as your own

Question 30

What is sociocultural evolution?

Answer 30

development in human societies resulting from cumulative change in cultural information from inventions, diffusion, and discoveries