Sociology Ch 2: Culture and Society Flashcards
How does human culture develop?
Culture enable early humans to compensate for their physical limitations. Culture freed humans from dependence on the instinctual and genetically determined set of responses to the environment characteristic of other species.
What is culture? How does it differ from society?
Culture consists of the values held by members of a particular group, the languages they speak, the symbols they revere, the norms they follow, and the material goods they create, from tools to clothing. Culture refers to the ways of life of the individual members or groups within a society: their apparel, marriage customs and family life, patterns of work, religious ceremonies, and leisure pursuits. Society is a system of interrelationships that connects individuals together.
What happened to premodern societies? How have societies changed over time?
There were two types premodern societies. One: pastoral societies and agrarian societies. Two: Hunters and gatherers. These faded out when industrialization modernized society.
How has industrialization shaped modern society?
Industrialization has promoted global development.
How does globalization affect contemporary culture?
Globalization homogenizes cultures or creates new cultures.
Niqab
A veil that covers a woman’s hair and face, leaving only the eyes clearly visible.
Culture
The values, norms, and material goods characteristic of a given group. Like the concept of society, the notion of culture is widely used in sociology and the other social sciences (particularly anthropology). Culture is one of the most distinctive properties of human social association.
Values
They are abstract ideals, or ideas held by individuals or groups about what is desirable, proper, good, and bad. What individuals value is strongly influenced by the specific culture in which they happen to live.
Norms
Widely agreed upon principles or rules people are expected to observe; they represent the do’s and don’ts of social life.
Material goods
The physical objects that individuals in society create. These influence the ways in which people live.
Instinct
A fixed pattern of behavior that has genetic origins and that appears in all normal animals within a given species.
Subculture
Values and norms distinct from those of the majority, held by a group with a wider society.
Assimilation
The process by which different cultures are absorbed into a single mainstream culture.
Multiculturalism
The viewpoint according to which ethnic groups can exist separately and share equally in economic and political life.
Ethnocentrism
Judging other cultures in terms of the standards of one’s own.
Cultural relativism
The practice of judging a society by its own standards.
Cultural universals
Values on modes of behavior shared by all human cultures.
Language
The primary vehicle of meaning in communication in a society, language is a system of symbols that represent objects and abstract thoughts.
Marriage
A socially approved sexual relationship between two individuals.
Linguistic relativity hypothesis
Argues that the language we use influences our perceptions of the world.
Signifier
Any vehicle of meaning and communication.
Semiotics
The analysis of verbal and nonverbal cultural meanings.
Pastoral societies
Societies that rely
mainly on domesticated livestock.
Agrarian societies
Societies whose means of subsistence are based on agricultural production.
Industrialization
The emergence of machine production, based on the use of inanimate power resources.
Industrialized societies
Highly developed nation-states in which the majority of the population work in factories or offices rather than in agriculture, and most people live in urban areas.
Nation-state
A particular type of states in which a government has sovereign power within a defined territorial area, and the population are citizens who know themselves to be a part of a single nation.
Colonialism
The process whereby Western nations established their rule in parts of the world away from their home territories.
Developing world
The list developed societies, industrial production is either virtually nonexistent only developed to a limited degree. The majority of the world’s population lives in less developed countries.
Nearly industrializing economies (NIEs)
Developing countries that over the past two or three decades have begun to develop a strong industrial base, such as Singapore and Hong Kong.
Nationalism
A set of beliefs and symbols expressing identification with a national community.
What are the four characteristics of culture?
It is is learned, transmitted from one generation to the next, shared, and adaptive and always changing.
Culture Shock
The personal disorientation a person may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration or a visit to a new country or to a move between social environments.
Countercultures
A group of people with value systems that are in opposition to the dominant culture.
Xenophobia
Refers to fear and hostility toward people who are from other countries or cultures.
