Sociology Ch 2: Culture and Society

Question 0

How does human culture develop?

Answer 0

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.

Question 1

What is culture? How does it differ from society?

Answer 1

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.

Question 2

What happened to premodern societies? How have societies changed over time?

Answer 2

There were two types premodern societies. One: pastoral societies and agrarian societies. Two: Hunters and gatherers. These faded out when industrialization modernized society.

Question 3

How has industrialization shaped modern society?

Answer 3

Industrialization has promoted global development.

Question 4

How does globalization affect contemporary culture?

Answer 4

Globalization homogenizes cultures or creates new cultures.

Question 5

Niqab

Answer 5

A veil that covers a woman’s hair and face, leaving only the eyes clearly visible.

Question 6

Culture

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

Values

Answer 7

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.

Question 8

Norms

Answer 8

Widely agreed upon principles or rules people are expected to observe; they represent the do’s and don’ts of social life.

Question 9

Material goods

Answer 9

The physical objects that individuals in society create. These influence the ways in which people live.

Question 10

Instinct

Answer 10

A fixed pattern of behavior that has genetic origins and that appears in all normal animals within a given species.

Question 11

Subculture

Answer 11

Values and norms distinct from those of the majority, held by a group with a wider society.

Question 12

Assimilation

Answer 12

The process by which different cultures are absorbed into a single mainstream culture.

Question 13

Multiculturalism

Answer 13

The viewpoint according to which ethnic groups can exist separately and share equally in economic and political life.

Question 14

Ethnocentrism

Answer 14

Judging other cultures in terms of the standards of one’s own.

Question 15

Cultural relativism

Answer 15

The practice of judging a society by its own standards.

Question 16

Cultural universals

Answer 16

Values on modes of behavior shared by all human cultures.

Question 17

Language

Answer 17

The primary vehicle of meaning in communication in a society, language is a system of symbols that represent objects and abstract thoughts.

Question 18

Marriage

Answer 18

A socially approved sexual relationship between two individuals.

Question 19

Linguistic relativity hypothesis

Answer 19

Argues that the language we use influences our perceptions of the world.

Question 20

Signifier

Answer 20

Any vehicle of meaning and communication.

Question 21

Semiotics

Answer 21

The analysis of verbal and nonverbal cultural meanings.

Question 22

Pastoral societies

Answer 22

Societies that rely

mainly on domesticated livestock.

Question 23

Agrarian societies

Answer 23

Societies whose means of subsistence are based on agricultural production.

Question 24

Industrialization

Answer 24

The emergence of machine production, based on the use of inanimate power resources.

Question 25

Industrialized societies

Answer 25

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.

Question 26

Nation-state

Answer 26

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.

Question 27

Colonialism

Answer 27

The process whereby Western nations established their rule in parts of the world away from their home territories.

Question 28

Developing world

Answer 28

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.

Question 29

Nearly industrializing economies (NIEs)

Answer 29

Developing countries that over the past two or three decades have begun to develop a strong industrial base, such as Singapore and Hong Kong.

Question 31

Nationalism

Answer 31

A set of beliefs and symbols expressing identification with a national community.

Question 32

What are the four characteristics of culture?

Answer 32

It is is learned, transmitted from one generation to the next, shared, and adaptive and always changing.

Question 33

Culture Shock

Answer 33

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.

Question 34

Countercultures

Answer 34

A group of people with value systems that are in opposition to the dominant culture.

Question 35

Xenophobia

Answer 35

Refers to fear and hostility toward people who are from other countries or cultures.