Sociology - Chapter 3

Question 0

Culture (2)

Answer 0

No way of life is “natural” to humanity, even though most people around the world view their behavior as that way

The values, beliefs, behavior, and material objects that together form a person’s way of life

Question 1

What does culture do?

Answer 1

Shapes what we do and helps form our personalities

Question 2

Difference between culture, nation, and society? (3)

Answer 2

Culture- shared way of life

Nation- political entity (a territory with designated borders. Ex: U.S., Canada)

Society- people who interact in a define territory and share a culture

Question 3

How many languages are there globally?

Answer 3

7,000 languages, yet they are declining

Question 4

Unlike other creatures, humans try to give the world

Answer 4

Meaning

Question 5

Example of someone using a symbol in an unconventional way?

Answer 5

Someone burning the U.S. Flag during a political demonstration

Question 6

What are two possible meanings of a fur coat? (2)

Answer 6

A prized symbol of success or the inhumane treatment of animals

Question 7

Every society transmits culture through speech, a process sociologists call?

Answer 7

The “oral cultural tradition”

Question 8

Who is kanzi? What makes kanzi special? (2)

Answer 8

A 23 year old chimp

He could learn language by listening and observing

Question 9

Outline the 10 key values of the U.S. as identified by Robin Williams (10)

Answer 9

1. Equal opportunity
2. Achievement and success
3. Material comfort
4. Activity and work
5. Practicality and efficiency
6. Progress
7. Science
8. Democracy and free enterprise
9. Freedom
10. Racism and group superiority

Question 10

Most important… In a culture apply everywhere and at all times

Answer 10

Norms

Question 11

What are 3 ways that today’s world is a global culture? (3)

Answer 11

1. The global economy: the flow of goods
2. Global communications: flow of information
3. Global migration: the flow of people

Question 12

Sociologists claim that the large number of cultural universals reflects…

Answer 12

The fact that all humans are members of a single biological species

Question 13

Nonmaterial culture

Answer 13

The intangible world of ideas created by members of a society

Question 14

Material culture

Answer 14

The tangible things created by members of a society

Question 15

Culture shock

Answer 15

Personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life

Question 16

Symbols

Answer 16

Anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture

Question 17

Language

Answer 17

A system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another

Question 18

Cultural transmission

Answer 18

The process by which one generation passes culture to the next generation

Question 19

Values

Answer 19

Culturally defined standards by which people assess desirability, goodness, and beauty

Question 20

Norms

Answer 20

Rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior or its members

Question 21

Mores

Answer 21

Norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance

Question 22

Folkways

Answer 22

Norms for routine or casual interaction

Question 23

Social control

Answer 23

Attempts by society to regulate people’s thought and behavior

Question 24

Technology

Answer 24

Knowledge that people use to make a way of life in their surroundings

Question 25

High culture

Answer 25

Cultural patterns that distinguish a society’s elite

Question 26

Popular culture

Answer 26

Cultural patterns that are widespread among a society’s population

Question 27

Subculture

Answer 27

Cultural patterns that are set apart some segment of a society’s population

Question 28

Eurocentrism

Answer 28

The dominance of European (especially english) cultural patterns

Question 29

Afrocentrism

Answer 29

The dominance of African cultural patterns

Question 30

Cultural integration

Answer 30

The close relationships among various elements of a cultural system

Question 31

Counterculture

Answer 31

Cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted within a society

Question 32

Cultural lag

Answer 32

Fact that some cultural elements change more quickly than others, disrupting cultural system

Question 33

Ethnocentrism

Answer 33

The practice of judging another culture by the standards of ones own culture

Question 34

Cultural relativism

Answer 34

The practice of evaluating a culture by its own standards

Question 35

Cultural universals

Answer 35

Traits that are part of every known culture

Question 36

Sociobiology

Answer 36

A theoretical paradigm that explores ways in which biology affects how we create culture