Sociology Ch 3 - Culture

Culture

The ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and the material objects that together form a people's way of life

Nonmaterial Culture

The ideas created by members of a society

Material Culture

The physical things created by members of a society

Culture Shock

Personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life

Symbol

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

Language

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

Cultural Transmission

The process by which one generation passes culture to the next

Sapir-Whorf Thesis

The idea that people see and understand the world through the cultural lens of language

Values

Culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good, and beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social living

Beliefs

Specific thoughts or ideas that people hold to be true

Norms

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

Mores

Norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance

Folkways

Norms ofr routine or casual interaction

Social Control

Attempts by society to regulate people's thoughts and behavior

Technology

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

High Culture

Cultural patterns that distinguish a society's elite

Popular Culture

Cultural patterns that are widespread among a society's population

Subculture

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

Multiculturalism

A perspective recognizing the cultural diversity of the US and promoting equal standing for all cultural traditions

Eurocentrism

The dominance of European (especially English) cultural patterns

Afrocentrism

Emphasizing and promoting African cultural patterns

Counterculture

Cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted within a society

Cultural Integration

The close relationships among various elements of a cultural system

Cultural lag

The fact that some cultural elements change more quickly than others, disrupting a cultural system

Ethnocentrism

The practice of judging another culture by standards of one's own culture

Cultural Relativism

The practice of judging a culture by its own standards