Macionis' Sociology - Chapter 3

Front 1

Culture

Back 1

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

Front 2

Culture is either...

Back 2

1. Nonmaterial

2. Material

Front 3

Nonmaterial culture

Back 3

ideas created by the members of the society

Front 4

Material culture

Back 4

physical things created by members of a society

Front 5

True or False: There is no such thing as a "natural" way of life.

Back 5

True

Front 6

Culture shock

Back 6

Personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life

Front 7

Differentiate culture, nation, and society.

Back 7

Culture: a shared way of life

Nation: A political entity, a territory with designated borders

Society: organized interaction of people usu. in a nation

Front 8

Symbol

Back 8

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

Front 9

Cultural transmission

Back 9

the process by which one generation passes culture to the next

Front 10

Sapir-Whorf Thesis

Back 10

people see and understand the world through the cultural lens of language

Front 11

Values

Back 11

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

Front 12

How do values affect beliefs?

Back 12

Values are broad principles that support beliefs.

Front 13

Beliefs

Back 13

specific thoughts or ideas that people hold to be true

Front 14

Give at least 3 key values of US Culture. Explain each.

Back 14

1. Equal opportunity (provide everyone with the chance to "get ahead")

2. Achievement and success (encourages competition so that each person's rewards is based on their personal merit)

3. Material comfort (buying nice things)

4. Activity and work (values action over reflection)

5. Practicality and efficiency (values practical over theoretical)

6. Progress (the present is better than the past)

7. Science (problems can be solved through science; premium on reason and logic)

8. Democracy and free enterprise (individuals have rights)

Freedom (individual initiative over collective conformity)

Racism and group superiority (judging of individuals according to gender, race, ethnicity, and social class)

Front 15

True or False: Values are independent of each other.

Back 15

False. Values form value clusters.

Front 16

True or False: Values are constant.

Back 16

False. Values change.

Front 17

Norms

Back 17

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

Front 18

Kinds of norms

Back 18

1. Mores

2. Folkways

Front 19

Taboos are a kind of _______.

Back 19

Mores.

Front 20

Mores

Back 20

norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance

Front 21

Folkways

Back 21

norms for routine or casual interaction

Front 22

Kinds of sanctions

Back 22

1. Reward

2. Punishment

Front 23

Social control

Back 23

attempts by a society to regulate people's thoughts and behavior

Front 24

Artifacts

Back 24

a wide range of physical human creations

Front 25

Technology

Back 25

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

Front 26

True or False: Symbolic skills (thinking) are in higher demand than mechanical skills (manufacturing and the like) due to technology.

Back 26

True.

Front 27

Differentiate high culture from pop culture.

Back 27

High culture: culture patterns that distinguish a society's elite

Popular culture: cultural patterns that are widespread among a society's population

Front 28

Differentiate subculture from counterculture.

Back 28

Subculture: cultural patterns that set apart some segment of a society's population

Counterculture: cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted within a society

Front 29

Cultural integration

Back 29

the close relationships among various elements of a cultural system

Front 30

Cultural lag

Back 30

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

Front 31

Causes of cultural change

Back 31

1. Invention (creating new cultural elements)

2. Discovery (recognizing and understanding more fully something already in existence)

3. Diffusion (the spread of cultural traits from one society to another)

Front 32

Ethnocentrism

Back 32

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

Front 33

Kinds of global contact

Back 33

1. Global economy (The flow of goods)

2. Global communications (The flow of information)

3. Global migration (The flow of people)

Front 34

Some traits are common to all cultures. These are called __________.

Back 34

Cultural universals

Front 35

What is the function of culture according to the Structural-Functionalist perspective?

Back 35

A complex strategy for meeting human needs.

Front 36

True or False: According to the Social Conflict perspective, culture is shaped by the society's means of production.

Back 36

True.

Front 37

Explain the premise behind sociobiology.

Back 37

Human biology affects how we create culture.

Front 38

What are the 3 theories of culture?

Back 38

1. Structural-Functionalist

2. Social Conflict

3. Sociobiology

Front 39

Multiculturalism

Back 39

a perspective recognizing cultural diversity and promoting equal standing for all cultural traditions

Front 40

Differentiate Eurocentrism and Afrocentrism.

Back 40

Eurocentrism: the dominance of European cultural patterns

Afrocentrism: emphasizing and promoting African cultural patterns