Macionis's Society: The Basics Chapter 2 Defs

Front 1

culture

Back 1

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

Front 2

society

Back 2

refers to people who interact in a defined territory and share a culture

Front 3

Culture shock

Back 3

personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life

Front 4

Symbol

Back 4

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

Front 5

Language

Back 5

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

Front 6

Cultural transmission

Back 6

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

Front 7

Sapir-Whorf Thesis

Back 7

people see and understand through the cultural lens of language

Front 8

Values

Back 8

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

Front 9

Beliefs

Back 9

specific statements that people hold to be true

Front 10

Norms

Back 10

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

Front 11

Mores

Back 11

norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance

Front 12

Folkways

Back 12

norms for routine or casual interaction

Front 13

Technology

Back 13

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

Front 14

Hunting and gathering

Back 14

the use of simple tools to hunt animals and gather vegetation for food

Front 15

Horticulture

Back 15

the use of hand tools to raise crops

Front 16

Agriculture

Back 16

large scale cultivation using plows harnessed to animals or machines

Front 17

Pastoralism

Back 17

the domestication of animals

Front 18

Industry

Back 18

the production of goods using advanced sources of energy to drive large machinery

Front 19

High culture

Back 19

cultural patterns that distinguish a society’s elite

Front 20

Popular culture

Back 20

cultural patterns that are widespread among a society’s population

Front 21

Subculture

Back 21

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

Front 22

Multiculturalism

Back 22

a perspective recognizing the cultural diversity of the United States and Promoting respect and equal standing for all cultural traditions

Front 23

Eurocentrism

Back 23

the dominance of European cultural patterns

Front 24

Afrocentrism

Back 24

emphasizing and promoting African cultural patterns

Front 25

Counterculture

Back 25

cultural patterns that strongly opposed those widely accepted within a society

Front 26

Cultural integration

Back 26

the close relationships among various elements of a cultural system

Front 27

Cultural lag

Back 27

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

Front 28

ethnocentrism

Back 28

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

Front 29

cultural relativism

Back 29

the practice of judging another culture by the standards of its own culture

Front 30

sociobiology

Back 30

a theoretical approach that explores ways in which human biology affects how we create culture