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31 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
agrarian societies
Societies whose means of subsistence are based on agricultural production (crop growing).
assimilation
The acceptance of a minority group by a majority population, in which the new group takes on the values and norms of the dominant culture.
colonialism
The process whereby Western nations established their rule in parts of the world away from their home territories.
cultural relativism
The practice of judging a society by its own standards.
cultural turn
Sociology's recent emphasis on the importance of understanding the role of culture in daily life.
cultural universals
Values or modes of behavior shared by all human cultures.
culture
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.
developing world
The less-developed societies, in which industrial production is either virtually nonexistent or only developed to a limited degree. The majority of the world's population live in less-developed countries.
ethnocentrism
The tendency to look at other cultures through the eyes of one's own culture, and thereby misrepresent them.
first world
The group of nation-states that possesses mature industrialized economies based on capitalistic production.
hunting and gathering societies
Societies whose mode of subsistence is gained from hunting animals, fishing, and gathering edible plants.
Industrialization
The process of the machine production of goods. See also industrialized societies. industrialized societies Strongly 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.
instincts
Fixed patterns of behavior that have genetic origins and that appear in all normal animals within a given species.
language
The primary vehicle of meaning and communication in a society, language is a system of symbols that represent objects and abstract thoughts.
linguistic relativity hypothesis
A hypothesis, based on the theories of Sapir and Whorf, that perceptions are relative to language.
marriage
A socially approved sexual relationship between two individuals. Marriage almost always involves two persons of opposite sexes, but in some cultures, types of homosexual marriage are tolerated. Marriage normally forms the basis of a family of procreation-that is, it is expected that the married couple will produce and bring up children. Some societies permit polygamy, in which an individual may have several spouses at the same time.
material goods
The physical objects that a society creates, which influence the ways in which people live.
multiculturalism
Ethnic groups exist separately and share equally in economic and political life.
nationalism
A set of beliefs and symbols expressing identification with a national community.
nation-states
Particular types of states, characteristic of the modern world, in which governments have sovereign power within defined territorial areas, and populations are citizens who know themselves to be part of single nations. Nation-states are closely associated with the rise of nationalism, although nationalist loyalties do not always conform to the boundaries of specific states. Nation-states developed as part of an emerging nation-state system, originating in Europe; in current times, they span the whole globe.
newly industrializing economies (NIEs)
Developing countries that over the past two or three decades have begun to develop a strong industrial base, such as Singapore and Hong Kong.
norms
Rules of conduct that specify appropriate behavior in a given range of social situations. A norm either prescribes a given type of behavior or forbids it. All human groups follow definite norms, which are always backed by sanctions of one kind or another-varying from informal disapproval to physical punishment.
pastoral societies
Societies whose subsistence derives from the rearing of domesticated animals.
second world
Before the 1989 democracy movements, this included the industrialized Communist societies of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.
semiotics
The study of the ways in which nonlinguistic phenomena can generate meaning-as in the example of a traffic light.
signifier
Any vehicle of meaning and communication.
Society
A group of people who live in a particular territory, are subject to a common system of political authority, and are aware of having a distinct identity from other groups. Some societies, like hunting and gathering societies, are small, numbering no more than a few dozen people. Others are large, numbering millions-modern Chinese society, for instance, has a population of more than a billion people.
sociobiology
An approach that attempts to explain the behavior of both animals and human beings in terms of biological principles.
Subcultures
Values and norms distinct from those of the majority, held by a group within a wider society.
third world
A term used during the cold war to describe developing nations.
values
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.