Transcript Chapter 3, Culture

Chapter 3, Culture
Key Terms

culture
The knowledge, language, values, customs
and material objects that are passed from
person to person and from one generation to
the next in a human group or society.

material culture
The physical or tangible creations that
members of a society make, use, and share.

nonmaterial culture
The abstract or intangible human creations of
society that influence people’s behavior.

cultural universals
Customs and practices that occur across all
societies.

symbol
Anything that meaningfully represents
something else.

language
A set of symbols that expresses ideas and
enables people to think and communicate with
one another.

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Language shapes the reality of its speakers.

values
Collective ideas about what is right or wrong,
good or bad, and desirable or undesirable in a
particular culture.

norms
Established rules of behavior or standards of
conduct.

sanctions
Rewards for appropriate behavior or penalties
for inappropriate behavior.

folkways
Informal norms or everyday customs that may
be violated without serious consequences
within a particular culture.

mores
A particular culture’s strongly held norms with
moral and ethical connotations that may not be
violated without serious consequences.

taboos
Mores so strong that their violation is
considered extremely offensive and
unmentionable.

laws
Formal, standardized norms that have been
enacted by legislatures and are enforced by
formal sanctions.

technology
The knowledge, techniques, and tools that
allow people to transform resources into
useable forms and the knowledge and skills
required to use what is developed.

cultural lag
A gap between the technical development of a
society and it’s moral and legal institutions.

discovery
The process of learning about something
previously unknown or unrecognized.

invention
The process of reshaping existing cultural
items into a new form.

diffusion
The transmission of cultural items or social
practices from one group or society to another.

subculture
A category of people who share distinguishing
attributes, beliefs, values, and /or norms that
set them apart in some significant manner from
the dominant culture.

counterculture
A group that strongly reflects dominant societal
values and norms and seeks alternative
lifestyles.

culture shock
The disorientation people feel when they
encounter cultures radically different from their
own.

ethnocentrism
The practice of judging all other cultures by
one’s own culture.

popular culture
Activities, products and services that are
assumed to appeal primarily to member so the
middle and working classes.

cultural Imperialism
The extensive infusion of on nation's culture
into other nations.