Culture: Terms & Concepts

Flashcards covering key terms, definitions, components, and theoretical perspectives on culture based on the lecture notes.

Culture (Haviland, 1999)

"The ideals, values, and beliefs members of a society share to interpret experience and generate behavior and that are reflected by their behavior" (Haviland, 1999).

Margaret Visser (1986)

Author of Much Depends on Dinner who noted: "The extent to which we take everyday objects for granted is the precise extent to which they govern and inform our lives."

Material culture

The tangible aspect of culture consisting of physical artifacts.

Nonmaterial culture

The non-physical aspect of culture that encompasses values, beliefs, language, gestures, and normative systems.

Norms

Rules and expectations of a culture that include folkways, mores, taboos, and laws.

Social control

The means by which norms are enforced through positive and negative sanctions, conducted both formally and informally.

Subcultures

Groups that have values and behaviors distinguishing them from the larger culture, creating a "world within a world" (e.g., Minnesotans, pro sports athletes, ESL students).

Countercultures

Groups having values and behaviors perceived to be in direct opposition to the larger culture (e.g., street gang, supremacist group).

Culture shock

A response to encountering an unfamiliar culture that questions how "normal" or "natural" cultural practices are.

Ethnocentrism

A response to culture involving judging or evaluating other cultures by the standards of one's own culture.

Cultural relativism

A response to culture involving understanding a culture on its own terms rather than judging it by foreign standards.

Xenocentrism

A response to culture involving preferring or valuing another culture's traits, beliefs, or products over one's own.

Technology (Cultural context)

The tools used by a culture, serving as a common element by which to compare cultures and societies.

Cultural diffusion

The process of cultural change coming from the outside, responsible for approximately $90\%$ of all cultural change.

Cultural leveling

The process by which cultures become similar to one another (e.g., the "mcdonaldization" of cultures).

Structural Functionalism

A sociological theory asserting that values and norms bring stability to society.

Symbolic Interactionism

A sociological theory asserting that individuals create norms and values and maintain them through interaction.

Conflict theory

A sociological theory that explores how cultural patterns are influenced by the powerful.

Cultural ecology

A theory proposing that cultural patterns are influenced by the surrounding environment, enabling people to live in their particular environment.