Sociology 202 Ch 3 Key Terms

beliefs

tenets or convictions that people hold to be true

countercultures

groups that reject and oppose society’s widely accepted cultural patterns

cultural universals

patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies

culture

shared beliefs

culture lag

the gap of time between the introduction of material culture and nonmaterial culture’s acceptance of it

diffusion

the spread of material and nonmaterial culture from one culture to another

discoveries

things and ideas found from what already exists

ethnocentrism

the evaluation and judgment of another culture based on one’s own cultural norms

folkways

direct

formal norms

established

globalization

the integration of international trade and finance markets

high culture

the cultural patterns of a society’s elite

ideal culture

the standards a society would like to embrace and live up to

informal norms

casual behaviors that are generally and widely conformed to

innovations

new objects or ideas introduced to culture for the first time

inventions

a combination of pieces of existing reality into new forms

language

a symbolic system of communication

mores

the moral views and principles of a group

norms

the visible and invisible rules of conduct through which societies are structured

popular culture

mainstream

real culture

the way society really is based on what actually occurs and exists

sanctions

a way to authorize or formally disapprove of certain behaviors

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

the way that people understand the world based on their form of language

social control

a way to encourage conformity to cultural norms

society

people who live in a definable community and who share a culture

subcultures

groups that share a specific identification

symbols

gestures or objects that have meanings associated with them that are recognized by people who share a culture

values

a culture’s standard for discerning what is good and just in society