Sociology 202 - Chapter 4

cultural relativism

principle that people’s beliefs and activities should be interpreted in terms of their own culture

ethnocentrism

tendency to judge other cultures using one’s own as a standard

folkway

informal norm that is mildly punished when violated

heteronormative culture

culture in which heterosexually is accepted as the normal, taken-for-granted mode of sexual expression

institutionalized norm

pattern of behavior within existing social institutions that is widely accepted in a society

intersex

category of individuals in whom sexual differentiation is either incomplete or ambiguous (aka people with disorders of sex development)

material culture

artifacts of a society that represent adaptions to the social and physical environment 

mores

highly codified, formal, systematized norms that bring severe punishment when violated

nonmaterial culture

knowledge, beliefs, customs, values, morals, and symbols that are shared by members of a society and that distinguish the society from others

sanction

social response that punishes or otherwise discourages violations of a social norm

sexual dichotomy

belief that two biological sex categories, make and female, are permanent, universal, exhaustive, and mutually exclusive

sick role

set of norms governing how one is supposed to behave and what one is entitled to when sick

subculture

values, behaviors, and artifacts of a group that distinguish its members from the larger culture

transgender

state in which one’s gender expression or identity does not conform to the sex they were assigned at birth