PA 3 Vocab - Culture

Culture

shared values, beliefs, norms and rules, language, symbols, arts and artifacts, and the people's collective identities and memories

Material culture

tangible items

Nonmaterial culture

ideas, attitudes, and beliefs; intangible

Cultural Universals

patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies

Ethnocentrism

believing your group's culture is the correct measuring standard/better than all others

Cultural imperialism

the deliberate imposition of one's own cultural values on another culture

Culture shock

the disorientation and frustration people experience when they find themselves in a new culture

Cultural relativism

practice of assessing a culture by its own standards rather than viewing it through the lens of one's own culture

Xenocentrism

the belief that another culture is superior to one's own

Xenophobia

an irrational fear or hatred of different cultures

Value

ideals or principles and standards members of a culture hold in high regard

Belief

the tenets or convictions people hold to be true

Ideal culture

the standards society would like to embrace and live up to

Real culture

the actual behaviors and practices that people in a society exhibit

Social control

ways to encourage conformity to cultural norms or rules

Sanctions

penalty or reward concerning a social norm

Norms

rules of conduct through which societies are structured

Mores

(mor-ays) - norms that embody the moral views and principles of a group

Folkways

norms without any moral underpinnings; appropriate behavior in day-to-day practices

Language

a system that uses symbols with which people communicate and through which culture is transmitted

Symbols

create a language used for communication

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

linguistic relativity, language shapes thought and thus behavior, we experience the world through out language

High culture

the pattern of cultural experiences and attitudes that exist in the highest or elite class segments of society

Low culture

the pattern of cultural experiences and attitudes that exist in the lowest class segments of society

Pop culture

the pattern of cultural experiences and attitudes that exist in mainstream society

Subculture

a smaller cultural group within a larger culture

Counterculture

a cultural group that actively defies larger society by developing their own set of rules and norms to live by (e.g. cults)

Innovation

a new item that is discovered or invented

Diffusion

material culture enters the mainstream

Globalization

the promotion and increase of interactions between different regions and populations around the globe

Culture lag

the time that passes between the introduction of a new item of material culture and its acceptance