Sociology Unit 2 - Culture

Culture

The beliefs, values, behavior, and material objects shared by a particular people.

Material Culture

Physical objects and artifacts created and used by a society, such as clothing and technology.

Non-Material Culture

The ideas, beliefs, values, norms, and language shared by a society.

Symbols

Anything that meaningfully represents something else to members of a cultural group.

Values

A culture's general standards regarding what is good, desirable, right, or important.

Norms

Rules and expectations that guide behavior within a society.

Folkways

Everyday customs, habits, and etiquette with little moral significance.

Mores

Strict norms with strong moral significance and severe social penalties if violated.

Taboos

Deeply ingrained norms so strictly forbidden that violation invokes extreme revulsion.

Laws

Formal, codified norms enacted and enforced by the state.

Cultural Universals

Patterns or traits that are globally common to all human societies.

Ethnocentrism

Judging other cultures by the standards of one's own culture, assuming one's own is superior.

Cultural Relativism

Understanding another culture on its own terms rather than judging it by one's own standards.

Critical Relativism

Evaluating cultural practices while also taking power relations and human rights into account.

Culture Shock

Personal disorientation and anxiety experienced when encountering an unfamiliar way of life.

Culture Lag

The delay that occurs when non-material culture struggles to catch up with rapid technological innovations.

Cultural Diffusion

The spread of cultural beliefs and social activities from one group to another.

Cultural Imperialism

The imposition of one culture's beliefs and practices on another, backed by power.

Subculture

A cultural group within a larger culture that shares distinct values while participating in the mainstream.

Counterculture

A subculture that explicitly rejects and actively opposes major values and norms of the dominant culture.

Co-optation

The mainstream absorption of a symbol of rebellion, neutralizing it and selling it back as a commodity.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (Linguistic Relativity)

The principle that the structure of a language shapes its speakers' worldview and perception of reality.

Code-Switching

Alternating between different languages, dialects, or linguistic styles depending on social context.

African American Vernacular English (AAVE)

A systematic and rule-governed dialect of English spoken by many African Americans.

Hegemony (Gramsci)

The way a dominant group maintains power through cultural consensus and ideological control rather than force.

Taste as a Marker of Class (Bourdieu)

The idea that cultural preferences signal social class and help reproduce social inequality.

Simulacrum (Baudrillard)

A representation or imitation of an object or event that eventually replaces the original reality.

Discourse (Foucault)

Systems of thoughts, knowledge, and language that shape what can be thought or spoken as truth.

Breaching Experiments (Garfinkel)

Studies that deliberately violate social norms to reveal the hidden invisible rules governing everyday life.

Functionalism (Theoretical Perspective)

Macro-perspective asking what function a cultural practice serves in holding society together.

Conflict Theory (Theoretical Perspective)

Macro-perspective asking whose interests a cultural practice serves and who holds power.

Symbolic Interactionism

Micro-perspective focusing on how meaning is created and negotiated in everyday interactions.

Postmodern Perspective

Perspective asking who decides what counts as real, normal, or true, focusing on media and images.