Intro to Sociology, Chapter 2: Culture

Culture

The ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and the material objects that together form a people's way of life.

Society

People who interact in a defined territory and share a culture.

Culture shock

Personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life.

Symbol

Anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture.

Language

A system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another.

Cultural transmission

The process by which one generation passes culture to the next.

Sapir-Whorf thesis

Holds that people see and understand the world through the cultural lens of language.

Values

Culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good, and beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social living.

Beliefs

Specific ideas that people hold to be true.

Norms

Rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members.

Mores

Norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance.

Folkways

Norms for routine or casual interaction.

Technology

Knowledge that people use to make a way of life in their surroundings.

Hunting and gathering

The use of simple tools to hunt animals and gather vegetation for food.

Horticulture

The use of hand tools to raise crops.

Pastoralism

The domestication of animals.

Agriculture

Large-scale cultivation using plows harnessed to animals or more powerful energy sources.

Industry

The production of goods using advanced sources of energy to drive large machinery.

Postindustrialism

The production of information using computer technology.

High culture

Cultural patterns that distinguish a society's elite.

Popular culture

Cultural patterns that are widespread among a society's population.

Subculture

Cultural patterns that set apart some segment of a society's population.

Multiculturalism

A perspective recognizing the cultural diversity of the United States and promoting equal standing for all cultural traditions.

Eurocentrism

The dominance of European (especially English) cultural patterns.

Afrocentrism

Emphasizing and promoting African cultural patterns.

Counterculture

Cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted within a society.

Cultural integration

The close relationships among various elements of a cultural system.

Cultural lag

The fact that some cultural elements change more quickly than others, disrupting a cultural system.

Ethnocentrism

The practice of judging another cultural by the standards of one's own culture.

Cultural relativism

The practice of judging a culture by its own standards.

Cultural universals

Traits that are part of every known culture.

Sociobiology

A theoretical approach that explores ways in which human biology affects how we create culture.