Foundations of Cultural Inquiry: Midterm Quotations and Key Concepts

Vocabulary study cards covering sociological concepts, gender terminology, and core midterm exam quotations.

Amartya Sen on Identity and Conflict

The proposition that many conflicts and barbarities in the world are sustained through the illusion of a unique and choiceless identity.

Bellicose Identity

A hostile, aggressive identity whose force can be challenged by the power of competing identities.

Plurality of Identities

The concept advanced by Amartya Sen as the primary hope of harmony in a troubled world.

Stereotypes (Chimamanda Adichie)

Incomplete depictions that show a people as only one thing over and over again until that is what they become, rather than depictions that are simply wrong.

Stories (Chimamanda Adichie)

Narratives that matter because they have been used to dispossess and malign, but can also be used to empower and humanize.

"To kill the Indian, and save the man"

A historical assimilation philosophy regarding Native Americans that is more accurately characterized as ethnic cleansing.

Indian Self-Determination and Education Act

Legislation passed by the United States Congress in 1975 concerning Native American self-governance and education.

Healing Heart Totem Pole

A totem pole in 'Carved From The Heart' that remains an important symbol of sobriety, communal healing, permission to express loss, and empowerment to act, representing that Native cultures continue to adapt to contemporary concerns.

Interdependence of Destinies (Primo Levi)

The principle that a person's rise or fall is tied to the destinies of their neighbours, making it exceptional for anyone to acquire unlimited power or fall into utter ruin entirely alone.

New Caste System (Michelle Alexander)

The mass incarceration of poor people of color in the United States, specifically tailored to the political, economic, and social challenges of our time.

Poverty Abolitionists

Individuals who unwind themselves from their neighbors' deprivation and refuse to live as unwitting enemies of the poor in order to end poverty.

Poverty (Matthew Desmond / 'Poverty, By America')

The condition of not having enough choice and being taken advantage of because of that, rather than simply not having enough money.

Agency

Consciousness of choice, the power to choose, and the willingness to act.

Caste

A group of people, defined largely by race, who are relegated to a permanent second-class status by law.

Jim Crow

A term originating from a Black minstrel show character portrayed as a buffoon, used to describe laws, customs, and practices that enforced racial segregation and discrimination in the U.S. from 1877 into the 1960s.

Feminism

The belief that all men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.

Patriarchy

The control of female family members by select adult men.

PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)

A mental health condition triggered by experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event (such as genocide, combat, a natural disaster, a car accident, or sexual assault) with symptoms including flashbacks, nightmares, severe anxiety, and uncontrollable thoughts.

Social Construction

A process by which humans make reality meaningful through shared interpretation, meaning people in different times, places, and cultures interpret 'correct' ways of being in a particular way.

Social Identity

That part of an individual's self-concept derived from knowledge of membership in a social group (or groups) together with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership (Henri Tajfel, 1981).

Socialization

The social processes through which children develop an awareness of social norms and values and achieve a distinct sense of self, continuing to some degree throughout life (Anthony Giddens, 1996).

Androgynous

Identifying and/or presenting as neither distinguishably masculine nor feminine.

Gender Binary

A system of viewing gender as consisting solely of two identities and sexes: man and woman or male and female.

Cisgender

A term used to describe someone whose gender identity aligns with the sex assigned to them at birth.

Gay

A generic term applied to both men attracted to men and women attracted to women.

Gender Dysphoria

Clinically defined as significant and durational distress caused when a person's assigned birth gender is not the same as the one with which they identify.

Gender Expression

The external appearance of a person's gender identity, usually expressed through behavior, clothing, haircut, or voice, which may or may not conform to socially defined masculine or feminine behaviors and characteristics.

Gender Fluid

A person who does not identify with a single fixed gender and expresses a fluid or unfixed gender identity that shifts and changes depending on context.

Gender Identity

A person's innermost concept of self as man, woman, a blend of both, or neither—how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves.

Gender Neutral Pronoun

Pronouns that do not refer to a specific binary gender, with 'they' being the most common.

Gender Non-Conforming

A broad term referring to people who do not behave in a way that conforms to traditional expectations of their gender, or whose gender expression does not fit neatly into a category.

Gender Questioning

A person who may be processing, questioning, or exploring how they want to express their gender identity.

Heterosexual

A man who is attracted to women, or a woman who is attracted to men.

Homophobia

The irrational fear or hatred of homosexuals, homosexuality, or any behavior or belief that does not conform to rigid sex role stereotypes.

Non-Binary

Any gender that falls outside of the binary system of male/female or man/woman.

Queer

An umbrella term often used to express fluid identities and orientations; common as a positive self-descriptor, though it can be offensive when used by someone outside the community.

Sex

The classification of a person as male or female at birth, usually based on the appearance of their external anatomy.

Sexuality

A person's exploration of sexual acts, sexual orientation, sexual pleasure, and desire.

Transgender

An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural and social expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth.

Transitioning

The social, legal, and/or medical process a person may go through to live outwardly as the gender with which they identify, rather than the gender assigned at birth.