Chapter 3, Culture

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Chapter 3, Culture

• Key Terms

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• cultureThe knowledge, language, values, customs
  and material objects that are passed from person
  to person and from one generation to the next in
  a human group or society.
• material cultureThe physical or tangible
  creations that members of a society make, use,
  and share.

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• nonmaterial cultureThe abstract or intangible
  human creations of society that influence
  peoples behavior.
• cultural universalsCustoms and practices that
  occur across all societies.

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• symbolAnything that meaningfully represents
  something else.
• languageA set of symbols that expresses ideas
  and enables people to think and communicate with
  one another.

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• Sapir-Whorf hypothesisLanguage shapes the
  reality of its speakers.
• valuesCollective ideas about what is right or
  wrong, good or bad, and desirable or undesirable
  in a particular culture.

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• normsEstablished rules of behavior or standards
  of conduct.
• sanctionsRewards for appropriate behavior or
  penalties for inappropriate behavior.

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• folkwaysInformal norms or everyday customs that
  may be violated without serious consequences
  within a particular culture.
• moresA particular cultures strongly held norms
  with moral and ethical connotations that may not
  be violated without serious consequences.

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• taboosMores so strong that their violation is
  considered extremely offensive and
  unmentionable.
• lawsFormal, standardized norms that have been
  enacted by legislatures and are enforced by
  formal sanctions.

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• technologyThe knowledge, techniques, and tools
  that allow people to transform resources into
  useable forms and the knowledge and skills
  required to use what is developed.
• cultural lagA gap between the technical
  development of a society and its moral and legal
  institutions.

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• discoveryThe process of learning about something
  previously unknown or unrecognized.
• inventionThe process of reshaping existing
  cultural items into a new form.

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• diffusionThe transmission of cultural items or
  social practices from one group or society to
  another.
• subcultureA category of people who share
  distinguishing attributes, beliefs, values, and
  /or norms that set them apart in some significant
  manner from the dominant culture.

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• countercultureA group that strongly reflects
  dominant societal values and norms and seeks
  alternative lifestyles.
• culture shockThe disorientation people feel when
  they encounter cultures radically different from
  their own.

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• ethnocentrismThe practice of judging all other
  cultures by ones own culture.
• popular cultureActivities, products and services
  that are assumed to appeal primarily to member so
  the middle and working classes.

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• cultural ImperialismThe extensive infusion of on
  nation's culture into other nations.