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Culture

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Composed of the beliefs, norms, behaviors, and products common to the members of a particular group. Culture also influences our social development, as we are all products of our cultural beliefs, behaviors, and biases.

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Symbols

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Cultural representations of social realities.

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Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

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Our understandings and actions emerge from language. The words and concepts we learn and use structure our perceptions of the social world. Our language is tied to cultural objects and practices. When a language is lost, it represents the erasure of history, knowledge, and human diversity.

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Material Culture

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The physical objects and artifacts created, embraced, or consumed by society that help shape peoples' lives.

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Non-Material Culture

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Composed of the abstract creations of human cultures, including ideas about behavior and living. Example, patriotism, consumerism, expecting applause at the end of a performance etc. Both material culture and non-material culture are intertwined, but material is concrete, and non-material is abstract. Non-material culture may attach particular meanings to the objects of material culture. Example, USA flag.

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Beliefs

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Particular ideas that people accept as true based on faith, superstition, science, tradition, or experience. Beliefs are dynamic and changing, rather than static.

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Norms

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Common rules of a culture that govern the behavior of the people belonging to it. In its essence, they are the \"ought to,\" and \"ought not to's,\" that guide our behavioral choices. Example: traditional wedding ceremonies.

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Folkways

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Fairly weak norms that are passed down from the past; violation is not considered serious. Example: \"giving away\" the bride.

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Mores

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Strongly held norms; violation seriously offends standards of acceptable conduct. Example: \"I object\" during a wedding.

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Taboos

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Powerful mores; violation is considered serious and unthinkable. Example: marrying a first cousin.

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Laws

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Codified norms or rules of behavior that formalize and institutionalize society's norms. Can be changed; same-sex marriage.

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Values

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Abstract and general standards in society that define ideal principals. Example: national or patriotic values, community values, family values. Values can be a source of cohesion or conflict, and can play a critical role in the social integration of a society.

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Ideal Culture

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Values, norms, and behaviors that people in a given society profess to embrace. Example: \"beauty is only skin deep.\"

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Real Culture

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Values, norms, and behaviors that people in a given society actually embrace and exhibit. Example: conventional attractiveness linked to social, economic, and educational advantages.

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Cultural Inconsistency

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A contradiction between the goals of ideal culture and the practices of real culture.

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Ethnocentrism

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Worldview whereby we judge other cultures by the standards of our own. We perceive our own culture as \"natural,\" or \"normal.\" Example: death can be celebrated in one place, or mourned in another. Culture in a given group is doxic: norms and practices seem to be part of the social order: \"just the way things are.\"

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Cultural Relativism

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Worldview whereby we understand the practices of another society sociologically, in terms of that society's own norms and values and not of our own. Taken to its extreme, culture relevance can result in a dangerous indifference to human rights.

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Etic Perspective

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Perspective of the outside observer.

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Emic Perspective

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Perspective of the inside observer.

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Subculture

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Culture that exists within a dominant culture, but differs from it in some way.

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Ethnic Subculture

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Embrace values and dorms of dominant culture, while practicing values, rituals, and languages of native country.

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Counterculture

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Sub-cultural group whose norms, values, and practices deviate from those of the dominant culture.

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High Culture

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Music, theater, literature, etc., held in high esteem in society. Associated with the wealthier, more educated class. Example: classical music.

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Popular Culture

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Entertainment, culinary, and athletic tastes shared by the masses. Example: pop music.

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Social Class Reproduction

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The way class status is reproduced from generation to generation (Pierre Bourdieu).

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Cultural Capital

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Wealth in the form of knowledge, ideas, verbal skills, and ways of thinking and behaving.

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Rape Culture

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A social culture that provides an environment conducive to rape. Legislative/Judaical culture, and popular culture that promotes violence against women and that forced sex is \"no big deal.\"

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Victim Blaming

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Focus on victim's actions and behaviors rather than perpetrators.

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Global Culture

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Culture spread across the world in the form of popular films, food, and music.

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Glocalization

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Ability of a local culture to: absorb influences that fit in and enrich, resist those that are alien, compartmentalize those that are different, but can be enjoyed and celebrated as different.

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Grobalization

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Desire of imperialistic nations to see their power, influence, and profits grow throughout the world.

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Consumer Culture

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The core ideas and material objects relate to consumption, and in which consumption is a primary source of meaning in life.

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Cultural Hegemony

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The domination of culture and the vehicles that disseminate it, elites facilitate mass acceptance of ideas that promote their power and survival.

Sociology 101 – Exam I, Chapter III

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