Sociology chp. 2 – Flashcards
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Symbol
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Anything that represents something else; it has shared meaning attatched to it
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Language
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The organization of written or spoken symbols into a standardized system
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Technology
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Physical objects and the rules for using these objects
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Values
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Shared beliefs about what is good or bad, right or wrong, desirable or undesirable
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Norms
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Shared rules of conduct that tell people how to act in specific situation (expectations for behavior, not actual behavior)
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Culture
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All the shared products of a human group (products include material and nonmaterial aspects)
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Folkways
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Rules of conduct that do not have great moral significance attached to them (common customs of everyday life)
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Society
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A group of interdependent people who have organized in such a way as to share a common culture and a feeling of unity
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Laws
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Formal written rules of conduct enacted and enforced by the government
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Cultural universals
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Features common to all cultures
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Cultural relativism
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The belief that cultures should be judged by their own standards
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Subculture
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A group with its own unique values, norms, and behaviors that exist within a larger culture
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Counterculture
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A group that rejects the major values, norms, and practices of the larger society and replaces them with a new set of cultural patterns
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Ethnocentrism
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The tendency to view ones own culture and group as superior
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Margaret Mead
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The anthropologist who conducted a now classic study of cultural variation among New Guinea tribes in the 1930s
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Napoleon Chagnon
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This french anthropologist studied the Yanomamo of Venezuela and named them the "fierce people"
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George Murdock
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In the 1940s this anthropologist identified over 65 general traits that are common to all cultures (body adornment, dancing, cooking, feasting, forms of greeting, funeral ceremonies, etc.)
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Edwin Southerland
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This criminologist developed the idea of subcultures in the 1920s through his work on crime and juvenile delinquency
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Cultural trait
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The simplest level of culture; an individual tool, act or belief that is related to a particular situation or need
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Cultural complex
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A collection of interrelated traits
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Cultural pattern
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A combination of a number of cultural complexes into an interrelated whole
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Arapesh
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These new guinea people are contented, gentle, nonaggressive, trusting, and warm
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Mundugumor
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These new guinea people are openly hostile, aggressive, jealous, competitive, and violent toward even their own family members.
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Marvin Harris
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This anthropologist studied the religious prohibition against killing cows and suggested it was related to the development of Indian culture
