Ch 2 Culture – Key terms

counterculture: a group whose values, beliefs, and related behaviors place its members in opposition to the broader culture (p. 43)

cultural diffusion: the spread of cultural characteristics from one group to another (p. 51)

cultural lag: Ogburn's term for human behavior lagging behind technological innovations (p. 50)

cultural leveling: the process by which cultures become similar to one another; refers especially to the process by which U.S. culture is being imported and diffused into other nations (p. 51)

cultural relativism: not judging a culture but trying to understand it on its own terms (p. 34)

culture: the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that are passed from one generation to the next (p. 32)

culture shock: the disorientation that people experience when they come in contact with a fundamentally different culture and can no longer depend on their taken-for-granted assumptions about life (p. 33)

ethnocentrism: the use of one's own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of other individuals or societies, generally leading to a negative evaluation of their values, norms, and behaviors (p. 33)

folkways: norms that are not strictly enforced (p. 42)

gestures: the ways in which people use their bodies to communicate with one another (p. 37)

ideal culture: the ideal values and norms of a people; the goals held out for them (as opposed to real culture) (p. 49)

language: a system of symbols that can be combined in an infinite number of ways and can represent not only objects but also abstract thought (p. 38)

material culture: the material objects that distinguish a group of people, such as their art, buildings, weapons, utensils, machines, hairstyles, clothing, and jewelry (p. 32)

mores: norms that are strictly enforced because they are thought essential to core values (p. 42)

negative sanction: an expression of disapproval for breaking a norm, ranging from a mild, informal reaction such as a frown to a formal reaction such as a prison sentence or an execution (p. 42)

new technology: an emerging technology that has a significant impact on social life (p. 50)

nonmaterial culture (also called symbolic culture): a group's ways of thinking (including its beliefs, values, and other assumptions about the world) and doing (its common patterns of behavior, including language and other forms of interaction) (p. 33)

norms: the expectations, or rules of behavior, that develop to reflect and enforce values (p. 42)

pluralistic society: a society made up of many different groups (p. 46)

positive sanction: a reward or positive reaction for following norms (p. 42)

real culture: the norms and values that people actually follow (as opposed to ideal culture) (p. 50)

sanctions: expressions of approval or disapproval given to people for upholding or violating norms (p. 42)

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: Edward Sapir's and Benjamin Whorf’s hypothesis that language creates ways of thinking and perceiving (p. 41)

subculture: the values and related behaviors of a group that distinguish its members from the larger culture; a world within a world (p. 43)

symbol: something to which people attach meanings and then use to communicate with others (p. 36)

symbolic culture: another term for nonmaterial culture (p. 36)

taboo: a norm thought essential for society's welfare that is so strong that violating it brings revulsion (p. 43)

technology: in its narrow sense, tools; its broader sense includes the skills or procedures necessary to make and use those tools (p. 50)

value cluster: a series of interrelated values that together form a larger whole (p. 46)

value contradiction: values that contradict one another; to follow the one means to come into conflict with the other (p. 48)

values: the standards by which people define what is desirable or undesirable, good or bad, beautiful or ugly (p. 42)