Unit 2: Culture (Ch. 2-3 )

• Cultural lag


  A situation in which some aspects of the culture change less rapidly, or lag behind, other aspects of the same culture.
• Social Movement


  A long-term conscious effort to promote or prevent social change.
• Socialization


  The process by which a norm becomes part of a person's personality and conditions that person to conform to society's expectations
• Informal sanction


  Spontaneous expression of approval or disapproval by an individual or group
• Ideology


  A set or system of beliefs that justifies the social, moral.religious, political, or economic interests held by a group or society
• Narcissism


  Extreme self-centeredness (coined by social historian Christopher Lasch)
• Negative sanction


  A punishment or the threat of punishment used to enforce conformity.
• Vested interest


  When a person resists any change that threatens their security or standard of living our of fear of losing it
• Social control


  Enforcing norms through either internal or external means
• Internalization


  process by which a norm becomes a part of an individual's personality, thereby conditioning the individual to conform to society's expectations
• Technology


  A combination of objects and rules that people use to manipulate their environment
• Reasons people resist cultural change

  Ethnocentrism, cultural lag and vested interests
• Sanction


  A penalty or reward for conduct concerning a social norm
• Positive sanction


  a reward or positive reaction for following norms
• Formal sanction


  sanctions imposed by a formal organization
• Cultural diffusion


  the spread of cultural elements from one society to another
• Values


  Beliefs of a person or social group in which they have an emotional investment (either for or against something).
• Society


  Interdependent people who share a common culture and feeling of unity
• Material Culture


  The physical objects that people create and use
• Basic components of culture

  Consists of norms, symbols, values, language, and physical objects
• Mundugamor


  A native people of Papua New Guinea who are an aggressive, competitive, jealous and violent people. Brothers do not speak to one another and are ashamed o be by each other. The only tie between numbers of the same sex are though members of the opposite sex.
• Arapesh


  A native people of Papua New Guinea who are a contented, gentle, nonaggressive, receptive, trusting, and warm people. Their society is based on complete cooperation. They live in close knit villages consisting of clans.
• Margaret Mead


  Anthropologist who conducted a classic study of cultural variation. She wanted to determine whether differences in basic temperament result mainly from inherited characteristics or from cultural influences. She studied two cultures in Papua New Guinea, the Arapesh and the Mundugumor
• George Murdock


  Anthropologist who examined hundreds of different cultures in an attempt to determine what general trials are common to all cultures. He found that the specific nature of these traits can vary widely although survival may dictate cultural universals.
• Subculture


  A group with its own unique values, norms, and behaviors that exists within a larger culture
• Ethnocentrism


  tendency to view one's own culture and group as superior to all other cultures and groups
• Counterculture


  A group that rejects the values, norms, and practices of the larger society and replaces them with a new set of cultural patterns.
• San Bushmen


  A people group of South Africa who speak a distinctive language which is characterized by the use of verbal clicks. They live in the Kalahari Desert. They live in small groups and depend on cooperation (as seen in "The Gods Must Be Crazy"
• Cultural relativism


  Belief that cultures should be judged by their own standards
• Cultural universals


  Common features that are found in all human cultures
• Culture patterns


  combination of a number of culture complexes into an interrelated whole.
• Culture complexes


  clusters of interrelated culture traits
• Culture trait


  individual tool, act, or belief that is related to a particular situation or need
• Laws


  written rules of conduct that are enacted and enforced by the government. By definition, the violation of these normals is considered a criminal act.
• Nonmaterial Culture


  abstract human creations such as language, ideas, beliefs, rules, skills, family patterns, work practices, and political and economic systems.
• Society


  A group of interdependent people who have organized in such a way as to share a common culture and feeling of unity
• Mores


  norms that have great moral significance attached to them
• Folkways


  norms that do not have great moral significance attached to them -- the common customs of everyday life.
• Technology


  knowledge and tools people use for practical purposes
• Language


  organization of written and spoken symbols into a standardized system.