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Chapter 3: Culture

Culture: society\’s socially learned ideas

Material culture: physical artifacts w/ cultural meaning

Nonmaterial culture:  ideas representing components of society

Ideal culture: values a society claims to believe

Real culture: actual behavior of members of a society

Sapir-Wholf theory: people view society through the framework of language

Infractions:

Sanctions: a punishment or reward that supports socially approved norms 

Technological determinism: idea that society\’s technology drives development of its social structures

     – technology drives social progress

Values: collective ideas about what is desirable in society

Sustainable development: meets the needs of the present w/o compromising that ability of future generations to meet their own needs 

Folkways: informal and common norms that guide everyday behavior

     – EX: do not eat sign

Mores: informal norms based on moral factors

     – EX: jewish individuals judging non-jews for eating pork

Laws: formal rules enforced by the state

Taboos: formal norms that cause social disapproval is violated

Sanctions: punishments that support socially approved norms 

Cultural transmission: culture is passed through generations

Dominant ideology: beliefs of the majority

Cultural imperialism: influence and power of one country\’s culture on a country due to importing goods and services

Subcultures: groups w/ distinct set of characteristics shared by a minority of people in society

     – EX: gamers, amish

Countercultures: subculture groups in opposition w/ majority of members of society

     – wants to change the whole of society

     – EX: KKK

Social facts: material and nonmaterial aspects of society that are outside us but greatly influence ur way of thinking in society

Ethnocentrism: judging another culture by one\\\’s own standards

Cultural relativism: understanding another culture from its standards

Cultural diffusion: spread of norms, values, knowledge, and symbols from one society to another

     – EX: 

Cultural lag: technological development and progress outpace current norms 

     – material aspects are happening faster than its nonmaterial aspects

Cultural leveling: cultures become similar due to media and globalization

High culture: characteristics of the elite