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1
Q

What is culture?

A

A complex collection of values, beliefs, behaviours, and material objects shared by a group and passed on from one generation to the next.

2
Q

What are the three reasons why no one can really determine when culture began?

A

1) Very little material evidence, the things cultures make, survives over a long period of time
2) Much of culture is non material (e.g., a belief system) and, therefore, cannot be preserved for future generations to study.
3) Many of the developments that enabled our ancestors to become cultural (e.g., increasing brain size, bipedalism, dietary changes, emergence of language, use of technology, etc.) were all interconnected and integral for the emergence culture.

3
Q

What are hominid ancestors?

A

Our human ancestors.

4
Q

What are the 6 points of evidence of the evolution of human culture that may help determine when in fact human culture may have begun?

A

1) Social life: hominid ancestors lived in groups as far back as 4.4 million years ago
2) Parental care: early hominids had smaller brains sizes, as brain size increased birthing needed to occur at a n earlier stage as a large head would not fit through a female’s birth canal resulting in greater parental care. This change probably occurred with Homo erectus around 1.9 million years ago
2) Pair-bonding: the attachment of a male to a female is believed to have occurred between 2.4 and 1.9 million years ago
4) Subsistence: acquiring and distributing food took place over a number of periods. Tools used for hunting date as far back as 2.6 million years, evidence of organized hunts dates back 500 000 years and evidence of fishing dates back 100 000 years, and farming dates back 10 000 years.
5) Environmental adaption: use of caves dates back 800 000 years, use of fire dates back 450 000 years, and sewing of hides for clothing dates back 30 000 years.
6) Thought, language, art, and religion: oldest known piece of at dates back 250 000 years, pigments of black and red have been found in caves dating back 400 000 years, cave paintings dating back over 30 000 years, evidence of Neanderthals performing funerals over 100 000 years ago

5
Q

What are Homo sapiens?

A

Modern human beings

6
Q

How long ago does evidence of modern humans date back?

A

only 200 000 years

7
Q

Where did Homo sapience emerge out of? When did they begin to move through Asia?

A

Africa and began to move through Asia between 80 000 and 60 000 years ago

8
Q

Where can the earliest civilizations be traced back to and how long ago?

A

Jericho, West Bank, around 11 000 years ago.

9
Q

What are the 5 defining features of culture?

A

1) Culture is learned: no one is born with culture; as we grow up we are constantly immersed in the cultural traditions of your parents, siblings, and peers. Your culture modifies and influences your perceptions, values, and perspectives.
2) Culture is shared: people interact and share experiences and meanings; shared collective symbols help to create and maintain group solidarity and cohesion.
3) Culture is transmitted: traditions and beliefs being passed from generation to generation to survive is an important requirement for any culture
4) Culture is cumulative: members of each generation find and modify their cultural beliefs to meet their changing needs
5) Culture is human: animals are considered to be social. but not cultural; culture is the product of human interaction

10
Q

What two major segments can culture be divided into?

A

material culture and nonmaterial culture

11
Q

What is material culture?

A

The tangible artifacts and physical objects found in a given culture. Encompasses the physical output of human labour and expression and helps us to adapt to and prosper ind verse and often challenging physical environments. It is everything we build and create.

12
Q

What is nonmaterial culture?

A

The intangible and abstract components of a society, including value and norms that are passed on from generation to generation.

13
Q

What are values?

A

Beliefs about ideal goals and behaviours that serve as standards for social life. They are the standards by which people define what is desirable or undesirable, good or bad, beautiful or ugly; they are the attitudes about the way the world ought to be. They define right and wrong or specify cultural preferences and are general guidelines on what a society deems to be important.

14
Q

What are norms?

A

Culturally defined rules that outline appropriate behaviours. They help people know how to act in given social situations and provide general guidelines on how we should act, and because we learn them from an early age, they offer some comfort that we will know how to act in situations we have never faced before.

15
Q

What are the two types norms?

A

folkways and mores

16
Q

What are folkways?

A

Informal norms that suggest customary ways of behaving. Do not inspire strong moral condemnation.

17
Q

What are mores?

A

Norms that carry a strong sense of social importance and necessity. They inspire strong moral condemnation. Some actions are considered to be such a violation of social mores that they are absolutely forbidden and considered taboo and are dealt with harshly. .

18
Q

What is taboo?

A

A prohibition on a actions deemed immoral or disgusting.

19
Q

What is the distinction between folkways and mores?

A

Is not necessarily the act itself but, rather, the social reaction that the act inspires.

20
Q

What is a law?

A

A type of norm that is formally defined and enacted in legislation.

21
Q

What is a sanction?

A

A penalty for norm violation or a reared for norm adherence. It is anything that rewards appropriate behaviours or penalizes inappropriate ones.

22
Q

What is ethnocentrism?

A

The tendency to view one’s own culture as superior to all others. Being a member of a particular culture instills a sense of group loyalty and pride that is important when unity is necessary. Ethnocentrism is inconsistent with the sociological perspective because it restricts one’s ability to appreciate cultural diversity.

23
Q

What is cultural relativism?

A

Appreciation that all cultures have their own mores, norms, and customs and should be evaluated and understood on their own terms, rather than according to one’s won cultural standards. It is an ethical position that assumes that no one should judge other people’s customs and traditions before truly trying to understand them.

24
Q

What is the alternative to ethnocentrism?

A

cultural relativism

25
Q

What do some critics of the philosophy of cultural relativism argue?

A

That by adopting the position, people give up the ability to determine if an action is right or wrong, moral or immoral. Critics argue that some things are wrong regardless of cultural context. One some level, universal human rights are contradicted by narrowly conceived ideas of cultural relativism.

26
Q

What is culture shock?

A

The feeling of disorientation, alienation, depression, and loneliness experienced when entering a culture very different from one’s own that subsides only once a person becomes acclimated to the new culture.

27
Q

What is Berg’s four-stage model to understand a person’s progression through feelings of culture shock?

A

1) Honeymoon: a feeling of admiration and awe regarding the newest culture, and cordial interactions with locals.
2) Crisis: differences in values, signs, and symbols begin to inspire feelings of confusion and disorientation that lead to feelings of inadequacy, frustration, anger, and despair.
3) Recovery: crisis is gradually resolved with a growing understanding of the host culture and recognition that its values are consistent with its view of the world.
4) Adjustment: an increasing ability to function effectively and enjoy the host culture despite occasional feelings of anxiety or stress.

28
Q

What do all human beings communicate through?

A

symbols

29
Q

What is a symbol?

A

Something that stands for or represents something else.

30
Q

What is language?

A

A shared symbol system of rules and meanings that governs the production and interpretation of speech.

31
Q

What must symbols have in order to be understand the thoughts or emotions that they are trying to convey?

A

established meanings

32
Q

What, in essence, distinguishes one culture from another?

A

Agreed-upon meanings shared by a group of people

33
Q

What is one of the main principle son symbolic interactionism when its comes to society (and culture)? What does this principle suggest/

A

Society (and culture) is socially constructed. This principle suggests that every time we interact, we interpret the interaction according to the subjective meanings each of us brings to it.

34
Q

What do most researchers consider to be the key identifier of cultural boundaries?

A

Language

35
Q

What happens when a language is lost?

A

The culture to which is belonged loses one of its most important survival mechanisms?

36
Q

When does a language die out?

A

When dominant language groups are adopted by young people whose parents speak a traditional language.

37
Q

According to K. David Harrison, approximately how many languages exist in the world? How many of these are in danger of extinction within the next 100 years?

A
  • 7000

- half of these

38
Q

According to Harrison, more than___of the world’s languages are spoken by only 0.2 percent of the world’s population?

A

-35 00

39
Q

What happens when a language dies?

A

A little bit of culture dies with it.

40
Q

What are the three reasons why we should be concerned about losing languages?

A

1) As a human collective, each time we lost a language we lose knowledge, because each language serves as a vast source of information about the past and about how we have a adapted to our environments
2) When a language dies, so do its related cultural myths, folk songs, legends, poetry, and belief systems. This is called “cultural amnesia” and lessens our ability to live peacefully with diverse populations because our understanding of cultural diversity decreases.
3) The demise of the world’s languages hinders our exploration of the mysteries of the human mind. Without the ability to convey ideas, we cannot hope to see the world from another’s perspective.

41
Q

Who are two early researchers who investigated the potential for language to influence how we interpret our world?

A

Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf

42
Q

What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

A

The assertion that language influences how we perceive the world (also known as linguistic determinism). Our perception of the world is influenced by the limitations of our language; people who speak different languages comprehend the world differently.

43
Q

What are Whorf’s two principles for how language and perception interact?

A

1) Linguistic determinism

2) Linguistic relativism

44
Q

What is linguistic determinism?

A

Language determines how we perceive the world. The way you think is determined by the language you speak.

45
Q

What is linguistic relativism?

A

Language reflects how we perceive the world. The differences between languages do not determine but reflect the different worldview of their speakers.

46
Q

What are the two forms of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

A

A strong version (linguistic determinism) and a weak version (linguistic relativism).

47
Q

What is the strong version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? What is the weak version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

A

Strong version - language determines how we see the world

Weak version - language reflects the way we think

48
Q

Is there little or a lot of evidence to suggest that language actually determines thought of that people who speak different language cannot perceive the same social reality?

A

little

49
Q

Estimates suggest that every___days a language dies.

A

14

50
Q

What are places in the world where native languages are in danger of becoming extinct known as/

A

language hotspots

51
Q

How many language hotspots are there in the world today?

A

roughly 20

52
Q

What does contemporary research show very little support for about language and interpretation of the world?

A

Shows very little support for the assertion that language defines how e interpret the world.

53
Q

What is nonverbal communication?

A

A complex system of body language that conveys a great deal about what we feel is important.

54
Q

What are the main components of nonverbal communication (10)?

A

1) Body language- uses motions to convey meaning
2) Proximity- uses personal space
3) Haptics- uses personal contact
4) Oculesics- uses eye contact
5) Chronemics- uses time
6) Olfactics- uses smell
7) Vocalics- uses voice
8) Sound symbols- uses audible cues
9) Adornment- uses accessories
10) Locomotion- uses movement

55
Q

While some messages we convey to others are conscious, some can be___?

A

unconscious

56
Q

What are micro-expressions?

A

Largely uncontrollable, instantaneous full-face emotional reactions that last about one-thirtieth of a second before they are suppressed or covered up with a smile. They are a window into a person’s true emotions.

57
Q

What is subculture?

A

A group within a population who values, norms, folkways, or mores set them apart from the mainstream culture.

58
Q

What are subcultures often based on?

A

Race, ethnicity, and religion mainly. But they can also be based on age, sexuality, occupation, recreational activities, or any activity, belief system, or special interest that the participants value enough to want to associate with others like themselves.

59
Q

Why do subcultures largely exist?

A

To promote their members’ interests but not in a manner that is contrary to the larger culture that surrounds them.

60
Q

What is counterculture?

A

A type of subculture that strongly opposes the widely held cultural patterns of the larger population. When members of a subculture become increasingly distinct from the larger society around them.

61
Q

What is an example of counterculture with young American students who were protesting the Vietnam War, rebelling against traditional society, and experimenting with drugs?

A

The anti-war movement became associated with rock music, sexual experimentation, and illegal drug use. They were viewed as subversive,dangerous, and immoral. They wanted to live differently from their parents, and they questioned traditional values such as nationalism and patriotism. They wanted to live for the moment and to act as thinking and questioning individuals rather than as robots stuck on they conveyor belt of life.

62
Q

What do today’s countercultures include?

A

People who gather at international conferences to fight what they perceive as the threat of globalization and corporate culture, people who seek a freer and more egalitarian society, or people who chain themselves to trees slated to be bulldozed so that highways can be built. Other groups such as the Aryan Nation and the Heritage Front have racist, anti-Semitic agendas and have been implicated in numerous violent activities. Still, other countercultures, such as youth street gangs, have no interest in social reform; instead, they seek a sense of belonging, often expressed through special clothing , secret signs, and specialized language.

63
Q

What do all countercultures have in common?

A

They provide feelings of belonging as well as support for their members.

64
Q

What has Canadian culture been shaped by?

A

An intricate and diverse set of geographic, historical, and social circumstances.

65
Q

What did Margaret Atwood believe defined Canadian culture?

A

Canada’s adaption to a harsh physical environment. It has defined why it means to be Canadian.

66
Q

Socially Canadian culture has been defined by what?

A

The coexistence of and conflict between the English and the French. The influence of Quebec society on Canadian culture is beyond challenge.

67
Q

What have Canadians, historically, defined themselves by?

A

What they are not: Americans

68
Q

What does Seymour Martin Lipset argue?

A

That Canadians are more elitist and ascriptive than Americans (that is, they are more inclined to accept that people are born with different statuses). They are also more community-oriented than Americans and more appreciative of racial and ethnic variation.

69
Q

According to Lipset, what was the primordial event that generated the different founding ideologies of Canada and the US?

A

The american revolution. The US emerged as a manifestation of the classic liberal state, rejecting all ties to the British throne. On the other hand, English Canada fought to maintain its imperial ties through the explicit rejection of liberal revolutions.

70
Q

What was Canadian identity defined by acc. to Lipset? What was US identity defined by acc. to Lipset?

A

Canadian identity was not defined by a successful revolution but by a successful counterrevolution. The US was defined by a rigid and stable ideology Lipset calls Americanism.

71
Q

Where does Lipset argue that evidence of Canadian and American founding ideologies is present? Explain.

A
  • In each countries literature
  • US literature concentrates on themes of winning, opportunism, and confidence
  • Canadian writing focuses on defeat difficult physical circumstances, and abandonment by Britain.
72
Q

Acc. to Atwood, what is the defining symbol for the US? What is the defining symbol for Canada?

A
  • US: “the frontier,” which inspires images of vitality and unrealized potential
  • Canada: “survival,” Canadians are forever taking the national pulse; not to see whether the patient will I’ve well but simply to see whether he will live at all
73
Q

What does Lipset suggest about the symbols, attitudes, and values of a people in terms of where they exist?

A

He suggests that they do not exist in a vacuum but, rather, are embodied in and reinforced by social and political institutions.

74
Q

What are the three different sources social scientists generally consider for inspiring cultural change?

A

1) Discovery
2) Invention/innovation
3) Diffusion

75
Q

What is discovery?

A

Occurs when something previously unrecognized or understood is fund to have social or cultural applications.

76
Q

What is invention/innovation?

A

Occurs when existing cultural items are manipulated or modified to produce something new and socially valuable.

77
Q

What is the difference between invention and innovation?

A
  • Invention: refers to creating something completely new that has not existed before
  • Innovation: refers to manipulating existing ideas or technologies to create something new, or to applying them to something for which they were not originally intended.
78
Q

What is diffusion?

A

Occurs when cultural items or practices are transmitted from one group to another.

79
Q

How do functionalists approach the value of culture?

A

From the premise that, since every society must meet basic needs, culture can be be understood as playing a role in helping to meet those needs. Different societies go about it differently.

80
Q

What are cultural universals?

A

common cultural features found in all societies.

81
Q

What do functionalists argue about unique cultural traditions?

A

Develop and persist because they are adaptive and improve a people’s chances of survival

82
Q

What do functionalists assert that the 70 cultural feature common to virtually all known human societies reinforce?

A

The position that social life is best understood by considering what individual practices or beliefs do for the collective.

83
Q

What is cultural adaption?

A

The process by which environmental pressures are addressed through changed in practices, traditions, and behaviours as a way of maintaining stability and equilibrium.

84
Q

According to functionalists, because every social practice leads to some collective benefit, what will any practice that diminishes a culture’s ability lead to?

A

Any practice that diminishes a culture’s ability to prosper will be unlikely to survive.

85
Q

Why are the critics to the functionalist approach to culture?

A

By focusing nohow cultural elements work together to maintains stability, functionalism does not take into account tension from subcultures or countercultures. Even though a countercultural movement may inspire progressive social change, the overriding assumption of functionalist theory is stability. to assume that cultural traditions are always useful for the suite denies the real pan and suffering they sometimes cause. Cultural traditions may help to bind people together, but it may be impossible to justify or defend how they benefit society as a whole.

86
Q

How does conflict theory view culture?

A

Conflict theorists assert that those who hold power define and perpetuate a culture’s ideology, and create a value system that defines social inequality as just and proper.

87
Q

What is an example of conflict theory, culture, and money?

A

The culture and the values that support the belief that success requires money are a demonstration of the power of ideology. Conflict theorists view the link between money and success as an expression of the ruling elite’s power and influence.

88
Q

What do conflict theorists believe about the elite and culture?

A

They can use their power to dominate the less powerful.

89
Q

According to conflict theory, what is any policy advocating the assimilation of a unique minority group?

A

An abuse of power and a demonstration of the dominant culture’s attempt to absorb a less powerful one.

90
Q

According to Karl Marx, what is true about the dominant culture and the oppressed groups’s value system

A

The dominant culture eventually becomes part of the oppressed group’s value system. Ultimately, the oppressed group begins to view its own culture as inferior and tries to improve its position by adopting the ways of the dominant culture.

91
Q

What are the critiques for the conflict theory approach to culture?

A

By defining what the dominant classes perceive as positive, cultural elements promote social inequality through the belief that to be successful you have to be like the elite and perpetuate their control and power. By the oppressed culture maintaining their traditions, they are isolating and marginalizing themselves from the dominant culture, thus, overall the conflict approach favours the notion that cultural change is more beneficial to the oppressed people than is cultural continuity.

92
Q

Which approach views culture as a way of integrating and building on similarities and establishing a sense of community?

A

Functionalism

93
Q

Which approach views culture as a vehicle from promoting and maintaining social inequality?

A

Conflict Theory

94
Q

What would the functionalist approach benefit by?

A

Recognizing that culture can be used as a vehicle for oppression.

95
Q

What would conflict theory benefit by?

A

Acknowledging the potential social benefits gained by uniting people into a common cultural group.

96
Q

What do symbolic interactionists investigate about culture?

A

Investing how culture is actively create and recreated through social interaction. Theses, as people go about their everyday lives, they create and modify culture as they engage in the negotiation of reality based on shared meanings grounded in cultural symbols.

97
Q

What does symbolic interactionism believe the values and norms defining minority status are a result of?

A

The result of mutual interaction and social definition. People interpret and actively engage with nonmaterial cultural artifacts (symbols) in every social situation they encounter.

98
Q

What is minority status a social category created bt according to symbolic interactionism?

A

By interacting individuals na manifests itself in society through negotiated social interaction.

99
Q

Why does symbolic interactionism believe there is also great potential for resisting and changing dominant cultural meanings?

A

Since these meanings are actively negotiated, as well as the fact that they are fluid an constantly open to reinterpretation and reflection.

100
Q

What is culture according to symbols interactionism?

A

Culture is the set of symbols to which we collectively assign values and the result of our active engagement with those around us.

101
Q

What are the critiques to the symbolic interactionist approach to culture?

A

By suggesting tha changing cultural definitions requires changing how we define and classify people diminishes the reality that some cultural definitions result from structural oppression and discrimination. Symbolic interactionism, while tremendously insightful about interpersonal definitions of cultural meanings, is less able to explain large cultural manifestations than are functionalist or conflict theories.