CU - Culture Overview

 

Culture Overview

CultureWhat does it mean to be an American? Is it simply that a person has American citizenship? Or is there more to it? Could it be possible to spot an American outside of the United States without asking to see the person's passport? Some would argue that Americans are easily recognized in another country- that the fashion or the behavior or even the stance reveals the nationality. In these cases, Americans are being identified by their culture. Dictionaries define culture as "the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another." But most American generations do not dress, act or even carry themselves in exactly the same manner as the generation before. So what is that American culture that is passed down to new Americans and that prevents us from blending into other cultures easily? And for that matter- what is the American culture? Can more than 300 million people have the same culture? We get our "culture" from those who have taught us, which can include family, friends or acquaintances, and we express it in the way we think or act and by our material objects. Culture can be both a cause and an effect of societal behavior. Therefore, it is crucial for those people who study the behavior of society (in other words, sociologists) to understand "culture."

Essential Questions

  • What is culture?
  • What are the elements of culture?
  • How do the various sociological perspectives and approaches explain the role of culture?
  • What impact does globalization have on culture?
  • What impact does culture have on globalization?

Key Terms

  1. Beliefs - ideas about the nature of reality
  2. Counter-Culture - a subculture deliberately and consciously opposed to certain central beliefs or attitudes of the dominant culture
  3. Cultural Diffusion -   the spreading out of culture, culture traits, or a cultural pattern from a central point
  4. Cultural Diversity - the presence of diverse or different cultures among a society
  5. Cultural Integration - the close relationships among various elements of a cultural system
  6. Cultural Lag - the fact that some cultural elements change more quickly than others, disrupting a cultural system
  7. Cultural Particulars - the ways in which a culture expresses universal traits
  8. Cultural Relativism - the practice of judging another culture by its own standards
  9. Cultural Transmission - the process by which one generation passes culture to the next
  10. Cultural Universals - general culture traits that exist in all cultures
  11. Culture - knowledge, values, customs and physical objects that are shared by members of a society
  12. Culture Trait - any trait of human activity acquired in social life and transmitted by communication
  13. Culture Shock - personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar culture
  14. Drive - impulse to reduce discomfort
  15. Ethnocentrism - the practice of judging another culture by the standards of one's own culture
  16. Folkways - norms that lack moral significance
  17. Global Perspective - the study of the larger world and our society's place in it
  18. Globalization - the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture
  19. High Culture - cultural patterns that distinguish a society's elite
  20. Ideal Culture - an abstract guideline of the characteristics that a culture should embody; how people should behave
  21. Instinct - innate patterns of behavior
  22. Language - the system of symbols that allows people to communicate with each other
  23. Law - a norm that is formally defined and enforced by officials
  24. Material Culture - the physical objects passed down through generations within a society
  25. Mores - norms that have moral dimensions and should be followed by members of the society
  26. Multiculturalism - an effort to enhance appreciation for cultural diversity
  27. Nonmaterial Culture - the ideas, values, customs and knowledge passed down through generations within a society
  28. Norms - rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members
  29. Popular Culture - cultural patterns that are widespread among a society's population
  30. Real Culture - actual behavior patterns of a culture; how people do behave
  31. Reflex - automatic reaction to physical stimulus
  32. Sanctions - rewards or punishments used to encourage society to follow norms
  33. Sapir-Whorf Thesis - the idea that people see and understand the world through the cultural lens of language; also known as the Hypothesis of Linguistic Relativity
  34. Social Categories - groupings of persons who share a social characteristic
  35. Social Control - attempts by society to regulate people's thoughts and behavior
  36. Society - the people who inhabit a specified territory and share a particular culture
  37. Sociobiology - the study of the biological basis of human behavior
  38. Subculture - a group that is part of the dominant culture but that differs from it in some important aspects
  39. Symbols - anything that carries a particular meaning recognized within a society
  40. Taboo - proscribed by society as improper and unacceptable
  41. Values - broad ideas about what is good or desirable shared by people in a society

IMAGES CREATED BY GAVS OR OPENSOURCE