Sociology Ch. 2
Terms
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- culture
- the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that are passed from one generation to the next
- material culture
- such things as jewelry, art, buildings, weapons, machines, and even eating utensils, hairstyles, and clothing
- nonmaterial culture
- a group's ways of thinking (its beliefs, values, and other assumption about the world) and doing (its common patters of behavior including language, gestures, and other forms of interaction)
- 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
- symbol
- something to which people attach meaning that they then use to communicate such as gestures, language, values, norms, sanctions, folkways, and mores.
- gestures
- using one's body to communicate with others
- language
- symbols that can be strung together in an infinite number of ways for the purpose of communicating abstract thought
- norms
- expectations, or rules of behavior, that develop out of a group's values
- sanctions
- the reactions people get for following or breaking norms
- positive sanction
- approval for following a norm
- negative sanction
- disapproval for breaking a norm
- folkways
- norms that are not strictly enforced such as walking on the left side of the sidewalk
- mores
- norms that are strictly enforced because they are thought to be essential to core values or the well-being of the group such as stealing, raping or killing
- taboo
- a norm so strongly ingrained that even the thought of its violation is greeted with revulsion such as canabolosism or insestuous relations