Chapter 2 Notes Essay

Chapter 2 Notes:
Material culture: the material objects that distinguish a group of people, such as their art, buildings, weapons, utensils, machines, hairstyles, jewelry, clothing.
Nonmaterial culture: a group’s way of thinking and doing; aka symbolic culture.
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.
Ethnocentrism: the use of one’s own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of other individuals or societies. Generally negative.
Cultural relativism: not judging a culture but trying to understand it on its own terms.
Symbol: something to which people attach meaning and then use to communicate with one another.
Gestures: the ways in which people use their bodies to communicate with one another.
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf’s hypothesis that language creates ways of thinking and perceiving.
Values: the standards by which people define what is desirable or undesirable, good or bad, beautiful or ugly.
Norms: expectations of “right” behavior.
Sanctions: either expressions of approval given to upholding norms or expressions of disapproval for violating them.
Folkways: norms that are not strictly enforced.
Mores: norms that are strictly enforced because they are thought essential to core values or the well-being of the group.
Taboo: a norm so strong that it brings extreme sanctions, even revulsion if violated.
Subculture: the values and related behaviors of a group that distinguish its members from the larger culture.
Counterculture: a group whose values, beliefs, norms, and related behaviors place its members in opposition to the broader culture.
Pluralistic society: a society made up of many different groups.
Core values: the values that are central to a group, those around which it builds a common identity.
Value cluster: values that together form a larger whole.
Value contradiction: values that contradict one

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Essay on Chapter 2 Notes