Download chapter 2: culture

CHAPTER 2: CULTURE
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
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Define culture.
Explain the difference between material and nonmaterial aspects of a culture.
List the primary characteristics that all cultures have in common.
Explain how cultures vary in their beliefs, attitudes, behavior, and values.
Define ethnocentrism and give examples of this concept.
Define cultural relativism and give examples of this concept.
Describe the difference between ethnocentrism and cultural relativism and
demonstrate how they each lend to the stability and lack of stability within and
between cultures.
8. Explain the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and discuss how language shapes cultures or the
reverse.
9. Explain how symbols are the backbone of language; whether verbal or non-verbal.
10. List three or four examples of how symbols are used in different cultures.
11. Define both norms and sanctions.
12. Discuss and give examples of the different types of norms (folkways, mores, taboos,
and law).
13. Discuss how ethnomethodology, a method of studying sociology developed by Harold
Garfinkel, can be useful in studying social norms.
14. Discuss how and who imposes social sanctions when norms are breached.
15. Give examples of the ways in which a culture’s beliefs, attitudes, and values can be
sources of both cultural cohesion and social conflict.
16. Differentiate between cultures, subcultures, countercultures, pop cultures, global
cultures, and society.
17. Describe what sociologists mean by “an elite culture.”
18. Explain the relationship between the dominant culture and the sub- or countercultures.
19. Explain globalization and give examples.
20. Differentiate between globalization and cultural diffusion.
21. Identify the influences of media on culture, and explain how it portrays race, gender,
and class.
22. Write a report on how the major theoretical perspectives (functionalism, conflict, and
symbolic interaction) can be used to explain the different ways to study culture and its
many aspects.
23. Explain the relationship between culture and group solidarity, power, and social
conflict.
24. Explain the difference between culture lag and culture shock and give examples of
each.
25. List and describe the four sources of culture change.