Culture reading

12/12/2020 Ch. 3 Key Terms - Introduction to Sociology 2e | OpenStax

https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology-2e/pages/3-key-terms 1/2

beliefs

tenets or convictions that people hold to be true

countercultures

groups that reject and oppose society’s widely accepted cultural patterns

cultural imperialism

the deliberate imposition of one’s own cultural values on another culture

cultural relativism

the practice of assessing a culture by its own standards, and not in comparison to another culture

cultural universals

patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies

culture

shared beliefs, values, and practices

culture lag

the gap of time between the introduction of material culture and nonmaterial culture’s acceptance of it

culture shock

an experience of personal disorientation when confronted with an unfamiliar way of life

diffusion

the spread of material and nonmaterial culture from one culture to another

discoveries

things and ideas found from what already exists

ethnocentrism

the practice of evaluating another culture according to the standards of one’s own culture

folkways

direct, appropriate behavior in the day-to-day practices and expressions of a culture

formal norms

established, written rules

globalization

the integration of international trade and finance markets

high culture

the cultural patterns of a society’s elite

ideal culture

the standards a society would like to embrace and live up to

informal norms

casual behaviors that are generally and widely conformed to

innovations

new objects or ideas introduced to culture for the first time

12/12/2020 Ch. 3 Key Terms - Introduction to Sociology 2e | OpenStax

https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology-2e/pages/3-key-terms 2/2

inventions

a combination of pieces of existing reality into new forms

language

a symbolic system of communication

material culture

the objects or belongings of a group of people

mores

the moral views and principles of a group

nonmaterial culture

the ideas, attitudes, and beliefs of a society

norms

the visible and invisible rules of conduct through which societies are structured

popular culture

mainstream, widespread patterns among a society’s population

real culture

the way society really is based on what actually occurs and exists

sanctions

a way to authorize or formally disapprove of certain behaviors

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

the way that people understand the world based on their form of language

social control

a way to encourage conformity to cultural norms

society

people who live in a definable community and who share a culture

subcultures

groups that share a specific identification, apart from a society’s majority, even as the members exist within a larger society

symbols

gestures or objects that have meanings associated with them that are recognized by people who share a culture

values

a culture’s standard for discerning what is good and just in society

xenocentrism

a belief that another culture is superior to one’s own