1. culture Chapter 3

2. The Basis of Culture Culture: knowledge, values, customs, and physical objects that are shared by members of a society Society: specific territory inhabited by people who share a common territory

3. Culture and Heredity Instincts: innate (unlearned) patterns of behavior humans cannot go far on instinct alone humans face more complex issues

4. Is culture more important than instinct for people? If all women had an instinct for mothering… all women would want children all women would love and protect their children

5. How does heredity affect behavior? Nature v. Nurture Personality Traits: ½ determined by genetics ½ determined by environmental factors

6. Reflexes and Drives

7. Sociobiology Sociobiology: the study of the biological basis of human behavior believe the behaviors that best help people are biologically based and transmitted in the genetic code Criticism:

8. Language and Culture Symbols, Language & Culture The most powerful symbols are those that make up language

9. The pen is mightier than ________________. Better safe than _______________. It’s always darkest before _______________. Don’t bite the hand __________________. No news is ________________________. If you lie down with dogs, you’ll __________________. A penny saved is a penny _________________. Children should be seen and not ____________. Better late than ______________. Common Proverbs

10. Are Language and Culture Related? Language frees us from the limits of time and space!

11. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Hypothesis of linguistic relativity: our idea of reality depends largely upon language Since languages differ, perceptions differ

12. What can vocabulary tell you about a culture? When something is important to a society, there are lots of words to describe it

13. Norms and Values Norms: rules defining appropriate and inappropriate behavior

14. Folkways Folkways: norms that lack moral significance

15. Mores Mores: norms that have moral dimensions that should be followed by members of the society

16. Taboo Taboo: a norm so strong that when violated it calls for strong punishment

17. Laws Law: a norm that is formally defined and enforced by authorities

18. Enforcing the Rules Sanctions: rewards and punishment used to encourage people to follow norms

19. Formal Sanctions Formal Sanctions: sanctions imposed by people given special authority

20. Informal Sanctions Informal Sanctions: rewards or punishments that can be applied by most members of a group

21. Values - The Basis of Norms Values: broad ideas about what is good or desirable shared by people in a society

22. Basic Values of the United States achievement and success activity and work efficiency and practicality equality democracy group superiority

23. Beliefs and Physical Objects Nonmaterial Culture: ideas, knowledge, and beliefs that influence a people’s behavior

24. Material Culture: the concrete, tangible objects of a culture

25. Ideal Culture: cultural guidelines that group members claim to accept

26. Real Culture: actual behavior patterns of members of a group

27. Cultural Change discovery Diffusion invention

28. Cultural Diversity Subculture: group that is part of the dominant culture but that differs from it in some important aspect

29. Counterculture: a subculture deliberately and consciously opposed to certain central beliefs or attitudes of the dominant culture

30. Ethnocentrism: judging others in terms of one’s own cultural standards

31. Cultural Universals: general cultural traits that exist in all cultures

32. Cultural Particulars: the ways in which a culture expresses universal traits

33. Why do Cultural Universals exist?