Exam 2: Culture

Why can gestures lead to misunderstanding and embarrassment?

When on "moral holiday," norms are expected to be broken.

A group's way of thinking, including its beliefs, values, and other assumptions about the world, is classified as material culture.

In 1906, sociologist William Sumner made the comment, "One's own group is the center of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it." This statement is most aligned with the concept of ________.

Culture becomes the lens through which we perceive and evaluate what is going on around us.

Viewing bullfighting from its history, its folklore, its ideas of bravery, and its concepts about sex roles is an example of cultural relativism.

Madagascar's cultural practice of famadihana, dancing with the dead, is an example of what Robert Edgerton would have considered an inferior cultural practice that does not deserve the application of cultural relativism.

Symbols can be strung together in an infinite number of ways for the purpose of communicating abstract thought. This is referred to as ________.

When the Mormons first established their settlement in Utah, they would have been classified a counterculture because at the time they believed in the practice of polygyny.

What is technology?

What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

Because America is made up of many different groups, it is classified as being a pluralistic society.

Define the concepts "culture lag," and "new technology." Provide an example to illustrate how the introduction of a new technology in society produced a condition of culture lag.

What is cultural relativism? Why do some people find it difficult to practice cultural relativism?

Understanding a culture in its own terms, and from the perspective of those who practice that culture, is referred to as ________.

The concept of natural selection, which proposed that genes of a species are not distributed evenly among the offspring, thus enabling certain members of the species to survive while others die out, was developed by ________.

Are gestures universal? Defend your answer.

Americans glorify academic progress and material success. However, most students do not graduate with honors and most citizens are not wealthy. This condition characterizes the difference between ________ and ________.

Within a few blocks in midtown Manhattan, you can purchase a bagel with cream cheese, a hot dog, a steak, a polish sausage, or a pizza, as well as chow mein, lamb curry, sushi, lasagna, falafels, chicken couscous, enchiladas, and a host of ethnic specialties. This range of culinary possibilities illustrates the process of ________.

Sociologists are now developing what they call _________, which emphasizes the influence of genes on human behavior.