Defining Culture and Society Quiz

Defining Culture and Society

• Culture encompasses beliefs, practices, values, attitudes, laws, norms, artifacts, symbols, knowledge, and everything learned and shared within a society.
• Culture exists within a society

Classification of Culture

• Material Culture: Visible and tangible cultural components.
• Nonmaterial Culture: Intangible cultural components, lacking physical representation.

Categories of Nonmaterial Culture

• Cognitive: Ideas, concepts, philosophies, and designs that stem from the human mind.
• Normative: Expectations, standards, and rules guiding human behavior.

Elements of Culture

• Beliefs: Tenets or convictions held to be true.
• Values: Standards for distinguishing what is considered good and just in a society. Values are crucial for transmitting and teaching cultural norms.
• Symbols: Anything representing something else, evoking reactions and emotions. Symbols can be nonverbal communications or material objects.
• Language: A symbolic system allowing communication and cultural transmission. Some languages use written symbols, while others depend on spoken language and nonverbal cues.
• Norms: Define appropriate behavior based on a society's values of what is good, right, and important. Most members adhere to norms.

Types of Norms

• Prescriptive Norms: Morality focused on positive outcomes. Example: Laws against murder.
• Proscriptive Norms: Morality focused on negative outcomes. Example: Laws against theft.
• Folkways: Learned, shared behaviors within a social group; often considered customs. Not necessarily morally significant but matter for social acceptance.
• Mores: Norms reflecting morality, defining right vs. wrong; breaking mores often has serious consequences.
• Taboos: Strong negative norms that should not be violated as violations deeply upset people.
• Laws: Most important in the study of crime and criminal justice.

Aspects of Culture

• Dynamic, flexible, and adaptive
• Shared and contested
• Learned through socialization and enculturation
• Patterned social

Defining Society

• A group of people sharing a common territory and culture.

Types of Societies

• Hunting and Gathering Societies: Earliest form, relying on hunting, trapping, fishing, and gathering edible plants for survival.
• Pastoral Societies: Based on pastoralism; typically nomadic focusing on tending herds or flocks.
• Horticultural Societies: Focused on cultivating plants.
• Agricultural Societies: Dependent on producing and maintaining crops and farmland.
• Industrial Societies: Developed with the Industrial Revolution (starting around 1769) relying on machinery such as the steam engine.
• Post-Industrial Societies: Characterized by a service sector generating more wealth compared to manufacturing.