3. CHAPTER 7
Culture (defined)-
• A set of ideas/things handed down from generation to generation in a
group/society.
• Both a product of people's actions and a constraint on their actions
conditioning behavior.
Material culture (artifacts)-
• All those things that humans make or adapt from the raw nature.
Nonmaterial culture-
• Made up of intangible things also vary from simple to complex.
Symbols, language/gestures-
Symbols-
• Anything that represents something else to more than one person.
Language/gestures-
• Organized set of symbols, essential part of non-material culture,
used to convey meaning, ways to communicate.
Norms-
• Specific cultural expectations for how to behave in a given situation.
William Graham Sumner-
• Sociologist, divided norms into two categories, folkways and mores.
4. CHAPTER 7
Folkways-
• Represent casual norms; violations are not taken seriously.
Mores/mos-
• Reflects important rules; violations are sanctioned.
Taboos-
• Norms that are so deeply held that even the thought of violating them
upsets people.
Formal sanctions-
• Come from the governing body.
Informal sanctions-
• Come from individuals in social groups.
Values-
• General or abstract ideas about what is good and desirable, as opposed
to what is bad and undesirable, in a society.
Beliefs
• People's ideas about what is real and what is real. what people accept
as
5. CHAPTER 7
Ideology-
• Knowledge that has been distorted by social, economic or political
interests.
Social institutions-
• “An accepted and persistent constellation of statuses, roles, values and
norms that respond to important societal needs.”
Cultural leveling and diffusion-
• Cultural diffusion- process by which cultural things are adopted
• Cultural leveling- as cultural diffusion increases, the differences
between cultures decreases.
Subculture-
• Shared values, norms, beliefs, or use of material culture sets them apart
from other people in that society.
Counterculture-
• Special form of subculture opposes to values of parent culture.
Idioculture-
• knowledge, beliefs, behaviors, and customs shared by members of a
small
6. CHAPTER 7
Culture as a product of action-
• Culture is a product of human action and is a conditioning element of
further action... culture produces action.
Culture as a conditioning element of action-
• Culture puts everyone in the same rut. After problems are solved-
everyone does the same thing.
7. CHAPTER 8
Status-
• A status is simply a rank or position that one holds in a group.
Achieved status
• A position that is earned, accomplished, or involves at least some effort
or activity on the individual's part.
Ascribed status-
• A social position assigned to a person by society without regard for the
person's unique talents or characteristics.
Status symbol-
• Relating to how individuals and groups interact and interpret various
cultural symbols.
Role-
• Sum total of expectations about the behavior attached to a particular
social status.
Role strain-
• Difficulties in meeting the obligations of a role because it is too
demanding.
Status inconsistency-
• Occurs when an individual's ascribed and achieved statuses are
deemed (by others) to be inconsistent.
8. CHAPTER 8
Role conflict-
• When a status perceived as inconsistent, but the actual demands of
their roles clash as well.
Master status-
• A status that dominates others and thereby determines a person's
general position within a society.
Group aggregate-
• People that gather in the same place at the same time, but lack
organization or lasting patterns of interaction.
Social aggregate-
• A simple collection of people who happen to be together in a particular
place but do not significantly interact or identify with one another.
Primary group-
• A small social group whose members share personal and lasting
relationships.
Secondary group-
• A large and impersonal social group whose members pursue a specific
goal or activity.
9. CHAPTER 8
Formal organization-
• A group created and formally organized to achieve some specific goal
or set of goals.
Ideal types-
• What is left when you strip away all the parts of an organization that are
not necessary to it being bureaucracy.
Bureaucracy-
• An organizational model that is rationally designed to perform tasks
efficiently.
Max Weber's “iron cage”
• A pessimistic description of modern life, in which the "technical and
economic conditions of machine production" control our lives through
rigid rules and rationalization.
Goal displacement-
• When the process becomes more important than the outcome.
10. CHAPTER 9
Society-
• The totality of people and social relations in a given geographic space.
Self-sufficiency (as a defining attribute of society)-
• The thing that distinguishes a society from a smaller group.
• Self- sufficiency by no means requires that all the role- involvements
of members be carried on within a society.
Social institution-
• Are established sets of norms and subsystems that support each
society's survival.
Ideal type-
• Have a continuing supply of new members, socialize new members,
deal with members’ sickness and health issues, select members for
certain jobs and tasks, create knowledge, control its members, defend
against its enemies, produce and exchange goods and services, and
promote social unity and the search for higher meanings.
Habitualized action-
• Any action that is routinely repeated frequently becomes cast into a
constant pattern.
11. CHAPTER 9
Attributes of social institutions-
• Unplanned; developed gradually, inherently conservative; change
slowly, interdependent; change in one causes change in the other ones,
statuses, roles, values and norms in on institution do not mimic other
institutions
