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| The values, norms, and material goods characteristic of a given group. Like the concept of society, the notion of culture is widely used in sociology and the other social sciences (particularly anthropology). Culture is one of the most distinctive properties of human social association. |
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| Values or modes of behavior shared by all human cultures. |
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| A socially approved sexual relationship between two individuals. Marriage historically has involved two persons of opposite sexes, but in the past decade marriage between same-sex partners has been legalized in a growing number of states and nations throughout the world. Marriage normally forms the basis of a family of procreation-- that is, it is expected that the married couple will produce and bring up children. |
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| A group of people who live in a particular territory, are subject to a common sytem of political authority, and are aware of having a distinct identity from other groups. Some societies, such as hunting and gatheirng societies, are small, numbering no more than few dozen people. Others are large, numbering millions-- modern Chinese society, for examp;e, has a population of more than a billion people. |
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| Ideas held by individuals or groups about what is desirable, proper, good, and bad. What individuals value is strongly influenced by the specific culture in which they happen to live. |
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| Rules of conduct that specify appropriate behavior in a given range of social situations. A norm either prescribes a given type of behavior or forbids it. All human groups follow definite norms, which are always backed by sanctions of one kind or another, varying from informal disapproval to physical punishment. |
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| The physical objects that a society creates that influence the ways in which people live. |
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| The primary vehicle of meaning and communication in a society, language is a system of symbols that represents objects and abstract thoughts. |
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| Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis |
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| A hypothesis, based on the theories of Sapir and Whorf, that perceptions are relative to language. |
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| One iterm used to stand for or represent nother-- as in the case of a flag, which symbolizes a nation. |
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| Any vehicle of meaning and communication. |
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| The study of the ways in which nonlinguistic phenomena can generate meaning-- as in the example of a traffic light. |
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| Sociology's recent emphasis on the importance of understanding the role of culture in daily life. |
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| Hunting and Gathering Societies |
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Definition
Societies whose mode of substinence is gained from hunting animals, fishing, and gathering edible plants.
- 50,000 B.C.E.-present, now on the verge of complete disappearance
- Consist of small numbers of people gaining their livelihood from hunting, fishing, and gathering of edible plants.
- few inequalities
- Differences of rank limited by age and gender
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Societies whose substinence derives from rearing of domesticated animals.
- 12,00 B.C.E.-present, mostly part of larger states, their trad ways of life are being undermined
- Range from a few hundred people to many thousands
- Depend on the tending of domesticated animals for their substinence
- Marked by distinct inequalities
- Ruled by chiefs or warrior kings
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Societies whose means of substinence are based on agricultural production (crop growing).
- 12,000 B.C.E.- present, most are now part of larhe political entities and losing their distinct identity.
- Based on small rural communities, without towns or cities
- Livelihood gained through agriculture, often suplemented by hunting and gathering
- Stronger inequalities than among hunters and gatherers
- Ruled by chiefs
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| Traditional Societies or Civilizations |
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Definition
- 6000 B.C.E.-19th c., all traditional states have disappeared
- Very large in size, some numbering millions of people (though small compared with larger industrialized societies)
- Some cities exist, in which trade and manufacture are concentrated
- Based largely on agriculture
- Minor inequalities exist among different classes
- Distinct apparatus of government headed by a king or emporer
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| The process of the machine production of goods. |
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| Strongly developed nation-states in which the majority of the population works in factories or offices rather than in agriculture, and most people live in urban areas. |
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| Particular types of states, characteristic of the modern world, in which governments have sovereign power within defined territorial areas, and populations are citizens who know themselves to be part of single nations. |
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| The process whereby Western nations established their rule in parts of the world away from their home territories. |
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| Developing countries, such as India or Signapore, that over the past two or three decades have begun to develop a strong industrial base. |
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| Values and norms distinct from those of the majority, held by a group within a wider society. |
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| The acceptance of a minority group by a majority popultion in which the new group takes on the values and norms of the dominant culture. |
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| A condition in which ethnic groups exist separately and share equally in economic and political life. |
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| The tendency to look at other cultures through the eyes of one's own culture, and thereby misinterpret them. |
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| The practice of judging a society by its own standards. |
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| An approach that attempts to explain the behavior of both animals and human beings in terms of biological principles. |
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| Fixed patterns of behavior that have genetic origins and that appear in all normal animals within a given species. |
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| A set of beliefs and symbols expressing identification with a national community. |
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