Sociology- Culture

The language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that are passed from one generation to the next.

The material objects that distinguish a group of people, such as their art, buildings, weapons, utensils, machines, hairstyles, clothing, and jewelry.

A group's ways of thinking (including its belliefs, values, and other assumptions about the world) and doing (its common patterns of behavior, including language and other forms of interaction).

The disorientation that people experience when they come in contact with a fundamentally different culture and can on longer depend on their taken-for-granted assumptions about life.

The use of one's own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of other individuals or societies, generally leading to a negative evaluation of their values, norms, and behaviors.

Not judging a culture, but trying to understand it on its own terms.

Something to which people attach meanings and then use to communicate with others.

The ways in which people use their bodies to communicate with one another.

The ways in which people use their bodies to communicate with one another that everyone in different countries understand. Example: the handshake.

Alerts us to how extensively language affects us


Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf's hypothesis that language creates ways of thinking and perceiving.

The standards by which people define what is desirable or undesirable, good or bad, beautiful or ugly.

The expectations, or rules of behavior, that develop out of values.

Expressions of approval or disapproval given to people for upholding or violating norms

A reward given for following norms, ranging from a gsmile to a prize

An expression of disapproval for breaking a norm, ranging from a mild, informal reaction such as a frown to a formal prison sentence or an execution