1. Unit 2: Culture and American Society
Sociology
Unit 2:
Culture and American Society

2. 1. Culture
2. material culture
3. nonmaterial culture
4. society
5. technology
6. language
7. values
8. norms
9. folkways
10. mores
11. laws
12. culture trait
13. culture complexes
14. culture patterns
15. ethnocentrism
16. cultural relativism
17. subculture
18. counterculture
19. narcissism

3. Culture Material Culture Nonmaterial Culture
Shared products of human groups. These products include both physical objects and the beliefs, values, and behaviors shared by the group.
Material Culture
Physical objects created by human groups. Also called artifacts.
Nonmaterial Culture
Abstract human creations, such as language, ideas, beliefs, rules, skills, family patterns, work practices, and political and economic systems.

4. Society
Group of mutually interdependent people who have organized in such a way as to share a common culture and have a feeling of unity.

5. The Components of Culture
Technology
Knowledge and tools people use for practical purposes.
Symbols
Anything that stands for something else and has a shared meaning attached to it.
Language
Organization of written and spoken symbols into as standardized system.
Values
Shared beliefs about what is good or bad, right or wrong, desirable or undesirable.
Norms
Shared rules of conduct that tell people how to act in specific situations.
Symbols: language, gestures, images, sounds, physical objects, events, and elements of the natural world can serve as symbols as long as people recognize that they convey a particular meaning.

6. Folkways Mores (More Ayz) Laws
Norms that do not have great moral significance attached to them—the common customs of everyday life.
Mores (More Ayz)
Norms that have great moral significance attached to them.
Laws
Written rules of conduct that are enacted and enforced by the government. By definition, the violation of these norms is considered a criminal act.

7. Culture trait Culture complexes Culture patterns
Individual tool, act, or belief that is related to a particular situation or need.
Culture complexes
Cluster of interrelated culture traits.
Culture patterns
Combination of a number of culture complexes into an interrelated whole.

8. Ethnocentrism Cultural relativism
Tendency to view one’s own culture and group as superior to all other cultures and groups.
Cultural relativism
Belief that cultures should be judged by their own standards.

9. Subculture Counterculture Narcissism
Group with its own unique values, norms, and behaviors that exists within a larger culture.
Counterculture
Group that rejects the values, norms, and practices of the larger society and replaces them with a new set of cultural patterns.
Narcissism
Extreme self-centeredness