University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley - SOCIOLOGY 1301

CHAPTER 2: Culture and Society

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1)According to your textbook, the sociological study of culture began with which theorist?

1. 1. Margaret Mead                                      c.   Émile Durkheim
   2. Karl Marx                                                d. Max Weber

2. Johann is from the United Kingdom. In his cross-cultural studies, he sees that women in Afghanistan are often forced to wear head scarves, but women in the United Kingdom are not. He concludes, then, that women in Afghanistan would be freer if their culture were more like that of the United Kingdom. How might sociologists likely critique Johann’s position?
   1. Johann has not yet made an argument for how the United Kingdom might free the women of Afghanistan.
   2. Johann first needs to look at class relations in the two countries, because gender is always

an effect of class.

1. 3. Johann cannot make meaningful comparisons without at least four more sample countries.
   4. Johann would be better served as a social scientist if he avoided those kinds of value judgments.

3. Bella will be moving to the United States to study characteristics of contemporary white American culture. Why might sociologists say Bella must be careful in her study?
   1. Culture is a fuzzy concept and, thus, unworthy of study.
   2. Only Americans should study American culture.
   3. There is no single monolithic white American culture.
   4. Anthropologists are typically the ones who study culture.

4.                    refer(s) to abstract ideals in a given society.
   1. Norms                                                     c.   Values
   2. Material goods                                       d. Folkways

5. James wants to investigate why many modern societies tend to strongly encourage monogamous relationships among their members. James will be studying:

6.                    are widely agreed-upon principles or rules people are expected to observe; they represent the dos and don’ts of social life.
   1. Norms                                                     c.   Values
   2. Material goods                                       d. Sanctions

7. Candace is doing a comparative study in her thesis work to compare different societies’ expectations of how husbands should treat their in-laws. Candace will be analyzing:
   1. values                                                      c.   material goods
   2. norms                                                      d. instinct

8. Pablo studies clothing choices in subcultural groups. He is investigating:
   1. values                                                      c.   material culture
   2. norms                                                      d. instinct

9.                 refer(s) to the physical objects that individuals in society create. These objects, in turn, influence how we live.
   1. Norms                                                     c.   Values
   2. Material goods                                       d. Sociobiology

10. Carolina studies mainstream American culture. One of her colleagues notices that she consistently ignores material objects, such as food, clothing, and art. Why might her studies be criticized?
    1. These objects are a crucial part of culture that influences how we live our lives.
    2. Studying American culture is useless because it has spread all over the globe.
    3. Culture is a secondary effect of social structures, so Carolina would do better to begin her

studies with capitalism and the state.

1. 4. Of the three things Carolina ignores, only art matters in the context of studying culture.

11. Mihir notes in his work on altruism that some behaviors seem innate to humans rather than learned and uses that to criticize the idea that humans are naturally selfish. Mihir is taking note of:
    1. values                                                      c.   material goods
    2. norms                                                      d. instinct

12. Why might sociologists criticize a study of American culture?
    1. Americans do not produce their own culture; they only copy others.
    2. Culture originated with the high art associated with western Europe, not the United States.
    3. There is no single American culture but rather a contested terrain of mainstream culture and hundreds, if not thousands, of subcultures.
    4. Americans are notoriously uncultured people.

13. The textbook defines a(n)                 as a system of interrelationships that connects individuals together.
    1. commodity                                              c.   ecosystem
    2. workplace                                               d. society

14. Alice stole a bit of money from her friend Rosa to buy groceries. Rosa finds out and angrily chastises Alice for her behavior. What does this exchange demonstrate?
    1. labeling theory                                        c.   reinforcement of norms
    2. socialism                                                 d. a deviant career

15. Kendrick studies which human behaviors might be innate and which might be learned through social processes. His studies contribute most to which sociological debate?
    1. macro vs. micro
    2. economics vs. culture
    3. structures of accumulation vs. institutional roles
    4. nature vs. nurture

16.                    refers to the application of biological principles to explain the social activities of animals, including human beings.
    1. Biological determinism                          c.   Social constructionism
    2. Sociobiology                                            d. Social Darwinism

17. Mario is researching how genetic factors influence human behaviors. His research would best be described as:
    1. social constructionism                            c.   conflict theory
    2. sociobiology                                            d. structural functionalism

18. Simone de Beauvoir once famously asserted that “one is not born a woman, but becomes one” to suggest that women are created by cultural forces. How might sociobiologists respond to this?
    1. De Beauvoir does not account for the role of industrialization in creating the category of

woman.

1. 2. De Beauvoir misses that what constitutes a woman is biological as well as cultural.
   3. De Beauvoir fails to show how the category of woman is purely an effect of economics.
   4. De Beauvoir is correct because our biology determines our culture.

19. Mandy is studying differences in promiscuity between men and women. She is critiquing the notion that men are genetically wired to want more sexual partners than women, based on anthropological research that shows a wide variety of sexual practices in different human societies, both contemporarily and historically. Mandy is studying what sociobiologists have called:
    1. reproductive strategies                          c.   human antinomies
    2. human nature                                         d. social contract theory

20. The term                  does not refer only to people from different cultural backgrounds or to those who speak different languages within a larger society. It can also refer to any segment of the population that is distinguishable from the rest of society by its cultural patterns.
    1. subculture                                               c.   ethnicity
    2. race                                                         d. polity

21. Yang is researching how many groups that live in Spain seem to have their own sets of norms and values that are at times different from mainstream Spanish norms and values. Which sociological concept best describes what he is studying?
    1. subcultures                                              c. postmodernism
    2. ritual ascendance                                   d. essentialism

22.                    is the process by which different cultures are absorbed into a single mainstream culture.
    1. Multiculturalism                                     c.   Apoliticism
    2. Ethnocentrism                                         d. Assimilation

23. Maria wants to look at how immigrant communities in the United States come to acquire the dominant culture into which they have moved. She is studying the process of:
    1. multiculturalism                                     c.   cultural resistance
    2. assimilation                                             d. nationalism

24. Danny looks at U.S. culture differently than Maria does. In turn, he studies how different immigrant communities in the United States maintain more or less separate cultures but might still manage to participate equally in economic and political life. He is studying:
    1. multiculturalism                                     c.   cultural resistance
    2. assimilation                                             d. nationalism

25. Adherents to                  acknowledge not only that most people in a society share certain central cultural values but also that certain important differences deserve to be preserved.
    1. multiculturalism                                     c.   apoliticism
    2. ethnocentrism                                         d. assimilation

26.                    might be defined as judging other cultures in terms of the standards of one’s own.
    1. Multiculturalism                                     c.   Cultural relativism
    2. Ethnocentrism                                         d. Assimilation

27. Shannon notes that women in some cultures voluntarily alter their bodies with sometimes painful piercings that look weird from the point of view of her culture. She takes from this that women in those cultures must be horribly oppressed compared with women in her own culture. Shannon’s position might be best interpreted as:
    1. social psychological                                c.   cultural relativism
    2. ethnocentrism                                         d. historical materialism

28. Why do sociologists try to avoid judging other cultures based on their own cultural values?
    1. Human cultures cannot be reasonably compared, because each of them springs from the natural human condition.
    2. Sociologists do not make value judgments.
    3. First we must examine the institutions that give rise to these cultures.
    4. Human cultures vary so widely that people belonging to one culture frequently find it difficult to understand the ideas or behavior of those from a different culture.

29. According to the text, the practice of judging a society by its own standards is called:
    1. multiculturalism                                     c.   cultural relativism
    2. ethnocentrism                                         d. assimilation

30. Sapphire studies differences between nations that are largely Islamic and those that are largely Christian. She takes great care in her research to examine the differences she finds neutrally and without value judgments. Sapphire’s position might be called:
    1. social psychological                                c.   cultural relativism
    2. ethnocentrism                                         d. historical materialism

31. According to the textbook, two cultural universals particularly stand out in human societies. They are

                   and                   .

1. 1. ways of expressing meaning; material goods
   2. material goods; money
   3. market relations; ways of expressing meaning
   4. market relations; money

32. Juanita is studying why some behaviors and social relations seem to be a part of every human society. She is researching:
    1. cultural universals                                  c.   marriage
    2. morality                                                  d. material culture

33. Michelle claims that all human cultures are different and cannot be compared. How might sociologists critique her claim?
    1. They would not. All cultures are different and cannot be meaningfully compared.
    2. Sociologists would respond that we cannot talk about human culture because it is not separate from our natural environment.
    3. They would criticize it because it focuses on something as nebulous as human culture

instead of our institutions.

1. 4. Sociologists would point out that there are cultural universals that all human cultures seem to share.

34.                    is one of the best examples for demonstrating both the unity and the diversity of human culture, because there are no cultures without it.
    1. Language                                                c.   Psychiatry
    2. Medicalization                                        d. Monogamy

35. The textbook asserts that each of the following is a function of language EXCEPT:
    1. Language gives permanence to a culture.
    2. Language gives identity to a people.
    3. Language is never used by some groups to dominate others in a collective.
    4. Language is a representation of reality.

36. Karl notes that in all human societies, people use symbols to communicate ideas to one another. Karl is taking note of:
    1. language                                                 c.   marriage
    2. morality                                                  d. political economy

37. The                    argues that the language we use influences our perceptions of the world.
    1. theorem of symbolic order                     c.   linguistic relativity hypothesis
    2. hypothesis of communication                 d. structuration theory

38. Alan notes that some groups who have many different words for snow tend to perceive snow differently than groups who use English. Alan is noting     at work.
    1. the linguistic relativity hypothesis          c.   structural determination
    2. the material representation of culture  d. resource mobilization

39. Ana is studying the ways different societies socially sanction and formally approve of certain sexual relationships. She is researching:
    1. language                                                 c.   marriage
    2. morality                                                  d. material culture

40. According to the textbook, what percentage of human societies uses speech?
    1. 100 percent                                             c.   50 percent
    2. 75 percent                                               d.   25 percent

41. According to the textbook, writing serves all of the following functions EXCEPT:
    1. It can be a means of storing information.
    2. It can serve the administrative needs of society.
    3. It can be used to pass information on to other species.
    4. It can allow societies to locate themselves in a particular time and space.

42. A                    is used to describe any vehicle of meaning—any set of elements used to communicate, including all types of communication.
    1. language                                                 c.   gesture
    2. signifier                                                   d.   word

43. Danny studies winks, waves, language, smiles, frowns, laughs, and any other kind of symbolic communication. What is he is researching?
    1. material culture                                      c.   tools
    2. signifiers                                                 d. cultural relativism

44. Hector is doing research on a tribe called the Malagasians. This group organizes itself in highly participatory ways, moves around frequently, and affords older people respect within the group. This group could be described as:
    1. pastoral                                                   c.   industrial
    2. agrarian                                                  d. hunter–gatherer

45. According to the text, compared with larger societies—particularly modern societies, such as the United States—most hunting and gathering groups were:
    1. egalitarian                                              c.   nasty
    2. brutish                                                     d. authoritarian

46. Societies whose subsistence derives from the rearing of domesticated animals are called    

societies.

1. 1. agrarian                                                  c.   postmodern
   2. industrialized                                          d. pastoral

47. Ricky notes in his comparative historical research that one group he studied was not fully industrialized and relied primarily on domesticated livestock for its livelihood. This group would best be classified as:
    1. pastoral                                                   c.   industrial
    2. agrarian                                                  d. hunter–gatherer

48. Societies whose means of subsistence are based on agricultural production (crop growing) are called

                   societies.

1. 1. pastoral                                                   c.   agrarian
   2. urban                                                       d. industrialized

49. Rosa notes in her comparative historical research that one group she studied was sedentary but was not fully industrialized and relied primarily on crops as its means of livelihood. This group would best be classified as:
    1. pastoral                                                   c.   industrial
    2. agrarian                                                  d. hunter–gatherer

50. Medina is looking at the historical period in which smaller groupings of humans developed into much larger societies, often ruled by kings, queens, and emperors with the creation of cities and increasing inequality. She is studying the birth of what most sociologists call:
    1. civilization                                               c.   spirituality
    2. religion                                                    d. art

51. The textbook refers to the emergence of machine production based on the use of inanimate power resources (such as steam or electricity) as:
    1. capitalism                                               c.   feudal progression
    2. civilization                                               d. industrialization

52. Frank notices that at some point in relatively recent times, humans in some places began using machines powered by non-human means, such as steam and coal. Frank is noting what process?
    1. democratization                                      c.   industrialization
    2. civilization                                               d. state formation

53. Chen studies the process through which Brazil is shifting from workers mostly working in fields and living in rural villages to people living in cities and working in factories, offices, and the like. He is noting how Brazil is becoming a(n)       society.
    1. pastoral                                                   c.   industrial
    2. agrarian                                                  d. postmodern

54. The process whereby Western nations established their rule in parts of the world away from their home territories is called:
    1. assimilation                                             c.   Manifest Destiny
    2. cultural appropriation                            d. colonialism

55. Sweta studies how Britain came to control large parts of India before the Indian independence movement. It could be said that she is studying:
    1. liberation theology                                 c.   primitivism
    2. nationalization                                        d.   colonialism

56. Sociologists often refer to less developed societies, in which industrial production is either virtually nonexistent or developed only to a limited degree, as:
    1. the developing world                              c.   emerging societies
    2. core nations                                            d. nontraditionalist societies

57. Jia Yin notes that in many countries, industrial development is, more or less, nonexistent. She is taking note of the:
    1. urban core                                              c.   industrializing of countries
    2. emerging of society                                d. developing world

58. Although the majority of developing countries lag well behind societies of the West, some have now successfully embarked on a process of industrialization. These are sometimes referred to as:
    1. emerging economies                              c.   emergent cities
    2. McDonaldizing societies                         d. sustainable developments

59. Deric studies Singapore and the process through which it has begun developing a strong industrial base. It might be said that he is studying:
    1. emerging economies                              c.   micro-finance
    2. the sequestration of human experience d.   core countries

60. Why might sociologists criticize the idea that the world is contemporarily made up of many isolated cultures?
    1. The idea assumes that we can provide a reasonably coherent definition of culture.
    2. Sociologists might note the rise of the Internet and globalization as features of different

cultures being connected.

1. 3. Sociologists would likely criticize the idea because of its underlying multiculturalism.
   4. The idea suggests that human communities actually have different cultures, when we have empirically shown that culture is the same everywhere.

61. Juliana notes in her research that new means of communicating seem to be creating the possibilities for a new global culture and have even been helpful in organizing protests and social movement actions in places such as Tunisia, Egypt, and Kuwait. It is likely that Juliana will be studying          as part of this research project.
    1. regular mail                                            c. the Internet
    2. the telephone                                          d. sit-ins

62.                    is a sense of identification with one’s people that is expressed through a common set of strongly held beliefs. Sometimes these include the belief that the people of a particular nation have historical or God-given rights that supersede those of other people.
    1. Neoliberalism                                         c.   Ethnic enclaving
    2. Nationalism                                             d.   Disidentification

63. Shannon studies the fact that globalization seems to spread largely Western values, but some communities stress belonging to a given national community even more—at times, seemingly, as a response to the rise of globalizing processes. Shannon is studying:
    1. nationalism                                             c.   anti-globalization
    2. the balance of class forces                     d. state globalization projects

ESSAY

1. What is culture?

2. Describe the difference between values and norms. What are some examples of each?

3. The book asserts that material goods can carry with them powerful cultural and social meanings. What are some ways that clothing expresses social values and culture?

4. How does instinct differ from culture, and why is the distinction important to sociologists?

5. What are societies, and what role does culture play within them?

6. What is the nature vs. nurture debate, and why are sociologists concerned with it?

7. What are subcultures, and why are they important for sociological studies?

8. What is multiculturalism, and why does it matter?

9. What is cultural relativism, and what are some possible benefits and pitfalls of it?

10. What are some cultural universals, and what can they tell us about human societies?

11. Compare hunting and gathering societies to civilizations. In your answer, discuss power and wealth differences.