Deck 2: Culture

Question 1

The story of Helen Keller, who became blind and deaf, shows how the development of our humanity depends on the ability to understand and use symbols.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

The Census Bureau reports that only ten different languages are spoken in the United States.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The Sapir-Whorf thesis states that the language we use shapes the reality we perceive.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

For at least 12,000 years, humans have used culture as a strategy for survival.
REMEMBE

Question 5

Culture refers to the values, beliefs, behavior, and material things that form a way of life.

Question 6

Most people in the United States share the value that everyone should not only have equality of opportunity, but also equality in all aspects of social standing.

Question 7

People around the world have much the same outward appearance and wear the same clothing and bodily decoration.

Question 8

Cultural transmission cannot take place unless people have a written language.

Question 9

Symbols allow people to make sense of their surroundings.

Question 10

English is the first language of only 5 percent of humanity, but it has become the preferred second language throughout most of the world.

Question 11

In high-income countries such as the United States, everyone has the ability to read and write.

Question 12

Values are standards that serve as broad guidelines for living.

Question 13

Symbols refer to anything that carries meaning that is recognized by people who share a culture.

Question 14

The same way of life is biologically "natural" to humans everywhere.

Question 15

Experiencing an unfamiliar culture can generate culture shock.

Question 16

An example of nonmaterial culture would be the types of vehicles people use to get around.

Question 17

The gesture we commonly call "thumbs up" is used in most of the world's societies to signify that something is very good.

Question 18

Businesses in this country can profit from recognizing the cultural diversity of the U.S.population.

Question 19

Compared to cultures around the world, the way of life in the United States emphasizes individualism.

Question 20

The emergence of computer-based instant messaging shows how new symbols are being created all the time.

Question 21

Mores are norms that have great moral significance.

Question 22

The subordination of women by men is clearly evident in hunting and gathering societies.

Question 23

Hunting and gathering societies are nomadic.

Question 24

Across the United States, mores vary more than folkways.

Question 25

People in the United States tend to view the past as being better than the present.

Question 26

Hunting and gathering societies generate a material surplus.

Question 27

Gerhard Lenski used the concept "sociocultural evolution" to refer to how technological innovation changes the shape of societies.

Question 28

Pastoral and horticultural societies are not capable of a material surplus.

Question 29

One emerging value in the United States is the importance of personal growth, including spiritual activity.

Question 30

Horticultural societies typically form permanent settlements.

Question 31

Industrial societies use powerful sources of energy to drive large machinery.

Question 32

The industrial era was underway in parts of Europe by the time the explorer Christopher Columbus reached the Americas in 1492.

Question 33

Technology refers to knowledge people use to make a way of life in their surroundings.

Question 34

In general, low-income nations have cultures that value individualism and personal self-expression.

Question 35

Cultural values in the United States always go together-they are all consistent with one another.

Question 36

Forces of nature have the greatest effect on societies with the simplest technology.

Question 37

Agriculture differs from horticulture because it makes use of animal-drawn plows that can cultivate much more land.

Question 38

Agrarian societies typically have dramatic social inequality.

Question 39

Cultural values in high-income nations tend to be secular-rational, giving greater importance to personal self-expression.

Question 40

Values and norms help to define a society's "ideal culture."

Question 41

TheCHAPTER opening story of the diversity initiative at Charles Schwab & Co.shows us that

A) various minorities respond to the same advertising in exactly the same way.
B) Asian American immigrants prefer English to their native language when they are doing business.
C) learning more about cultural diversity can help a company boost sales.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 42

Japan is more multicultural than the United States.

Question 43

Karl Marx argued that a society's economic system was shaped by its value system.

Question 44

The structural-functional approach sees culture as a relatively stable system of integrated patterns people use to meet their needs.

Question 45

Cultural change results from invention, discovery, and diffusion.

Question 46

Rock -and-roll music in the United States is one cultural trait that has nothing in common with music that was popular a short time before it emerged.

Question 47

It is fair to say that humans are prisoners of their existing culture.

Question 48

Cultural lag refers to the fact that some cultural elements change more quickly than others.

Question 49

Sociobiology explores how human biology has shaped today's culture.

Question 50

In general, industrialization results in more schooling and a sharp increase in the share of the population that is illiterate.

Question 51

The use of industrial technology typically raises economic living standards.

Question 52

Subculture is more at odds with dominant culture than counterculture.

Question 53

Cultural relativism means using your own cultural standards to evaluate another culture.

Question 54

Afrocentrism refers to the dominance of European cultural patterns.

Question 55

Cultural universals refer to patterns that are held by everyone in a society.

Question 56

Most people participate in numerous subcultures without necessarily becoming very committed to any of them.

Question 57

A postindustrial society uses computers and other information technology to operate much of the economy.

Question 58

The fact that hip-hop music and the DJ scene were invented in the low-income, African American neighborhoods of New York show that people of all social positions help create U.S.cultural patterns.

Question 59

Multiculturalists claim that, over the course of U.S.history, most non-English immigrants were advised to adopt the cultural patterns of the English-their "betters"-rather than "melt in."

Question 60

The U.S.has a popular culture, but not a high culture.

Question 61

Cars, computers, and iPhones are all examples of which of the following?

A) high culture
B) material culture
C) norms
D) nonmaterial culture

Question 62

The United States is multicultural because

A) everyone holds the same values and beliefs.
B) each individual holds many different and conflicting values and beliefs.
C) there are many widely shared values and beliefs.
D) in this country we find many different languages and ways of life.

Question 63

As a part of human culture, religion is an example of

A) material culture.
B) nonmaterial culture.
C) culture shock.
D) human nature.

Question 64

The term Homo sapiens, the name of our species, comes from Latin meaning

A) "person of culture."
B) "intelligent person."
C) "one who walks upright."
D) "person who evolves."

Question 65

The term _____ refers to a shared way of life, and the term ____ refers to a political entity.

A) culture society
B) country nation
C) nation culture
D) culture nation

Question 66

Standards by which people who share culture define what is desirable, good, and beautiful are called

A) folkways.
B) norms.
C) mores.
D) values.

Question 67

Among all forms of life, humans stand out as the only species that

A) relies on culture to ensure survival.
B) has patterned ways of living.
C) has biological instincts.
D) makes use of tools.

Question 68

The dominant values of U.S.culture include

A) a deep respect for the traditions of the past.
B) a belief in equality of condition for all.
C) a belief in individuality.
D) a belief in intuition over science.

Question 69

What is the term for the beliefs, values, behavior, and material objects that together make up the way of life for a group of people?

A) social structure
B) social system
C) culture
D) society

Question 70

The Sapir-Whorf thesis states that

A) language involves attaching labels to the real world.
B) people see the world through the cultural lens of their language.
C) most words have the same meaning if spoken in different languages.
D) every word exists in all known languages.

Question 71

The language widely spoken by people in more nations of the world than any other is

A) Spanish.
B) Chinese.
C) English.
D) Hindi.

Question 72

Key values of U.S.culture

A) always fit together easily.
B) change quickly, even from year to year.
C) are shared by absolutely everyone in a society.
D) are sometimes in conflict with one another.

Question 73

The United States is the most _______ of all countries.

A) multicultural
B) culturally uniform
C) slowly changing
D) nonmaterial

Question 74

According to scientists, Homo sapiens first appeared on Earth about how long ago?

A) 2,500 years
B) 25,000 years
C) 250,000 years
D) 250 million years

Question 75

While one dominant value of U.S.culture is the right to equal opportunity and freedom, another is

A) equality of condition.
B) material comfort.
C) racism and group superiority.
D) belief in tradition.

Question 76

Looking all around the world, what we find everywhere is

A) the same ideas about what is right.
B) people enjoying the same sports.
C) people creating diverse cultural systems.
D) the same standards that define what is beautiful and ugly.

Question 77

Sociologists define a symbol as

A) anything that carries meaning to people who share a culture.
B) any material cultural trait.
C) any gesture that conveys insult to others.
D) social patterns that cause culture shock.

Question 78

Cultural transmission refers to the process of

A) cultural patterns moving from one society to another.
B) using the oral tradition.
C) passing cultural patterns from one generation to another.
D) using writing to enshrine cultural patterns.

Question 79

The fact that instant messaging is based on a new set of symbols shows us that

A) today's young people are smarter than their parents.
B) symbols are static elements.
C) culture changes over time.
D) we are not dependent on our culture's symbols.

Question 80

The intangible world of ideas created by members of a society is referred to as

A) high culture.
B) material culture.
C) norms.
D) nonmaterial culture.