Introduction to Sociology

Question 4 Answer: a symbol
A symbol conveys culturally recognizable meanings that inform our experiences and social interactions.


Question 5 Answer: the Sapir-Whorf thesis
This thesis argues that culture is embedded in one’s language, and therefore cultural meanings that are not already available through one’s vocabulary will be seen foreign.


Question 6 Answer: universalism
Universals are patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies, as laughter and music are thought to be.


Question 7 Answer: xenocentrism
Note that xenocentrism is an exaggerated form of cultural relativism, where one has over-identified with and elevated another’s culture.


Question 8 Answer: culture shock
Rodney’s discomfort is rooted in unexpected difference between how platonically acquainted men greet each other in a foreign nation’s culture as compared to how one does this in his own home.


Question 9 Answer: They understand their group identity as resting on a conscious opposition to mainstream society’s rules.
Note that “counter-“ means “opposed to” whereas “sub-“ means “a smaller part of the whole.”


Question 10 Answer: subculture
Recall that hipsters exist as a smaller identity group within mainstream culture, and that they do so in a relatively harmonious, non-confrontational way.


Question 11 Answer: How later generations might take a long time to accept the ways that a new material technology has affected culture.
The “lab” that Ogburn is describing accounts for a historical discontinuity between generations that is caused by new material technologies that are only slowly understood and integrated into society.


Question 12 Answer: globalization
The integration of international markets and the relaxing of national trade boundaries, along with advances in communication technologies, has enabled a new form of labor.