Chapter 2, The Concept of Culture

1. Chapter 2, The Concept of Culture Key Terms

2. adaptive nature of cultureThe implication that culture is the major way human populations adapt or relate to their specific habitat in order to survive and reproduce. civilizationA term used by anthropologists to describe any society that has cities.

3. cultural diffusionThe spreading of a cultural trait (that is, material object, idea, or behavior pattern) from one society to another. cultural universalsThose general cultural traits found in all societies of the world.

4. culture shockA psychological disorientation experienced when attempting to operate in a radically different cultural environment. enculturationThe process by which human infants learn their culture.

5. innovationsChanges brought about by the recombination of already existing items within a culture. monochronic culturesPeople view time in a linear fashion, place great importance on punctuality and keeping on schedule, and prefer to work on one task at a time.

6. organic analogyEarly functionalist idea that holds that cultural systems are integrated into a whole cultural unit in much the same way that the various parts of a biological organism function to maintain the health of the organism. pluralistic societiesSocieties composed of a number of different cultural or subcultural groups.

7. polychronic culturesPeople typically perform a number of tasks at the same time and place a higher value on nurturing and maintaining social relationships rather than on punctuality for its own sake. small-scale societyA term used to refer to those societies that have relatively small populations, minimal technology, and little division of labor.

8. subculturesA subdivision of a national culture that both shares some features with the larger society and also differs in some important respects. symbolSomething, either verbal or nonverbal, that stands for something else.