Deck 3: Culture

Question 1

Who consumes mass culture?

A) all social classes
B) primarily the middle class
C) primarily the lower class
D) women more than men

Answer 1

A

Question 2

According to the textbook, which of the following processes characterizes the "cultural" part of human experience?

A) looking
B) naming
C) seeing
D) explaining

Answer 2

B

Question 3

According to the textbook, which of the following cultural elements is fundamental to people's understanding of reality?

A) beliefs
B) values
C) norms
D) material culture

Answer 3

A

Question 4

The fact that a Canadian-born English speaker can understand this sentence illustrates the power of which of the following?

A) education
B) society
C) culture
D) family

Question 5

Understanding that le chat (French) and die katze (German) mean the same thing as cat is an example of which human capacity?

A) communication
B) sanction
C) cooperation
D) abstraction

Question 6

According to the textbook, which of the following categories does rap music fit into?

A) High culture and popular culture.
B) Culture and popular culture.
C) Culture and high culture.
D) Low culture and popular culture.

Question 7

According to the textbook, how do most people respond to an event?

A) They respond to the event itself.
B) They respond to the cultural meaning of the event.
C) They respond to their idiosyncratic interpretation of the event.
D) They respond by imitating actions of others.

Question 8

According to the textbook, what level of experience do touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell comprise?

A) the semantic level
B) the syntactic level
C) the concrete level
D) the abstract level

Question 9

Look carefully at the following term: Gütergemeinschaft. What is the principal reason most Canadian-born English speakers do not understand what this term means?

A) Their command of English is poor.
B) Their education is deficient.
C) They did not read this textbook carefully.
D) Their culture is restricted.

Question 10

Human survival is based on the capacity to create general ideas that are not linked to specific or particular instances. What are these ideas called?

A) concepts
B) culture
C) norms
D) methods

Question 11

What is the purpose of culture?

A) to generate symbols
B) to define meaning of symbols
C) to solve real-life problems
D) to develop cultural capital

Question 12

Participating in a common culture requires understanding the shared meaning of which of the following?

A) experience
B) symbols
C) relationships
D) history

Question 13

According to the textbook, why is culture important?

A) Culture is impossible without human experience.
B) Culture can detract from human experience.
C) Culture is necessary for human life.
D) Culture can supplement human experience.

Question 14

Which of the following processes produces symbols?

A) generation
B) abstraction
C) collection
D) communication

Question 15

Imagine a student develops her own "shorthand" for taking lecture notes. Which of the following statements correctly identifies a feature of her shorthand?

A) The shorthand is composed of symbols but is not part of culture.
B) The shorthand does not constitute symbols but is part of culture.
C) The shorthand is composed of symbols and is part of culture.
D) The shorthand does not constitute symbols and is not part of culture.

Question 16

By themselves, how are concrete sensations experienced?

A) as harmless
B) as harmful
C) as meaningful
D) as meaningless

Question 17

What results from the abstraction process?

A) concepts
B) percepts
C) measures
D) hypotheses

Question 18

According to the textbook, why are personal terms of endearment that people invent in intimate relationships not an element of culture?

A) They are not symbolic.
B) They do not solve a real-life problem.
C) They do not contribute to social solidarity.
D) They are not shared by a large number of people.

Question 19

Who consumes high culture?

A) primarily the middle class
B) primarily the upper class
C) primarily the lower class
D) men more than women

Question 20

How does culture relate to concrete experience?

A) It gives it sequence.
B) It gives it meaning.
C) It gives it substance.
D) It gives it appeal.

Question 21

Research has shown that children who have close relatives who are homosexual are somewhat more likely to be homosexual themselves when they grow up. Which of the following would a sociologist use to explain this finding?

A) genetics
B) cultural values
C) survival value
D) utility

Question 22

When a father tells his son, "You should brush your teeth before going to bed," what is the father expressing?

A) a fact
B) a value
C) a norm
D) a belief

Question 23

Which of the following terms refers to the capacity to create a complex social life by establishing norms?

A) abstraction
B) cooperation
C) production
D) distribution

Question 24

Among ancient Egyptian rulers, siblings were considered preferred marriage partners. Which of the following best characterizes incest in this social group?

A) belief
B) taboo
C) value
D) folkway

Question 25

Matthew overhears an argument where one person claims that social behaviour is determined by the same biological patterns as those that determine people's eye colour. What is this position known as?

A) behavioural archaeology
B) evolutionary psychology
C) sociometrics
D) psychometrics

Question 26

A child looks at a writing instrument that has a sharp tip, a graphite core, and an eraser on the end. She calls it a "pencil." What process has occurred?

A) operationalization
B) instrumentation
C) abstraction
D) non-material production

Question 27

Which of the following is the basis of an evolutionary argument for the existence of some trait?

A) fitness maximization
B) selective management
C) integration potential
D) survival value

Question 28

Human capacity for cooperation is to norms as the capacity for production is to which of the following?

A) cultural organization
B) social capital
C) social organization
D) cultural capital

Question 29

What discipline makes the claim that genes account not just for physical characteristics but also for specific behaviours and social practices?

A) behavioural archaeology
B) evolutionary psychology
C) physical anthropology
D) social biology

Question 30

Most New Year cards wish recipients health and happiness, but not riches. Which of the following do these cards express?

A) taboos
B) beliefs
C) norms
D) values

Question 31

How are laws different from mores?

A) They are enforced by the state.
B) They are less important.
C) They are subject to debate.
D) They are based on public revulsion.

Question 32

Shelley is carrying a large heavy box out of class, while the people ahead of her exit the classroom and allow the door to slam in her face. What cultural rule are they breaking?

A) a taboo
B) a more
C) a folkway
D) cooperation

Question 33

To which of the following areas of culture do computers and mobile telephones belong?

A) non-material culture
B) material culture
C) high culture
D) popular culture

Question 34

Which of the following terms refers to serious rules that people believe are essential for the survival of their group?

A) production
B) mores
C) folkways
D) cooperation

Question 35

How do sociobiologists understand the relationship between biology and culture?

A) Biology is impossible without culture.
B) Biology enables creating of culture.
C) Mutation is linked to cultural innovation.
D) Mutation is not random, but culturally based.

Question 36

According to evolutionary psychologists' arguments, what happens to behaviour that increases the survival of the species?

A) It must change.
B) It is unlikely to change.
C) It will change soon.
D) It will change eventually.

Question 37

A common misconception is that because the human genome has been mapped as of June 26, 2000, all human characteristics can be "read" from this information. Why is this belief a misconception?

A) Genes mutate from generation to generation.
B) Genetic function is precise and human behaviour is imprecise.
C) Genetics needs greater study.
D) Genes interact with social and physical environmental conditions.

Question 38

Which of the following is an example of a folkway?

A) prohibition of incest
B) prohibition of drunk driving
C) avoiding facial tattooing
D) avoiding plagiarism in academic work

Question 39

When Travis holds up two fingers in the "peace sign," what is he using?

A) an archetype
B) a symbol
C) a norm
D) methods

Question 40

Which of the following refers to the chemical units that carry traits from parents to children?

A) hydrocarbons
B) genocarbons
C) genes
D) pheromones

Question 41

Which of the following refers to the conclusion that experience, thought, and language interact?

A) the Thomas theorem
B) the Miller paradox
C) Pinker's paradigm
D) the Sapir-Whorf thesis

Question 42

What do we call ceremonies that mark the transition from one stage of life to another?

A) cultural relativism
B) ethnocentrism
C) rites of passage
D) religious ceremonies

Question 43

Liam and Michael are about to get married. What does their wedding exemplify?

A) a rite of passage
B) an institutional practice
C) a globalizing trend
D) postmodern relativism

Question 44

What is the main consequence of the rights revolution for Canadian culture?

A) consolidation
B) diversification
C) balance
D) imbalance

Question 45

Marvin Harris argues that ethnocentrism misleads many Western observers' understanding of cow worship in rural India. When examining cow worship from the point of view of the functions it fulfills in Indian society, how can cow worship be understood?

A) as a rational economic practice
B) as a meaningful religious practice
C) as a solidarity social practice
D) as a sentimental emotional practice

Question 46

What was the common consequence of the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the eighteenth-century political revolutions?

A) globalization
B) localization
C) fragmentation of culture
D) integration of culture

Question 47

Which of the following is a criticism of multiculturalism discussed in the textbook?

A) Multicultural education harms minority students by overlooking core subjects.
B) Multiculturalism discourages the equal valuation of different cultures.
C) Multicultural education controls interethnic and interracial conflict poorly.
D) Multiculturalism discourages pluralism.

Question 48

What do sociologists call the belief that all cultures and all cultural practices have equal value?

A) cultural relativism
B) intolerance
C) cultural assimilation
D) multiculturalism

Question 49

According to a quantitative study of the World Values Survey (Boucher, 2013), in which of the following areas were Canadian values becoming more like those of the United States?

A) economic domain
B) social domain
C) moral dimension
D) political dimension

Question 50

According to the Sapir-Whorf thesis, which of the following cultural elements is the most important for the way we see the world?

A) production
B) cooperation
C) language
D) conceptual thinking

Question 51

Until the 1960s, many sociologists argued that culture was a "reflection" of society. However, what do many sociologists contend today about people's agency?

A) People accept culture as it is given to them.
B) People shape culture but typically only when they care about an issue.
C) People do not just accept culture passively.
D) Culture is nothing more than people's values.

Question 52

The textbook notes that culture is not just a process that provides us with opportunities to exercise our freedom. What else is it?

A) It is liberating.
B) It is constraining.
C) It is beneficial.
D) It is harmful.

Question 53

Jennifer tells her friend Libby that she finds it disgusting that in some countries outside of Canada the inhabitants eat bugs. What concept does Jennifer's opinion exemplify?

A) cultural diffusion
B) cultural conflict
C) ethnocentrism
D) myopia

Question 54

Many have argued that educational curricula should present a more balanced picture of Canadian society by reflecting Canada's ethnic and racial diversity. What does this perspective advocate?

A) cultural solidarity
B) ethnocentrism
C) cultural assimilation
D) multiculturalism

Question 55

Which of the following is an example of ethnocentrism?

A) appreciating another culture's practices as superior to those of your culture
B) translating a book from another language into English
C) Indigenous peoples rejecting city life on the basis of traditional values
D) cooking or dining out to experience ethnically different foods

Question 56

Cow worship in India seems irrational to most Canadians. What is this typical Canadian perspective an example of?

A) ethnocentrism
B) cultural dissonance
C) culture shock
D) cultural lag

Question 57

When First Nations groups in Canada began to assert their rights to cultural sovereignty and establish land claims, what process were they engaging in?

A) cultural solidarity
B) rights revolution
C) cultural production
D) multiculturalism

Question 58

Which of the following refers to the judging of another culture by the standards of one's own?

A) culture shock
B) culture lag
C) egocentrism
D) ethnocentrism

Question 59

Which of the following values does Quebec's Charter of Values exemplify?

A) secularism
B) religiosity
C) ethnocentrism
D) cultural relativism

Question 60

How has the United Nations defined female genital mutilation (FGM)?

A) as cultural diversification
B) as ethnocentrism
C) as cultural assimilation
D) as violence against women

Question 61

Which of the following processes has made a difference between modernity and postmodernity?

A) the inevitability of progress
B) the erosion of authority
C) the inevitability of cultural stagnation
D) the strengthening of consensus around core values

Question 62

During a school trip to Russia with other British Columbia students, Michelle is surprised to hear Justin Bieber's latest song being played at the McDonald's in Saint Petersburg. She is further surprised when a group of local teens begins to sing along to the song. What is Michelle witnessing?

A) the shrinking of cultural repertoires
B) the expansion of cultural comfort zones
C) media convergence
D) globalization

Question 63

Kristin is an outspoken critic of Canadian foreign policy, which her parents rarely question. What type of thinking does Kristin's attitude reflect?

A) tribalism
B) postmodernism
C) urbanism
D) primitivism

Question 64

Which of the following terms best capture the way sociologists until the 1960s saw the difference between Americans and Canadians?

A) secular and religious
B) business-like and lazy
C) individualist and authoritarian
D) free and enslaved

Question 65

Which of the following locations goes against the trend toward globalization of English?

A) Nunavut
B) Québec
C) continental Europe
D) North America

Question 66

Which cultural process is illustrated by Marshall McLuhan's idea of a "global village"?

A) cultural fragmentation
B) globalization
C) industrialization
D) multiculturalism

Question 67

Why is English the dominant language around the world?

A) because English is the superior language in which to conduct business
B) because of the impact of biculturalism over the last 100 years
C) because of the economic, political, and cultural influence of Great Britain and the United States over the past 200 years
D) because of the great influence of non-English European countries over the past 200 years

Question 68

Which of the following is a public acknowledgment of a changing social status?

A) a rite of passage
B) an institutional practice
C) a production
D) a global phenomenon

Question 69

During the colonial era, which of the following languages has been most widely distributed by the forces of globalization?

A) French
B) Italian
C) Japanese
D) English

Question 70

The growth of different religious beliefs and practices is a characteristic of which form of culture?

A) premodern
B) industrial
C) modernism
D) postmodern

Question 71

What form of culture involves an eclectic mixing of elements from different times and places, the erosion of authority, and the decline of consensus around core values?

A) premodern culture
B) postmodern culture
C) modern culture
D) traditional culture

Question 72

According to the textbook, which of the following processes destroys political, economic, and cultural isolation?

A) cultural fragmentation
B) multiculturalism
C) industrialization
D) globalization

Question 73

Serena states that she believes in a god but has never attended any religious services. Instead, she practises tarot and astrology and also believes in reincarnation. What do her spiritual practices and beliefs reflect?

A) postmodernism
B) tribalism
C) modernism
D) premodernism

Question 74

Which of the following refers to the era during which the overwhelming majority of people of Western culture believed in the inevitability of progress, respected authority, and formed a consensus around core values?

A) traditionalism
B) posttraditionalism
C) modernity
D) postmodernity

Question 75

The culture of our times has been through much fragmentation and reconfiguration. What is this situation characteristic of?

A) primitivism
B) tribalism
C) institutionalization
D) postmodernism

Question 76

According to the textbook, momentous social and political changes have been going on since the fourteenth century. However, which of the following has sped up cultural fragmentation?

A) cultural reproduction
B) fundamentalism
C) industrialization
D) multiculturalism

Question 77

Which of the following exemplified the global trend toward homogeneity?

A) loss of local languages
B) increase in the global number of Chinese speakers
C) decrease in the global number of Chinese speakers
D) increase in the number of local languages

Question 78

What is causing the loss of several thousand languages around the world?

A) consumerism
B) rationalization
C) globalization
D) multilingualism

Question 79

More and more people are taking part in global resistance movements, engaging in protests against global capitalism and corporate greed. What is this global engagement indicative of?

A) tribalism
B) urbanism
C) postmodernism
D) modernism

Question 80

"Modern globalized culture allows people to be eclectic about preferences in music, but at the same time it limits mainstream lifestyle to one of consumerism in a capitalist society." What effect of culture has been identified in the preceding statement?

A) Modern culture is both freeing and constraining.
B) Modern culture is fed by a barrage of media messages.
C) Globalization is resulting in a more heterogeneous world.
D) Globalization is resulting in a more homogeneous world.