Sociology T/F Ch.2

Viewing bullfighting from its history, its folklore, its ideas of bravery, and its concepts about sex roles is an example of cultural relativism.

True

A group's way of thinking, including its beliefs, values, and other assumptions about the world, is classified as material culture.

False

According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, language is nothing more than common sense expressed in words and gestures.

False

By definition, subcultures are a threat to the mainstream culture.

False

Cultural lag refers to a situation in which elements of nonmaterial culture (such as norms and values) change, but elements of material culture (such as technology) do not.

False

Ethnocentrism is purely a negative trait with no redeeming qualities.

False

Madagascar's cultural practice of famadihana, dancing with the dead, is an example of what Robert Edgerton would have considered an inferior cultural practice that does not deserve the application of cultural relativism.

False

Sociologists agree that human behavior has been bred into us through evolutionary principles.

False

The Ten Commandments, the U.S. Constitution, and the penal code of a major city are all examples of folkways.

False

A person receiving a positive sanction would be expected to maintain the behavior that he or she exhibited when receiving the sanction.

True

A person who professes a belief in freedom and equality but also demonstrates behavior that is sexist and racist is involved in a value contradiction.

True

Because America is made up of many different groups, it is classified as being a pluralistic society.

True

Culture becomes the lens through which we perceive and evaluate what is going on around us.

True

Culture wars not only identify differences in values and norms, but they may also result in violence and strife among members of the same society.

True

Groups are more prone to changing their material culture before they change their nonmaterial culture.

True

Language allows culture to develop by freeing people to move beyond their immediate experiences.

True

The author's description of the arrival of the Hmong in America illustrates that culture shock is experienced by people all over the world and not just Americans.

True

There is nothing "natural" about material or nonmaterial culture.

True

When on "moral holiday," norms are expected to be broken.

True

When the Mormons first established their settlement in Utah, they would have been classified a counterculture because at the time they believed in the practice of polygyny.

True