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Online Aboriginal Peoples First Nations, Metis and Inuit.
Tutorials
(Canada)
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Absolute Poverty A standard of poverty based on a minimum
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Readings
level of subsistence below which families
In the Media
should not be expected to exist.
Jobs Acculturation The exchange of cultural features that results
when groups come into continuous firsthand
contact; the original cultural patterns of either
or both groups may be altered, but the groups
remain distinct.
Acephalous Society a society without a political head such as a
president, chief, or king.
Achieved Status Social status that comes through talents,
choices, actions, efforts, activities, and
accomplishments, rather than ascription.
Adult Socialization The process of socialization that occurs after
childhood and that prepares people for adult
roles. Adult socialization also involves more
active selection and intervention by the person
being socialized, with more personal choice
being made as to what status, identities, or
roles are acceptable, and to what degree.
Affinal Kin Relatives by marriage, whether of lineals (e.g.,
 son's wife) or collaterals (e.g., sister's
husband).
Affluent Society An account of American society that
emphasizes the apparent wealth and material
fascination and wellbeing of a large segment
of the population, namely the middle-classes
and above.
Age Grade a group of people of the same sex and
approximately the same age who share a set
of duties and privileges.
Age Set Group uniting all men or women born during a
certain time span; this group controls property
and often has political and military functions.
Agency The ability of individuals to act as self-
conscious, willful social agents, and to exert
their will through involvement in social
practices, relationships, and decision-making.
Agrarian Society The most technologically advanced form of
preindustrial society. Members are primarily
engaged in the production of food but increase
their crop yield through such innovations as
the plow.
Agriculture Nonindustrial systems of plant cultivation
characterized by continuous and intensive use
of land and labor.
Agriculture (hydraulic There have been five great hydraulic societies
societies) in human history: the first what in Persia along
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The second
was along the Nile in Egypt; the third along the
Ganges in India; the fourth along the Yellow
River in China and the fifth in around what is
now called Mexico City. Hydraulic agriculture
required social differentiation [specialization]; it
did not require social stratification as so many
historians argue. But both occurred to change
forever the ways in which people live.
Agrippa 3rd Century Greek philosopher who laid the
basis for a postmodern philosophy of
knowledge in five tropes [headings]. 1) There
is no sure basis for deciding among different
 philosophical claims. 2) All data are relative to
the beholder. 3) Every proof rests upon
assumptions which in turn have to be proved
ad infinitum. 4) One cannot trust the
hypotheses when the truth value of its
premises are unknown. 5) There is a vicious
circle in which sense data are used to inform
reason which, in turn, is used to establish what
is to be taken as data.
Alienation the fragmentation of individuals' relations to
their work, the things they produce, and the
resources with which they produce them.
Allocation The process of matching people to positions in
the labour force on the basis of their
schooling.
Allomorphs forms contained in morphemes that differ in
sound but not in meaning.
Allophones sounds that belong to the same phoneme.
Ambilineal Descent Principle of descent that does not
automatically exclude the children of either
sons or daughters.
Ambilocality residence of a married couple with or near the
kin of either husband or wife, as they choose.
Ancestor Worship The religious worship of ancestors based on
the belief that they possess supernatural
power.
Animism Belief in souls or doubles.
Anomie Normlessness (lit. without order. a=without;
nomy=order). A term used by Durkheim to
indicate "the collapse of the normative order."
The term implies that conformity to norms is
natural and normal; that resistance is
pathological. Then too, embedded in the
concept is the idea that norms are above and
beyond the individuals who are said to
organize their behavior in terms of the
normative structure.
Anthropophagy The practice of eating human flesh.
Anticipatory A process by which aspirants to a particular
Socialization role begin to discern what it would be like to
function in that role.
Appropriation The means by which the surplus value of labor
is appropriated directly and controlled by those
who do not produce are varied indeed. These
mechanisms include sharecropping, tenancy,
tribute, debt peonage, slavery, wage relations
and impressment into work crews. Indirect
ways to appropriate labor power and its
products include taxes, profits, interest, rents,
tithes, tolls, and fees. Think about the social
relations such mechanisms require, and the
kind of political apparatus necessary to
enforce them as well as the costs to a society
to pay for these mechanisms of appropriate of
wealth.
Ascribed Status Social status (e.g., race or gender) that people
have little or no choice about occupying.
Assimilation The process of change that a minority group
may experience when it moves to a country
where another culture dominates; the minority
is incorporated into the dominant culture to the
point that it no longer exists as a separate
cultural unit.
Authority Many societies allocate more social power to
some statuses and require those in 'lower'
status comply with the orders, commands,
wishes or expectations of 'higher' authority.
When social power is vested in an office or
person, such person has 'authority.' Weber
lists three kinds: traditional [that of a parent or
priest], legal-rational [that of a formal
organization with rules and people to enforce
them] as well as charismatic. As Simmel
noted, such "power" is always a social product
and lasts only as long as the "subordinates"
continue to reify the person/office as an
"authority." However, when authority is naively
reified, people do give up some of their
autonomy and allow others to direct their
behavior. Both human agency and personal
morality are thereby subverted.
Automation The practice of controlling machines with
machines. The transformation from labor
intensive production to capital intensive
production. Up until 1960, most of the time
automation replaced unskilled workers. Now
automation threatens to replace lower level
white collar workers. IBM, Xerox and other
"word processor" are developing machines
controlled by computers to process words.
Secretaries, teachers, professors, postal
workers, and others who use words become
surplus to the corporate needs as "artificial
intelligence" systems are designed.
Automation in capitalist societies increases
production and prices while eliminating wage
workers. Without work, demand falls and the
surplus population grows.
Avunculocal residence of a married couple with or near a
Residence brother of the husband's mother who is usually
a senior member of his matrilineage.
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B
Back Stage A term used by Goffman to make the point that
in a dramaturgical society, there is much
hidden from the view of those who are caught
up in social institutions. In conflict ridden
societies, teams rehearse performances back
stage and then offer the dramaturgical
facsimile of service, quality, or honest agency
to those who are in the audience [front stage].
In markets, politics, religion and education,
such hidden routines invalidate most of the
assumptions of symbolic interaction theory
about how symbols are shared and call forth
the same responses and feelings in all parties
to such interaction.
Balance of Payments The flow of wealth from one country to another
measured by dollars, francs, pounds, yen or
shillings. There are lots of ways this occurs
including trade, foreign investment, duties on
goods, loans and interests on loans by
international banks. When a U.S. company
builds a factory (invests) in Brazil, it has to
 spend money in that country, hiring workers
and buying raw materials. Once that factory is
operating, money flows back to the U.S. in the
form of profits. Military operations and foreign
"aid" also involve major dollar flows. The
difference between the number of dollars that
flow into and out of the U.S. is the balance of
payments, a major indicator of the international
strength and power of the U.S. economy. The
U.S. has a balance of payments deficits lately
(1977-) since large corporations move their
factories to the poor nations where cheap
labor, cheap materials, and new markets are
found.
Balance of Trade If you go buy a Volkswagen, you pay for it in
dollars at your local dealer. Most of these
dollars go back to the German firm that
produced the car; dollars flow from the U.S. to
Germany. The dollar value of all U.S.-made
goods sold abroad (exports) minus the dollar
value of all foreign-made goods sold in the
U.S. (imports) is the balance of trade. This
indicates how effectively U.S. firms are
competing with their foreign rivals. When
balance of trade is positive for a nation, its
factories are busy and the surplus population
small. When negative, the surplus population
grows, welfare and other costs go up and the
state has a fiscal crises.
Balanced Reciprocity gift giving that clearly carries the obligation of
an eventual and roughly equal return.
Band Basic unit of social organization among
foragers. A band includes fewer than 100
people; it often splits up seasonally.
Bandity, social A form of pre-theoretical rebellion in which
particular nobles or capitalists are the target of
violence or theft. The bandit steals from,
kidnaps, or murders rich and/or famous
persons and shares out the wealth to kin and
friends. Banditry tends to disappear as social
justice increases. Robin Hood and Pretty Boy
Floyd are among the better known bandits.
Many viewed Jesse and Frank James as
 social bandits since they robbed the banks
which were thought to be robbing the worker
and farmer.
Base, economic The means of production of material culture
and the relations of production is found in the
economic base. The tools, factories,
techniques, and lines of commodity production
form one part of the base. The other part of the
base consists of the way the producers of
value relate to each other and to those who do
not produce value. In slavery, the relationship
is that of slave and master; in feudalism, of
Lord and Serf; in capitalism, that of worker and
owner; in socialism, that of worker and state; in
communism, that of worker to other workers
and to the unpaid but important labor force. In
capitalism, there is a tendency to improve the
means of production and to destroy the
relations of production.
Belief A mental act by which a social fact comes into
being. The everyday use of the word does not
begin to be adequate in pointing to the utter,
complete, and naive acceptance of a social
fact as really true. Many sociologists and
anthropologists treat "beliefs" as something
ignorant and superstitious folk have while
civilized and educated people are interested in
"true facts." The later position, inappropriately,
assumes that social facts exist apart from
intending, wanting, hoping, believing human
beings. One's capacity to believe and to trust
is greatly exploited in monopoly capitalism.
Bifurcate Collateral Kinship terminology employing separate terms
Kinship Terminology for M, F, MB, MZ, FB, and FZ.
Big Man Regional figure often found among tribal
horticulturalists and pastoralists. The big man
occupies no office but creates his reputation
through entrepreneurship and generosity to
others. Neither his wealth nor his position
passes to his heirs.
Bilateral Descent a descent ideology in which individuals define
themselves as being at the center of a group of
 kin composed more or less equally of kin from
both paternal and maternal lines.
Bilateral Kinship A system in which kinship ties are calculated
Calculation equally through both sexes: mother and father,
sister and brother, daughter and son, and so
on.
Bilocal Residence regular alternation of a married couple's
residence between the household or vicinity of
the wife's kin and of the husband's kin.
Biological Those who argue that human behavior and
Determinists social organization are biologically determined.
Biological The practice of explaining all human behavior
Reductionism in terms of purely biological processes; genes,
instincts, hormones, and pre-programmed
brain activity. Stratification, sexual dominance,
territoriality, acquisition and conflict are said to
be basic biological behaviors. Actually we do
not know just how much social behavior is
grounded firmly in biology nor do we know
when and how biology is mediated by
sociology. The interactions may be so complex
that only loose generalizations are possible.
Black English A rule-governed dialect of American English
Vernacular (BEV) with roots in southern English. BEV is spoken
by African-American youth and by many adults
in their casual, intimate speech-sometimes
called "ebonics."
Boas, Franz (1858-1942)- Boas is the early-twentieth-
century scholar most responsible for
discrediting the then-dominant scientific
theories of racial superiority. Through his
elaboration of cultural relativism as an
alternative theoretical framework, he came to
have an enormous influence on the
development of American anthropology. He
reexamined the premises of physical
anthropology and became an early critic of
race rather than environment as an
explanation for difference in the natural and
social sciences. Perhaps his most influential
book, The Mind of Primitive Man (1911),
 demonstrated that there was no such thing as
a "pure" race or a superior one. Not
surprisingly, his books were banned in Hitler's
Germany. A student of Native American
languages, Boas emphasized the importance
of linguistic analysis from internal linguistic
structure. Long outspoken against
totalitarianism in its many guises, he was a
fierce advocate of intellectual freedom,
supported many democratic causes, and was
the founder of the American Committee for
Democracy and Intellectual Freedom. Boas
added cultural relativism to the body of
anthropological theory and believed in
historical particularism; cultural relativism
pointed out that the differences in peoples
were the results of historical, social and
geographic conditions and all populations had
complete and equally developed culture.
Historical particularism deals with each culture
as having a unique history and one should not
assume universal laws govern how cultures
operate. This view countered the early
evolutionist view of Louis Henry Morgan and
Edward Tylor, who had developed stages that
each culture went through during their
development.
Bound Morphemes morphemes that must be attached to other
morphemes to convey meaning.
Bourgeoisie One of Marx's opposed classes; owners of the
means of production (factories, mines, large
farms, and other sources of subsistence).
Bride Price payment made by a man to the family from
whom he takes a daughter in marriage.
Bride Service service rendered by a man as payment to a
family from whom he takes a daughter in
marriage.
Bride Wealth property given by the family of the groom to
the family of the bride to compensate them for
the loss of their daughter's services.
Bureaucracy French; bureau = writing desk and, later,
 drawer. It has come to mean any work
requiring the keeping of files; later a form of
social organization in which order, rationality
and hierarchy are key elements. In more
general terms, a way of organizing social life
such that an elite can control the behavior of a
large mass of people by means of a staff (or
cadre). Lenin said that a bureaucracy was first
a military (police) apparatus and then a
judiciary apparatus; that it corrupts from above
and below. It is also an apparatus which
locates moral agency in the hands of a few.
Marked by formal and uniform application of
rules, bureaucracies are supposed to be
"rational" instruments by which goals
determined by an elite may be achieved.
Bureaucratic organization typifies modern
industrial corporations, military organizations
and a managed society.
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C
Cannibalism See Anthropophagy
Cannibalism, Ritual Involves consuming either an actual part of a
human body (ashes mixed in drink or inhaled
as snuff, or eating cooked pieces) for symbolic
and spiritual purposes, not as a dietary
practice.
Capital Wealth or resources invested in business, with
the intent of producing a profit.
Capital, Accumulation The transformation of surplus value into
of machines and technology to produce more
goods and services with fewer and fewer
workers. All economic systems need to
accumulate and improve capital goods; only
capitalism tries, as well, to dis-employ more
and more people in the process. Marxists,
socialists, and communists as well as liberal
economists hold that part of surplus value
should be set aside for essential but low profit
services: child care, health care, teaching,
elder care, environment, and such. Capitalists
tend to argue that capital accumulation should
 a) follow demand and b) be invested in the
goods and services which yield the highest
profit rates.
Capitalism Capitalism is the dominant economic system
in the world today. Loosely definable as a
system of private enterprise whose primary
aim is the production of profit, capitalism has
been developing since at least the fifteenth
century, and underwrites many of the
economic and cultural institutions that we take
for granted today, such as private property,
individual freedom and the imperative of
economic growth. In capitalist economies, the
means of creating, distributing and
exchanging wealth lies mainly in the hands of
individuals and corporations (which have the
rights of individuals in North America), rather
than in public or state hands. The value of
goods and of labour is defined not by its social
usefulness or significance, but by how much it
can be exchanged for. The main goal of
individuals in capitalism is to maximize profit
or the wages they receive. Proponents believe
that through the dance of supply and demand,
goods and services are optimally and
efficiently distributed throughout society.
Detractors point to the growing gap between
the wealthy and the poor, who often generate
wealth for those at the top.
Capitalist World The single world system, which emerged in
Economy the 16th century, committed to production for
sale, with the object of maximizing profits
rather than supplying domestic needs.
Cargo Cults Postcolonial, acculturative religious
movements, common in Melanesia, that
attempt to explain European domination and
wealth and to achieve similar success
magically by mimicking European behavior.
Carib An indigenous people of the Caribbean
Region and northern South American shelf.
Carrying Capacity the point at or below which a population tends
to stabilize.
Caste System Closed, hereditary system of stratification,
often dictated by religion; hierarchical social
status is ascribed at birth, so that people are
locked into their parents' social position.
Cattle Complex an East African socioeconomic system in
which cattle represent social status as well as
wealth.
Ceremonial Fund the portion of the peasant budget allocated to
religious and social activities.
Charisma The term refers to the extraordinary quality
which some people perceive in an individual.
This perception, if widely shared, inspires
others to follow her/his lead and to organize
political, religious or family life in ways
impossible to predict from previous conditions.
The person so perceived usually embodies
some cherished cultural value or promise of
an ideal and thus is revolutionary. The term
means, "gifted with grace."
Charter Peoples British and French Canadians.
Chiefdom Form of sociopolitical organization
intermediate between the tribe and the state;
kin-based with differential access to resources
and a permanent political structure. A rank
society in which relations among villages as
well as among individuals are unequal, with
smaller villages under the authority of leaders
in larger villages; has a two-level settlement
hierarchy.
Civic Nationalism A form of nationalism where the social
boundaries of the nation are defined in
territorial and geographic terms.
Clan Unilineal descent group based on stipulated
descent.
Class a ranked group within a stratified society
characterized by achieved status and
considerable social mobility.
Class Conflict Also referred to as class struggle. Class
conflict is essentially the inevitable struggle
(due to social stratification) between social
 classes or parts of them having conflicting
interests, to redistribute existing power,
prestige, wealth, control, means of production,
etc.
Class Consciousness An awareness of one's own class interests, a
rejection of the interests of other classes, and
a readiness to use political means to realize
one's class interests (From C.W. Mills). Most
people identify themselves as middle class
even if they don't get paid much and even if
they can be fired tomorrow with no warning.
Many people go to college and learn they are
better; more successful than are 'common
laborers' and thus try to distance themselves
from their brothers and sisters who work at
unskilled jobs. Workers, too, look down upon
the underclass and thus the 'working class' is
fragmented into sectors with little interest in
class struggle.
Class Consciousness, Marx' theory of class consciousness is that
Theory of industrialism and the factory system brings
thousands of workers together in the same
place. Being together, they begin to realize
their own social power and see more clearly
the conflict between workers and owners.
Cline A gradual shift in gene frequencies between
neighboring populations.
Closed Corporate a community that strongly emphasizes
Community community identity and discourages outsiders
from settling there by restricting land use to
village members and prohibiting the sale or
lease of property to outsiders.
Cognates words so similar from one language to the
next as to suggest that both are variants of a
single ancestral prototype.
Cognitive A theoretical perspective on socialization that
Development focuses on the growth of mental abilities to
Perspective make increasingly complex judgments about
ourselves as well as our physical and social
environments.
Cognitive processes ways of perceiving and ordering the world.
Cohort A set of persons born within the same 5-year
period. One can follow the life cycles of a
given cohort and discover the larger patterns
shape and pre-shape human behavior. Cohort
analysis is a powerful tool in macro-social
psychological work.
Cohort Effect Effects on people's lives that arise from the
characteristics of the historical periods during
which they experienced stages of life such as
childhood or middle age.
Collateral Household Type of expanded family household including
siblings and their spouses and children.
Collateral relatives people to whom one is related through a
connecting person.
Collective Conscience Durkheim's term for the moral consensus that
is violated by deviant acts.
Collective From Emile Durkheim's sociology. It refers to
Representations a symbol having common-shared meaning
(intellectual and emotional) to members of a
social group or society. Collective
representations are first and foremost,
historical - that is, they reflect the history of a
social group; the collective experiences of a
group over time. Collective representations
refer not only to symbols in the form of objects
(such as the American flag), but also to the
basic concepts that determine the way in
which an individual views and relates to the
world in which he lives. God is a collective
representation, as are time and space, for
example. The particular function that collective
representations serve for society or social
groups in expressing the collective sentiments
or ideas that give the social group or society
its unity and uniqueness is that of producing
social cohesion or social solidarity. This is not
surprising, for one of the central concerns of
Durkheim's functional sociology was social
solidarity or social order.
Colonialism The political, social, economic, and cultural
domination of a territory and its people by a
foreign power for an extended time.
Commodification Rendering any artifact, action, object, or idea
into something that can be bought or sold.
Popular culture is often maligned for its
commodification of formerly more authentic
cultural forms, with the assumption that
through commodification things lose their
implicit value.
Commodities Objects and services produced for
consumption or exchange by someone other
than their producers. Although humans have
always exchanged the goods that they
produced for other goods, in the nineteenth
century a new focus on the consumption of an
increasingly diverse array of commodities by
greater numbers of consumers was partly
responsible for the gradual shift to a consumer
culture. Marx employed the term “commodity
fetishism” to describe the almost magical
value attributed to objects in a capitalist
economy—value derived not from how they
are used or the labour that produced them,
but from the price they command on the
market. The most significant, and most
damaging, aspect of commodity culture from a
Marxist perspective is its tendency to attribute
value to things and the relations between
them rather than to people and human
relationships.
Communal Cult a society with groups of ordinary people who
conduct religious ceremonies for the well-
being of the total community.
Communal Religions In Wallace's typology, these religions have, in
addition to shamanic cults, communal cults in
which people organize community rituals such
as harvest ceremonies and rites of passage.
Communitas Intense community spirit, a feeling of great
social solidarity, equality, and togetherness;
characteristic of people experiencing liminality
together.
Conditioning Denotes the learning process by which some
stimulus becomes linked with some behavior
in such a way that the stimulus will cause the
behavior to occur. People use it to help break
bad habits or phobias; corporations use it to
control workers or customers; states use it to
control students, prisoners, patients or those
who resist and rebel. Conditioning defeats
cognitive processes and replaces interaction
with determinism as the relevant causal
model.
Conflict Perspective A theoretical perspective that focuses on the
struggle among different social groups over
scarce rewards.
Conjugal Relationship the relationship between spouses.
Consanguineal Kin persons related by birth.
Consensus Theory The view that all structures in society are
useful and necessary; that most well adjusted
persons in society share values and norms;
that those who do not are either deviant or
subversives in need of sanctioning. Among
the structures viewed as 'functionally
necessary' are class, gender, occupational
and national divisions.
Conspicuous A pattern of behaviour, initially observed by
Consumption Thorstein Veblen, that began in the nineteenth
century as a result of increased incomes and
leisure time along with the growth of
marketing. “Wasted” consumption (that which
exceeds what is strictly necessary for life)
began to be used by members of different
classes in a way that was “conspicuous”—
obvious, noticeable, visible—in order to signal
or symbolize social distinction.
Consumerism The name for the complex set of dominant
values and practices produced by and arising
from life in a consumer society: a historically
unique form of society in which consumption
plays an important, if not central role. Central
to consumerism is the (generally implicit)
belief that the organization of life around the
 purchase of commodities is the optimal way to
address the needs and wants of individuals,
and even to allocate social goods.
Content Analysis An empirical examination of the frequency of a
particular social characteristic or feature of a
society. This can also be done on books,
magazines, journal articles, newspapers, etc.
Contract Societies Defined by Henry Maine, a cultural
evolutionist, in terms of societies that stress
individualism, where property is held in
private, and where social control is maintained
by legal sanctions.
Control Theory A theory put forward by T. Hirschi which
claims that crime occurs when social controls
are weak. While a strong and pro-social self-
system is important as are rewards and
sanctions of significant others, still the theory
ignores a lot of crime which occurs within well
organized, highly controlled social groups;
most political crime, most organized crime,
almost all corporate crime and a lot of street
crime involves strong, certain and direct
application of reward and punishment. This
theory and others provides ideological support
for more control rather than for more social
justice as a way to reduce very real crime
rates.
Convergence Theory Le Bon's belief that crowds consist of like-
minded people who assemble in one place.
Core Dominant structural position in the world
system; consists of the strongest and most
powerful states with advanced systems of
production.
Core values Key, basic, or central values that integrate a
culture and help distinguish it from others.
Cornucopian Thesis The Cornucopian Thesis theorizes that growth
is limited only when science and technology
do not make any further advances. However,
there is no reason why these advances should
stop. As long as we have these advances, the
earth is not finite, because new technologies
 create new resources.
Counterculture Groups that express antagonism toward the
existing social and political order, and propose
alternative ways of organizing society. The
term counterculture is most commonly used to
refer collectively to the alternative politics
expressed by a variety of groups in the 1960s
(feminists, civil rights and anti-war activists,
etc.). More generally, “the” counterculture
describes all those groups who challenge and
contradict the “common sense” of everyday
life with the aim of creating a better society.
Credentialing The process of giving diplomas and other
formal recognition of school achievement,
which in turn makes candidates elegible for
jobs.
Creole Language a pidgin language than has evolved into a fully
developed language, with a complete array of
grammatical distinctions and a large
vocabulary.
Crime From the Sanskrit, Karma, meaning that which
a person is responsible in contrast from that
over which a person has no choice. In
American criminology crime is defined as: 1) a
violation of a legal specification, 2) enacted by
a competent law making body, 3) involving
both culpable intent and 4) overt action which
5) carries a specific penalty. This definition
safely confines the policing of behavior to that
which is defined as illegal; itself often under
control of an elite.
Cross-Cousins mother's brothers' children and father's sisters'
children.
Cult of the Leader When people invest great authority and power
in the person of a single individual, they help
form such a cult. Often, leaders surround
themselves with people who are paid one way
or another by promoting the infallibility of the
leader. This happens in politics, religion,
business and military systems. The needs and
interests of single persons then become more
 important than the collective needs of a
community, congregation or company.
Cultivation Continuum A continuum based on the comparative study
of nonindustrial cultivating societies in which
labor intensity increases and fallowing
decreases.
Cultural Determinists Those who relate behavior and social
organization to cultural or environmental
factors. This view focuses on variation rather
than universals and stresses learning and the
role of culture in human adaptation.
Cultural Evolution the theory that societal change can be
understood by analogy with the processes
underlying the biological evolution of species.
Cultural Imperialism Cultural Imperialism: A term describing the
ideological infiltration of the cultural products
of dominant nations (typically, the United
States) into less globally powerful ones, at the
expense of some aspects of indigenous
culture. Globalization theorists have cast
some doubt on the concept of cultural
imperialism, pointing to its problematic
assumption of a passive, colonized global
audience, as well as its simplistic reading of
actual processes of global production and
consumption.
Cultural Materialism the theory, espoused by Marvin Harris, that
ideas, values, and religious beliefs are the
means or products of adaptation to
environmental conditions ("material
constraints").
Cultural Relativism The position that the values and standards of
cultures differ and deserve respect. Extreme
relativism argues that cultures should be
judged solely by their own standards.
Cultural Rights Doctrine that certain rights are vested not in
individuals but in identifiable groups, such as
religious and ethnic minorities and indigenous
societies. Cultural rights include a group's
ability to preserve its culture, to raise its
children in the ways of its forebears, to
 continue its language, and not to be deprived
of its economic base by the nation-state in
which it is located.
Cultural Universal those general cultural traits found in all
societies of the world. culture shock a
psychological disorientation experienced
when attempting to operate in a radically
different cultural environment.
Culture Distinctly human; transmitted through
learning; traditions and customs that govern
behavior and beliefs.
Culture Area a region in which several groups have similar
culture complexes.
Culture of Poverty The theory that some ethnic groups do not
Thesis readily assimilate, and hence are poor,
because their culture does not value
economic success, hard work, and
achievement.
Custom A practice followed by a people of a particular
group or region.
TOP
D
Data (sing. datum) From Latin: that which is given. One collects
data and analyses them in order to confirm or
reject a hypothesis. The term thus refers to a
set of observations from nature (physical or
social) which are independent from the
interests and cognitive processes of the
scientist. There is no such independence in
the Marxian philosophy of science nor in most
postmodern philosophies of science.
De-centering A postmodern objective: the result of re-
examining truth claims of, say patriarchy,
stratification, or truth itself and showing the
human hand and human agenda which
brought the claim, theory or practice to the
fore-front and celebrates it as eternally valid
and objectively existent.
Decideability One of three characteristics of a hypothesis or
theory; the other two being completeness and
 consistency. Decideability depends upon the
existence of a method of proof available with a
finite number of steps. No method, unlimited
steps, no proof, no knowledge. This is why
Agrippa held that sure and certain knowledge
was impossible. But see prediction,
replicability.
Deconstruction Deconstruction: A method of analysis initially
articulated in the work of Jacques Derrida that
involves exposing the submerged
philosophical assumptions that underpin texts
and concepts. Derrida asserted that all
Western thought is founded upon countless
sets of binary oppositions (black and white,
speech and writing, man and woman, etc.)
wherein one term is invariably considered to
be superior to its “opposite,” a valuation with
vast cultural consequences. Deconstructionist
readings attempt to discover how such
unarticulated ideologies underpin seemingly
straightforward surface meanings.
Dediction (deductive Latin: de = from; ducere = to lead, to draw out.
logic) In logic, a deduction is a conclusion which
follows from two or more given assumptions,
which if true, make the conclusion true. In
social science, a deduction is a conclusion
from the logical implications of a theory; thus
one deducts hypothesis and collects data in
order to confirm or deny the truth of it.
Definition of the The meaning that people ascribe to a
Situation particular setting for social interaction.
Delinquency The behavior of young people defined as
criminal by a law making body and ruled as
such by a judge in court. Generally young
people are not held to the same standards of
responsibility as are adults. On the other hand,
they are required to obey the rules of home
and school else be labelled 'delinquent.' See
Status crimes. Young people became a
special category around 1850 when both laws
and social control systems were set up. The
changing labor market required children stay
in school and learn skills appropriate to
 industrial capitalism, hence the legal system
began to create a new age grade: the
adolescent.
Demographic Under this theory, populations go through
Transition Theory three stages: a preindustrial stage, in which
both the birth rate and mortality rate are high;
an early industrialization stage, in which the
birth rate is high and mortality declines
[therefore there is a 'population explosion'];
and a mature industrialization stage, in which
both the birth rate and the mortality rate are
low. The theory that sees population change
as related to the process of industrialization
and its concomitant social changes.
Demography the study of the processes which contribute to
population structure and their temporal and
spatial dynamics.
Demonization The social practice of treating someone or
some people as if they were demons,
monsters, devils or the source of all bad things
which happen. Most capitalists demonized
communists; many communists demonize
capitalists; most racists demonize minority
groups; some minority groups demonize
Anglos; some women demonize men while
man men blame women for their own troubles.
The marxist/socialist position is that the enemy
is to be found in alienated social relationships
rather than in people as such. It is true enough
that there are thoroughly despicable people
but most people work within social institutions
with social values to which they were
socialized as children.
Dependency Theory A theory of colonial imperialism which informs
anti-American sentiment in Latin America and
elsewhere. The theory correctly asserts that
capitalist imperialism distorts local economics
and creates a surplus population but is often
an effort to substitute foreign exploitation with
that of local capitalists. A country becomes
dependent upon the U.S., Germany, England,
or Japan by selling cash crops or natural
resources and dependent upon the same
 countries for food and luxury goods. The
developed capitalist countries set the terms
which benefit multinational corporations and
banks and give "aid" subsidized by workers in
capitalist countries to repair some of the
distortions, especially those of hunger as
cotton, coffee, cocoa, tea, beef or other foods
are exported to capitalist countries. By 1976,
total debt of non OPEC nations to capitalist
countries was $180 billion, up 15 fold from
1967.
Descartes, Rene (1596-1650): Descartes is one of the more
important architects of modern science. A
French philosopher and mathematician,
Descartes was both rationalist and empiricist;
a difficult combination to sustain in a world
marked by non-linear dynamics. Descartes is
well known for his formula for the possibility of
knowledge as against pure skepticism; he
offered as evidence of that possibility the
saying, that "cogito, ergo sum" (I think,
therefore I am) by which he meant that there
was at least one unassailable proposition
which can stand against doubt: I think,
therefore there must be a thinker who thinks,
namely me. Therefore I exist. Descartes wrote
extensively on the god concept, the short
version is that such a Being exists and is
infinite, eternal, immutable and independent of
all that He creates. His main contribution to
mathematics is analytic geometry which charts
the movement of events in time-space in what
is called cartesian space. The new science of
Chaos uses cartesian space extensively to
chart the changing mixture of order and
disorder in the behavior of complex and fractal
systems.
Descent Group A permanent social unit whose members claim
common ancestry; fundamental to tribal
society.
Determinism The philosophical position that phenomena
are best explained in terms of the events that
have immediately proceeded them; rigid cause
 and effect. This idea assumes social
significance when it is applied to the behavior
of individuals. If a person and the brain are
rigidly bound by cause and effect, how can
that person be "free" to do what (s)he "wants?"
The argument runs that what one wants, and
will do are rigidly determined by prior
considerations. It is further claimed that one's
behavior could be accurately predicted if only
enough information were available. The logical
conclusion of this idea is that a human is
merely a complicated machine.
Development Theories of progress assume that a society
becomes developed when it: 1) industrializes,
2) commodifies all goods and services and
exchanges them in a market, 3) discards all
traditional stratifications in favor of class
stratification and 4) replaces social status
(kinship, ethnicity, race or gender) with money
as a nexus for the exchange of goods and
services. Societies which do not accept these
changes are said to be underdeveloped.
Deviance Nonconformity with existing/traditional social
norms. This nonconformity is often said to be
pathological when it challenges power and
privilege; it is said to be innovation or creativity
when it is approved by the gate-keepers of
morality. All societies in a changing
environment require sufficient deviance
adequate to reduce mismatch between system
and environment. A loaded term, deviancy is a
negative asset when the environment is stable
but can be a positive asset to a society when
the environment is irreversibly changing (see
Ashby's law), depending of course on the
nature of the variation.
Deviant Someone who is noticeably different from the
average within some dimensions of social
behavior. As it applies to behavior that is
generally considered to be beyond the
tolerance limits of the community.
Dialectic Greek: dialektos = discourse, debate. In
everyday life, dialectics refers to a dynamic
 tension within a given system: a process by
which change occurs on the basis of that
tension and resultant conflict. Fichte coined
the triadic process in which a dialectic has a 1)
thesis, 2) an antithesis, and 3) a synthesis
when the dialectic has run its course.
Schelling applied the dialectic to nature and to
history. Marx used a more open and
progressive conceptualization taken from
Hegel's Negation of the Negation; thus a class
system, possessing many 'negations' will
produce a political economy which will negate
it. In orthodox marxist views, dialectics is
raised to science of the general laws of society
and knowledge (after Engels). In this
formulation, the three forms of the dialectic
are: 1) struggle and unity of opposites; 2) the
transition of quantity into quality and 3) the
negation of a prior negation. An example of
the first form of a dialectic would be class
struggle in which workers and owners clash
and out of which a new, more humane
economic system might/will arise. Of the
second, an example might be the
transformation of water into steam with a small
quantitative rise in temperature and for the
third 'law,' a good example might be when
capitalism (a negative) is destroyed by
revolution (another negation).
Dialectical Materialism A view espoused by Marx, Engels, and Lenin
that revolutionary change comes as a result of
the contradictions in the concretely existing
modes of production rather than by
supernatural or mystical reasons. The idea of
'telos' or fate is pushed aside as well. Natural
stage theory, historical cycles and
metaphysical causes are rejected in favor of
human action and activity in changing the
nature of a society. For Marx, each economic
system may have 'tendencies' which can be
seen but they should not be taken to be
inevitable.
Diaspora Diaspora: From the Greek word for “to
disperse,” diaspora refers to the voluntary or
 forced migration of peoples from their
homelands to new regions. In areas that are
greatly affected by large diasporic movements
(i.e., in the West Indies via colonization and
the slave trade) distinct, or creolized, cultures
have developed, which blend indigenous with
homeland cultures. These unique diasporic
cultures challenge essentialist models of
culture or the nation.
Differential Access Unequal access to resources; basic attribute
of chiefdoms and states. Superordinates have
favored access to such resources, while the
access of subordinates is limited by
superordinates.
Differential A "theory" of crime which holds than an
Association excess of definitions-to-commit-crime over
definitions-to-be-law-abiding produces crime. It
cannot be a theory of crime since it is a good
theory of all social behavior; Baptists are
Baptists if and only if they differentially
associate with Baptists; Buddhists do not
become Baptists even if they do associate
with them. Nor does the theory account for
white collar crime. It does emphasize the
learned character of antisocial behavior.
Diffusion Borrowing of cultural traits between societies,
either directly or through intermediaries.
Diglossia The existence of "high" (formal) and "low"
(informal, familial) dialects of a single
language, such as German.
Discourse Discourse: A concept articulated by Michel
Foucault to describe the way speech and
writing work in conjunction with specific
structures and institutions to shape social
reality. Discourse refers to distinct areas of
social knowledge (typically, broad subjects
such as law, science, or medicine) and the
linguistic practices that are associated with
them, but also establishes rules about the
context of this speech or writing, such as who
is permitted and authorized to address these
subjects. nowledge, according to the concept
 of discourse, is power, since it comes into
being through the operations of power and
also exercises power by determining what
truths will be endorsed. Discourses thus have
immediate, material effects on the way a
culture operates.
Discrimination Policies and practices that harm a group and
its members.
Disengagement The view that all connections between
Theory persons and social role-sets/statuses are
affirmed or withdrawn within social rituals. The
more common social processes which
disengage a person from a role include:
divorce from marriage; defrocking from a
ministry; disbarment from the practice of law;
decertification from medical practice; dismissal
from the military via Court Martial. It is the final
rite of passage after which one has lost all
rights to embody a social role. Some include
funerals as disengagement routines since the
person concerned is treated as no longer a
member of a social group; some societies hold
funerals for living persons to make the point.
Displacement A basic feature of language; the ability to
speak of things and events that are not
present.
Distinction To be set apart and considered different or
special, usually through the achievement of a
specific honour, and connected to value. In the
study of popular culture, distinction is often
linked to consumption, with the implicit idea of
a capitalist system being that one can achieve
distinction through one’s purchases.
Division of Labour the set of rules found in all societies dictating
how the day to day tasks are assigned to the
various members of a society.
Domestic public dichotomy-Contrast between women's
role in the home and men's role in public life,
with a corresponding social devaluation of
women's work and worth.
Domestic Mode of the organization of economic production and
Production consumption primarily in the household.
Dowry payment made by the bride's family to the
groom or to the groom's family.
Dramaturgical Erving Goffman's approach to social
Approach interaction, in which he emphasizes that we
are all actors and also audiences for one
another.
Dramaturgical Society A society in which the technology of theatre is
used to manage the masses via electronics
media and with the aid of the sciences of
sociology and/or psychology. The world of
make-believe enters the world of serious
discourse as an alien and dominating force. In
politics, a cadre of hired specialists now use
dramaturgy to generate a public for a
candidate or issue. Such practice converts
politics from a cultural item into a commodity
to be purchased by the highest bidder. The
same is true in sports, medicine, religion and
other activities which used to be cultural
activities.
Durkheim, Emile (1857-1951) Durkheim made many
contributions to the study of society, suicide,
the division of labor, solidarity and religion.
Raised in a time of troubles in France,
Durkheim spent much of his genius justifying
order and commitment to order. He said that
the god concept was a false reification
(collective representation) of the power of
groups to shape the behavior of members; of
religion as a solution to the problem of
solidarity (how to hold people together when
they have conflicting interests); that suicide
increases when society falls apart (anomie)
and that there were other ways to get
solidarity rather than by religion. He spoke of
mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity as
different ways to bind people together.
Organic solidarity was supposed to emerge
out of a complex and functionally
interdependent division of labor.
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 E
Economy A population's system of production,
distribution, and consumption of resources.
Egalitarian society a society that recognizes few differences in
wealth, power, prestige, or status.
Ego In Freudian theory, this is the reactional and
conscious part of the human personality,
which seeks to reconcile the conflicting
demands of the id and the superego.
Ego (in kinship charts) Latin for I. In kinship charts, the point from
which one views an egocentric genealogy.
Empiricism reliance on observable and quantifiable data.
Enculturation The social process by which culture is learned
and transmitted across the generations.
ethnocentrism-The tendency to view one's
own culture as best and to judge the behavior
and beliefs of culturally different people by
one's own standards.
Endogamy a rule requiring marriage within a specified
social or kinship group.
Essentialism The belief that categories, or individuals and
groups of human beings have innate, defining
features exclusive to their category (e.g., the
belief that different races have inherent
characteristics that differentiate them from
other races). Essentialism has been
challenged by social constructivist theories
that point to the ways in which identity and
meaning are culturally produced.
Ethnic Group Group distinguished by cultural similarities
(shared among members of that group) and
differences (between that group and others);
ethnic group members share beliefs, values,
habits, customs, and norms, and a common
language, religion, history, geography, kinship,
and/or race.
Ethnicity Identification with, and feeling part of, an
ethnic group, and exclusion from certain other
groups because of this affiliation.
Ethnocentrism The tendency to judge other cultures by the
standards of one's own.
Ethnography Field work in a particular culture. The
systematic description of a culture based on
firsthand observation.
Ethnology Cross-cultural comparison; the comparative
study of ethnographic data, of society, and of
culture.
Etic a perspective in ethnography that uses the
concepts and categories of the
anthropologist's culture to describe another
culture.
Evolutionary Theories Theories that argue that all societies develop
of Social Change along predetermined paths that take them
from inferior to superior forms, from simple to
complex, and from "primitive" to "civilized.".
Ex-nomination A term used by Roland Barthes to identify one
of the ways in which the dominance of the
ruling class goes unexamined precisely
because it is not named as such : the process
of ex-nomination ensures that we see the
values or attributes of dominant groups not as
the product of particular class interests, but
simply as apolitical, intrinsic human values that
are, therefore, as unsuitable for critique as a
grapefruit or any other “real thing.” Ex-
nomination also works to legitimate the
dominance of specific racial and cultural
groups by failing to acknowledge or “mark”
their distinctive qualities (e.g., white,
heterosexual), thereby assuming their
universality.
Exchange Value The attribution of value to goods or services
based upon how much can be gotten for them
in exchange for other goods and services.
Exogamy marriage outside a particular group with which
one is identified.
Expressive Action "[A]ction that is undertaken for the sake of the
interaction itself (e.g., sharing an emotional
problem, exchanging personal experiences"
 (p. 204). Source: Beggs, John, Jeanne S.
Hurlbert, and Valerie A. Haines. 1996.
“Situational Contingencies Surrounding the
Receipt of Informal Support.” Social Forces
75:201-22.
Extended Family Expanded household including three or more
generations.
Extradomestic Outside the home; within or pertaining to the
public domain.
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F
False Consciousness Any belief, idea, ideology, etc., that interferes
with an exploited and oppressed person or
group being able to perceive the objective
nature and source of their oppression.
Family of Orientation Nuclear family in which one is born and grows
up.
Family of Procreation Nuclear family established when one marries
and has children.
Feudalism The social system that characterized medieval
- Europe and other preindustrial societies,
based upon mutual obligation between nobility
and serfs.
Fictive Kin persons such as godparents, compadres,
"blood brothers," and old family friends whom
children call "aunt" and "uncle".
Fiscal Pertaining to finances and taxation.
Focal Vocabulary A set of words and distinctions that are
particularly important to certain groups (those
with particular foci of experience or activity),
such as types of snow to Eskimos or skiers.
Foraging collecting wild plants and hunting wild animals
for subsistence.
Forces of Production The combination of raw materials, means of
production, technology, energy, knowledge,
skill, and labor that go into the production of
goods and services.
Fordism A highly mechanized and standardized manner
of production, pioneered on the assembly lines
of automaker Henry Ford in order to improve
worker efficiency by duplicating the specialized
precision of a machine. Fordism now refers not
only to a seminal development in the history of
industrialization that enabled hitherto
unimaginable levels of mass
production/consumption, but also to a type of
culture (or a particular aspect of a culture) that
displays similarly—generally negative—
qualities of uniformity and conformity. Fordism
has been supplanted in much of the North
American economy by post-Fordism , a mode
of production characterized by smaller, more
flexible decentralized networks of labour and
work organization, catering to more specialized
ranges of consumer demands (though not
necessarily a freer workforce).
Formal Curriculum What is formally prescribed to be taught in
schools.
Formal Organization a group that restricts membership and makes
use of officially designated positions and roles,
formal rules and regulations, and a
bureaucratic structure.
Formalism a school of economic anthropology which
argues that if the concepts of formal economic
theory are broadened, they can serve as
analytic tools for the study of any economic
system.
Frankfurt School Name given to a group of innovative social
theorists, established in 1923 at University of
Frankfurt, whose ideas remain important
decades after the School was formally
dissolved. Though there is no “Frankfurt
School” approach to popular culture per se (the
individual members agreed on no fixed set of
ideas or concepts, and often disagreed with
one another), the School’s name is used to
describe approaches that emphasize the
production of popular culture and insist on its
ideological constraints. The goal of members
of the University’s Institute for Social Research
 was the elaboration of a “critical theory” of
society. Critical theory has since become the
name for a diverse set of practices in social
and cultural theory, philosophy, and literary
studies. Members of the Frankfurt School
included Horkheimer, Adorno, Herbert
Marcuse, Erich Fromm, Otto Kirchheimer, and
Leo Lowenthal. Some of the key texts
produced by members of the school include
Theodor Adorno’s Negative Dialectics and
Herbert Marcuse’s One-Dimensional Man.
Fraternal Polyandry marriage of one woman with a set of brothers.
Front In the dramaturgical approach, a person's
physical appearance and behavior, that helps
define the situation.
Frustration- A theory that argues that collective behavior is
Aggression Theory an aggressive response to feelings of
frustration.
Function the contribution that a particular cultural trait
makes to the longevity of the total culture.
Functional A theoretical perspective that focuses on the
Perspective ways in which cultural ideas and social
structures contribute to or interfere with the
maintenance or adaptation of a social system.
Functional Rationality A concept Karl Mannheim expropriated from
Max Weber (Weber's term was "formal
rationality") and renamed it. Functional
rationality prevails in an organization of human
activities in which the thought, knowledge, and
reflection of the participants are virtually
unnecessary; men become part of a
mechanical process in which each is assigned
a functional position and role. Their purposes,
wishes, and values become irrelevant and
superfluous in an eminently "rational" process.
What they forfeit in creativity and initiative is
gained by the organization as a whole and
contributes, presumably, to its greater
"efficiency." Bureaucratic organizations strive
for maximum functional rationality. - From
Irving M. Zeitlin, Ideology and the Development
 of Sociological Theory (Englewood Cliffs NJ:
Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968), pp. 311-312.
Functionalism The theory that all elements of a culture are
functional in that they serve to satisfy culturally
defined needs of the people in that society or
requirements of the society as a whole. An
approach or orientation of studying social and
cultural phenomena. It holds that society is
essentially a set of interrelated parts, e.g.,
institutions, beliefs, values, customs, norms,
etc., and that each of these parts has a
particular purpose, i.e., that each of these parts
functions in a particular way. It is held that no
part, its existence, or operation, can be
understood in isolation from the whole. Society
is seen, from this position, as analogous to the
human body or any other living organism. Each
of the "parts" of society are seen as operating
much like organs of the body. As in the body, it
is held that if one part of society changes it
affects the other parts and how they operate or
function, and it also affects how the total
system performs as it may also affect the
continued existence of the total society
(organism). Functionalism's critics have
pointed to its tenuous assumption of the
necessary integration of all of the social
systems parts. Critical and radical sociology
thus see functionalism as essentially
conservative in nature, both intellectually and
politically.
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G
Gemeinschaft A German term coined by Tonnies that
denotes a sense of community, tradition,
emphasis on family life, and association for its
own sake, such as friendship.
Gender The feelings, attitudes, and behaviours
associated with being male or female.
Gender Roles The tasks and activities that a culture assigns
to each sex.
Gender Stereotypes Oversimplified but strongly held ideas about
the characteristics of males and females.
Gender Stratification Unequal distribution of rewards (socially
valued resources, power, prestige, and
personal freedom) between men and women,
reflecting their different positions in a social
hierarchy.
Generality Culture pattern or trait that exists in some but
not all societies.
Generalized Belief In Smelser's theory of collective behavior, an
irrational belief seized upon as a way of
justifying behavior and reducing uncertainty
and feelings of anxiety.
Generalized Other The organized attitude of social groups.
Generalized Principle that characterizes exchanges
Reciprocity between closely related individuals. As social
distance increases, reciprocity becomes
balanced and finally negative.
Generational Kinship Kinship terminology with only two terms for the
Terminology parental generation, one designating M, MZ,
and FZ and the other designating F, FB, and
MB.
Gesellschaft Tonnies' term, sometimes translated as
society, typified by an impersonal bureaucracy
and contractual arrangements rather than
informal ones.
Gestalt Theory A school in psychology that emphasizes the
organized character of human experience and
behavior. Gestalt is a German word that
means form, pattern, or configuration. Gestalt
psychology thus emphasizes the study of
wholes or whole patterns. According to the
theory, the functioning of the parts of a whole
is determined by the nature of the whole itself,
and the behavior of wholes or whole systems
is such that they are inseparable in terms of
their function or functions. Gestalt theory
attempts to organize human behavior in terms
of larger units of analysis, rather than small
atomistic units. The larger units (wholes) of
 Gestalt psychology are then related to their
parts as well as to other wholes. Gestalt
psychology arose in opposition to
associationism and elementaristic analysis -
two types of theory in which wholes are
analyzed in terms of their simplest parts.
Globalization The accelerating interdependence of nations in
a world system linked economically and
through mass media and modern
transportation systems.
Gross Domestic The total monetary value of all goods and
Product (GDP) services produced within a nation’s economy
during a one-year period, a figure often used
as an indicator of a nation’s financial well-
being. The GDP’s value as a diagnostic tool to
measure the health of a country is often
critiqued because it fails to account for a host
of relevant social transactions as diverse as
domestic work, volunteering, and criminal
activities.
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H
Habitus Concept outlined by Marcel Mauss connoting
both living space and habitat that describes
the way in which particular social
environments are internalized by individuals in
the form of dispositions toward particular
bodily orientations and behaviours. The
habitus we occupy radically affects such basic
activities as sleeping, eating, sitting, walking,
having sex, and giving birth, all of which
should be understood not as natural, but as a
series of “body techniques” that are learned in
particular social contexts, and are therefore
culturally and historically specific. Pierre
Bourdieu extended this concept to talk about
the relationship between habitus and social
class.
Hawthorne Effect A distortion of research results caused by the
response of subjects to the special attention
they receive from researchers.
Hegemony Developed by the Italian Marxist Antonio
Gramsci in the 1930s, hegemony refers to the
ability of dominant groups in society to
exercise control over weaker groups not by
means of force or domination, but by gaining
their consent, so that the unequal distribution
of power appears to be both legitimate and
natural. In other words, hegemony operates
not by forcing people against their better
judgment to submit to more powerful interests,
but rather by actively seeking the
spontaneous cooperation of subordinate
classes to maintaining social relationships that
continue their subordination. Hegemony,
significantly, is never total, but operates in
constant struggle with newly emerging forms
of oppositional consciousness. It works not by
crushing those forces, but by a constant
process of negotiation.
Hermeneutics formal study of methods of interpretation.
Following Gadamer, the hermeneutical
process is often regarded as involving
complex interaction between the interpreting
subject and the interpreted object.
Hidden Curriculum In schools, knowledge, values, attitudes,
norms, and beliefs that people acquire
because of the educational process that is
used to learn something else.
Historical a detailed descriptive approach to
Particularism anthropology associated with Franz Boas and
his students, and designed as an alternative
to the broad generalizing approach favored by
anthropologists such as Morgan and Tylor.
Holistic Interested in the whole of the human
condition: past, present, and future; biology,
society, language, and culture.
Horizontal Integration A synergistic venture wherein one company
acquires (and integrates with) another
company that is making the same kind of
product or providing the same kind of service,
in order to increase the purchasing company’s
presence in (and power over) a given market.
Horticultural Society A society in which subsistence needs are met
primarily through cultivation of small gardens
without the use of the plow.
Horticulture Nonindustrial system of plant cultivation in
which plots lie fallow for varying lengths of
time.
Human Rights Doctrine that invokes a realm of justice and
morality beyond and superior to particular
countries, cultures, and religions. Human
rights, usually seen as vested in individuals,
would include the right to speak freely, to hold
religious beliefs without persecution, and to
not be enslaved, or imprisoned without
charge.
Human-Capital Theory An economic theory that holds that the skill
level of the labour force is a prime determinant
of economic growth.
Hunter-Gatherers a collective term for the members of small-
scale mobile or semi-sedentary societies,
whose subsistence is mainly focused on
hunting game and gathering wild plants and
fruits; organizational structure is based on
bands with strong kinship ties.
Hunting and Gathering involves the systematic collection of vegetable
foods, hunting of game, and fishing.
Hypercorrection The total alteration of all possible variations of
a word, including the actually correct ones, as
a means of overcompensating for a perceived
deficiency in one's speech. For example,
while the speaker perceives that "Dis" is the
"incorrect" version of "This", that speaker may
go too far and replace "d" with "th" anywhere
that "d" actually belongs, i.e., changing
"reading" into "reathing".
Hypervitaminosis D Condition caused by an excess of vitamin D;
calcium deposits build up on the body’s soft
tissues and the kidneys may fail; symptoms
include gallstones and joint and circulation
problems; may affect unprotected light-
skinned individuals in the tropics.
Hypodescent Rule that automatically places the children of
a union or mating between members of
different socioeconomic groups in the less-
privileged group.
Hypothesis a statement that stipulates a relationship
between a phenomenon for which the
researcher seeks to account and one or more
other phenomena.
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I
Iconography artistic representations which usually have an
overt religious or ceremonial significance; e.g.
individual deities may be distinguished, each
with a special characteristic, such as corn with
the corn god, or the sun with a sun goddess
etc.
Id In Freudian theory, the instinctual and
undisciplined part of the human personality.
Ideal Self Our image of ourselves as we believe we
ought to be.
Ideal Type A construct that serves as a heuristic device
developed for methodological purposes in the
analysis of social phenomena. An ideal type is
constructed from elements and characteristics
of the phenomena under investigation but it is
not intended to correspond to all of the
characteristics of any one case. An ideal type
is a sort of composite picture that all the cases
of a particular phenomenon will be compared
with. Max Weber developed this technique.
Examples of ideal types are: sacred society,
secular society, Gemeinschaft and
Gesellschaft, sect, church, and marginal man.
Identity An individual’s unique personality or self (i.e.,
“who we are inside”). The concept of individual
identity is complicated by the fact that, rather
than inhabiting a single identity, we all assume
multiple identities that are defined by particular
circumstances and relationships. Marxist and
psychoanalytic theories further challenge the
concept of identity, showing how it is
 constructed by largely unconscious processes
of interpellation. More recent theories of
performativity offer possibilities for challenging
the rigidity of the traditional identities on
offer—identities that are founded in
essentialist notions of gender, race, and
sexuality.
Ideology At the most general level, ideology refers to
process by which the set of values and beliefs
that bind individuals together in a society
become “naturalized.” The belief and value
systems of any given society are the outcome
of history , that is, of collective human activity
that gives shape (in large and small ways) to
the characteristic features of a society.
Ideology names those social and political
processes that directly and indirectly mask or
hide this historical process by making
everyday life seem natural, inevitable and
unchangeable. The claim that capitalism is the
only rational form of economic organization is
often ideological in this way, especially when
what this claim suggests is that history was
inevitably moving towards a world-wide
capitalist system anyway: people did nothing
to bring it about and can do nothing to stop it.
This is false, and ideology is often at work in
attempts to make false statements sound not
only like the truth, but like common sense.
Immanent Change Sorokin's principle that cultures have material
and nonmaterial characteristics that cause
societies to develop in certain directions.
Imperialism A policy of extending the rule of a nation or
empire over foreign nations or of taking and
holding foreign colonies.
Impression A process by which people in social situations
Management manage the setting and their dress, words,
and gestures to correspond to the impressions
they are trying to make or the image they are
trying to project.
Incest Taboo the prohibition of sexual intimacy between
people defined as close relatives.
Independent Family a single-family unit that resides by itself, apart
Household from relatives or adults of other generations.
Independent Invention Development of the same cultural trait or
pattern in separate cultures as a result of
comparable needs and circumstances.
Independent Primary In the primary labor market, jobs that involve
Jobs relatively high levels of creativity, autonomy,
and power.
Indigenous Peoples The original inhabitants of particular territories;
often descendants of tribespeople who live on
as culturally distinct colonized peoples, many
of whom aspire to autonomy.
Individualistic Cult the least complex form of religious
organization in which each person is his or her
own religious specialist.
Induction a method of reasoning in which one proceeds
by generalization from a series of specific
observations so as to derive general
conclusions (cf. deduction).
Industrial Revolution The historical transformation (in Europe, after
1750) of-"traditional" into "modern" societies
through industrialization of the economy.
Industrialization The movement within a culture or economic
system toward an increased emphasis on
large-scale/mechanized industry rather than
agricultural/small- scale commercial activity.
Although initially conceived as a primarily
economic process in its broadest sense of
organization, capitalization, and
mechanization, industrialization has sweeping
social and cultural implications. As well as
determining the manner in which things are
produced (and, therefore, what kinds of
products are available), the process of
industrialization also effects the way labour
and other resources are divided up within a
culture.
Informal Curriculum Those things that are learned in school, even
if they are not written down as part of the
formal curriculum.
Informal Relationship A relationship governed by flexible, implicit
norms.
Informant A person who provides information about his
or her culture to the ethnographic fieldworker.
Instincts Inborn patterns of behaviour in animals, such
as mating, catching food, and other examples
of meeting basic needs of survival and
reproduction.
Institution A set of roles graded in authority that have
been embodied in consistent patterns of
actions that have been legitimated and
sanctioned by society or segments of that
society; whose purpose is to carry out certain
activities or prescribed needs of that society or
segments of that society. - C. Wright Mills, The
Sociological Imagination (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1959), p. 30.
Institutional Racism Discriminatory racial practices built into such
prominent structures as the political,
economic, and education systems. Those
accepted, established, evident, visible, and
respected forces, social arrangements,
institutions, structures, policies, precedents
and systems of social relations that operate
and are manipulated in such a way as to
allow, support, or acquiesce to acts of
individual racism and to deprive certain racially
identified categories within a society a chance
to share, have equal access to, or have equal
opportunity to acquire those things, material
and nonmaterial, that are defined as desirable
and necessary for rising in an hierarchical
class society while that society is dependent,
in part, upon that group they deprive for their
labor and loyalty. Institutional racism is more
subtle, less visible, and less identifiable but no
less destructive to human life and human
dignity than individual acts of racism.
Institutional racism deprives a racially
identified group, usually defined as generally
inferior to the defining dominant group, equal
access to an treatment in education, medical
care, law, politics, housing, etc. - Louis L.
 Knowles and Kenneth Prewitt, editors,
Institutional Racism in America (Englewood
Cliffs NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969).
Instrumental Action "[A]ction that is undertaken in order to achieve
a specific goal like finding a job, buying a
house, or borrowing money" (p. 204). Source:
Beggs, John, Jeanne S. Hurlbert, and Valerie
A. Haines. 1996. “Situational Contingencies
Surrounding the Receipt of Informal Support.”
Social Forces 75:201-22.
Instrumental This is a complex framework that has a simple
Rationality idea at its core. In essence, the use of
rationality, or reason, in an instrumental
fashion suggests the use of the most efficient
means to achieve the desired end. Analysis of
instrumental rationality is usually associated
with the German sociologist Max Weber
(1864-1920), whose work had an impact on
the Frankfurt School and on the shape of the
Dialectic of Enlightenment in particular. For
Weber, the rise of capitalism introduces
instrumental rationality into all spheres of life—
not just in economics, but in politics, culture
and other parts of society as well. It might
seem as if it is good idea to achieve efficiency
in all areas of life. However, there are
drawbacks to instrumental rationality,
especially when it becomes applied generally.
The concept of efficiency isn’t a neutral one,
that is, it implies a certain set of values about
the goals of human activity and human life that
may in fact contradict other values that people
hold dear. The Frankfurt School was critical of
instrumental rationality because it eliminated
the critical use of reason.
Intellectual Property Intellectual property rights, consisting of each
Rights (IPR) society's cultural base-its core beliefs and
principles. IPR is claimed as a group right-a
cultural right, allowing indigenous groups to
control who may know and use their collective
knowledge and its applications.
Interactionist A theoretical perspective that focuses on the
Perspective causes and consequences of social behavior,
 based on the importance of assigning
symbolic meaning to appearance, behavior,
and experience.
Internal Colonialism An idea and reality in sociology and society
largely associated with the sociologist Richard
Blauner. It refers essentially to the experience
and social position of certain minority
segments in society (in Blauner's work, blacks
in American society) as analogous to the
traditional colonial situation. Furthermore, the
dominant (white) nation-state power extracts
the material and human resources from the
weaker nation (usually third world) while
exercising political and economic control. The
only and crucial difference, of course, is that
with the "internal colonial" situation both the
expropriators and the colonialized are within
the same national political and economic
system. Along these lines, the position of
native Americans, Chicanos, blacks, Puerto
Ricans, etc., in American society may be seen
as a "colonial" one. This view tends to see the
racism within American society as an
essentially economic phenomenon - inherent
in the structure of our dynamic corporate
capitalist economic system
International Culture Cultural traditions that extend beyond national
boundaries.
Interpellation A term coined by the French Marxist Louis
Althusser to describe the process by which an
individual is addressed, or “called on,” by
ideology to assume a certain identity. Critical
to the success of interpellation is the degree to
which an individual recognizes and identifies
with the roles s/he is assigned by the
dominant culture.
Iron Rule of Oligarchy Michels' theory that all states inevitably
become oligarchies.
Iroquois or Iroquois League, a confederacy of six
Native American tribes: the Mohawk, Oneida,
Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscaroras.
Tribal lands belonging to the "Six Nations" are
 found mostly in what is now known as New
York State.
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J
Joint Family a complex family unit formed through polygyny
Household or polyandry or through the decision of married
siblings to live together m the absence of their
parents.
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K
Kin People bound together by ties of ancestry,
adoption, or marriage.
Kinesics The study of communication through body
movements, stances, gestures, and facial
expressions.
Kinship Social relationships based on common
ancestry, adoption, or marriage.
Kinship Calculation The system by which people in a particular
society reckon kin relationships.
Kula Ring a system of ceremonial, non-competitive,
exchange practiced in Melanesia to establish
and reinforce alliances. Malinowski's study of
this system was influential in shaping the
anthropological concept of reciprocity.
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L
Labour Market The division of job markets into distinct parts to
Segmentation which access is unequally distributed among
workers.
Labour Power The potential to produce goods--usually
measured in terms of time--which workers sell
to employers in return for wages.
Language Human beings' primary means of
communication; may be spoken or written;
features productivity and displacement and is
culturally transmitted.
Latent Consequence An unintended effect of a characteristic of a
 social system on the maintenance or
adaptation of that system and its values.
Latent functions The unrecognized and unintended
consequences of any social pattern.
Law A legal code, including trial and enforcement;
characteristic of state-organized societies.
Legend A story which purports to be based at least in
part on historical fact, but which is interpreted
and retold in an imaginative way by the
storyteller.
Levelling Mechanisms Customs and social actions that operate to
reduce differences in wealth and thus to bring
standouts in line with community norms.
Levirate A social custom under which a man has both
the right to marry his dead brother's widow and
the obligation to provide for her.
Lexicon Vocabulary; a dictionary containing all the
morphemes in a language and their meanings.
Liminality The critically important marginal or in-between
phase of a rite of passage.
Lineage Unilineal descent group based on
demonstrated descent.
Lineal Kinship Parental generation kin terminology with four
Terminology terms: one for M, one for F, one for FB and
MB, and one for MZ and FZ.
Lineal Relative Any of ego's ancestors or descendants (e.g.,
parents, grandparents, children,
grandchildren); on the direct line of descent
that leads to and from ego.
Lingua Franca any language used as a common tongue by
people who do not speak one another's native
language.
Longhouse The long multi-family dwellings of the Iroquois
area.
Looking-Glass Self A theory developed by Charles Horton Cooley
to explain how individuals develop a sense of
self through interaction with others.
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M
Macro-level orientation A concern with broad patterns that
characterize society as a whole.
Magic Use of supernatural techniques to accomplish
specific aims.
Mana Sacred impersonal force in Melanesian and
Polynesian religions.
Manichean a believer in religious or philosophical dualism,
from a religious dualism originating in Persia
in the third century A.D. and teaching the
release of the spirit from matter through strict
self-denial. mano: a hand-held stone used for
grinding vegetable foods on a stone slab or
"metate".
Manifest Consequence An intended effect of a characteristic of a
social system on that system and its values.
Manifest functions The recognized and intended consequences
of any social pattern for the operation of
society as a whole.
Market Economy An economy based primarily upon competition
and exchange of goods and services rather
than cooperation and sharing.
Market Exchange a mode of exchange which implies both a
specific location for transactions and the sort
of social relations where bargaining can occur.
It usually involves a system of price-making
through negotiation.
Market Principle Profit-oriented principle of exchange that
dominates in states, particularly industrial
states. Goods and services are bought and
sold, and values are determined by supply
and demand.
Market Segmentation Beginning in the latter half of the twentieth
century, a paradigm shift in the marketing
world that involves gearing cultural production
toward increasingly narrow segments of the
public with the express goal of better catering
to a consumer’s specific tastes.
Marriage Rules Norms that regulate whom people may marry,
when, and under what circumstances.
Marxism Marxism is the philosophical and sociological
approach of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and
their followers. It is very much influenced by
the dialectical method of Hegel, but rejects
Hegel's philosophic idealism and replaces it
with dialectical materialism. Marxism sees the
economic factors as the base causal and
conditioning factors in both individuals and
history. History is seen as basically a series of
class struggles, with classes being defined in
terms of their relation to the means of
production. According to Marx, each period of
history has a dominant economic class and a
developing rising economic class. In time, a
conflict breaks out between the dominant and
rising class, which results in the overthrow of
the old ruling dominant class and the
establishment of the new rising class as the
new dominant class. In this manner, the
capitalist class or bourgeoisie replaced the
feudal aristocracy or ruling class as the
dominant class in the West. This historical
process does, however, end for Marx, and it is
the industrial working class that is given this
special historical role of ending class conflict
once and for all and establishing a classless
society. Marx maintained that industrialized,
capitalist societies were becoming
increasingly polarized into two classes: the
dominant capitalist class (the bourgeoisie) and
the rising working-class (the proletariat), and
that the working-class would eventually
overcome the ruling bourgeoisie to establish
the classless-socialist-communist society.
Marxist Anthropology based principally on the writings of Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels, this posits a materialist
model of societal change. Change within a
society is seen as the result of contradictions
arising between the forces of production
(technology) and the relations of production
(social organization). Such contradictions are
seen to emerge as a struggle between distinct
 social classes. Current Marxist anthropology
focuses on the transformation of social orders
and the relationships between conflict and
cultural change.
Mass Culture A form of culture produced for profit by a
vertically integrated factory system, for a large
and diverse audience. Mass culture, though in
some ways more pervasive than ever, is also
breaking down as a result of economic
processes of market segmentation , cultural
developments such as identity politics, and the
growing accessibility of technologies that allow
“the masses” to produce culture for
themselves.
Mass Society Ferdinand Tonnies' Gesellschaft. C. Wright
Mills, in both his Power Elite and White Collar,
used the term mass society or mass as a
crucial concept in his description of the "non-
democratic" character and structure of
American society. In Mills' conception,
American society is essentially twofold; an
elite and a mass. The power flow is one way;
the ruling elite manipulates and defines the
existence of the politically and economically
powerless mass, using as its technology the
modern mass media of communication.
Mass Society Theory Komhauser's theory that collective behavior is
caused by a social condition in which people
feel isolated from one another and from their
communities.
Material Culture the buildings, tools, and other artifacts that
includes any material item that has had
cultural meaning ascribed to it, past and
present.
Matriarchy A society ruled by women; unknown to
ethnography.
Matriclan a group that claims but cannot trace their
descent through the female line from a
common female ancestor.
Matrifocal Mother-centered; often refers to a household
with no resident husband-father.
Matrilineal Descent Unilineal descent rule in which people join the
mother's group automatically at birth and stay
members throughout life.
Matrilocality Customary residence with the wife's relatives
after marriage, so that children grow up in
their mother's community.
Means of Production In Marxist theory, the ability to produce;
including the physical, technological, political,
economic, and social ability to do so. The
means of production may be broken down into
the forces of production and the relations of
production. In capitalism the relations of
production essentially refer to the institution of
private property and to the class relations
between those who are propertied and those
who are not. The forces of production can be
seen as referring to both material and social
elements. They include natural resources
(land, minerals, etc.) insofar as they are used
as objects as labor, physical equipment (tools,
machines, technology, etc.), science and
engineering (the skills of people who invent or
improve the physical equipment), those who
actually work with these skills and tools, and
their division of labor as it affects their
productivity. - C. Wright Mills, The Marxists
(New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1962), pp. 82-
83.
Means of Production - Land, labor, technology, and capital-major
or - Factors of productive resources.
Production
Mechanical Solidarity Emile Durkheim's notion of a characteristic
feature of social solidarity in simple, non-state
societies, where solidarity functions according
to principles of traditional authority, without
many specialized roles, and on the basis of
tradition and custom.
Melanin Substance manufactured in specialized cells
in the lower layers of the epidermis (outer skin
layer); melanin cells in dark skin produce more
melanin than do those in light skin.
Meritocracy A society in which most or all statuses are
achieved on the basis of merit (how well one
performs a given role).
Micro-level orientation A concern with small-scale patterns of social
interaction in specific settings.
Minority In cultural terms, any relatively small and/or
powerless group of people who differ from the
majority, or dominant, culture in ethnicity,
religion, language, political persuasion, and so
on. Minority politics are linked to movements
by groups to gain certain political, economic,
or social rights that they have been denied
because of their minority status.
Misogyny Hatred of females.
Mode of Production Way of organizing production-a set of social
relations through which labor is deployed to
wrest energy from nature by means of tools,
skills, and knowledge.
Modernization A concept describing a process through which
societies are believed to change from less to
more developed forms through the
introduction of new technology and other
social change.
Moiety one of the two subdivisions of a society with a
dual organizational structure.
Monogamy an exclusive union of one man and one
woman.
Monopoly An economic situation in which a single
supplier controls the market for a particular
product or service. This situation puts the
producer in a position of unchallenged
dominance from which it can inflate price to
cover more than just necessary costs
(including a return on capital). Governments
often legislate to restrict the emergence of
monopolies, since they are usually detrimental
to the consumer and the economy.
Monotheism Worship of an eternal, omniscient, omnipotent,
and omnipresent supreme being.
Moral Economy Views peasants as being less concerned with
Approach individual profit than with the security of
knowing they will be protected in adversity.
Morphemes the smallest units of speech that convey
meaning.
Morphology The study of form; used in linguistics (the
study of morphemes and word construction)
and for form in general-for example,
biomorphology relates to physical form.
Multiculturalism The view of cultural diversity in a country as
something good and desirable; a multicultural
society socializes individuals not only into the
dominant (national) culture but also into an
ethnic culture.
Multinational Any firm that extends itself outside of national
Corporation boundaries by operating branches in many
different countries simultaneously.
Myths Stories that are told about the deeds that
supernatural beings played in the creation of
human beings and the universe itself.
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N
Nation Once a synonym for "ethnic group,"
designating a single culture sharing a
language, religion, history, territory, ancestry,
and kinship; now usually a synonym for state
or nation-state.
Nation-State An autonomous political entity; a country like
the United States or Canada.
National Culture Cultural experiences, beliefs, learned behavior
patterns, and values shared by citizens of the
same nation.
Nationalism As a form “imagined community”, the nation is
both example and instigator of the process by
which identities that are constructed or
imagined come to assume the force of nature .
One useful way to approach the significance
of the nation as a source of modern identity is
to think about the relationship between nations
 and nationalism. Our usual, common-sense
way of understanding the relationship is to see
the nation—a people defined by collective
belonging to an extensive community, usually
defined in relation to a specific territory—as
primary, with nationalism as a frequent,
though not inevitable by-product. Recent
theories of the development of nations
(Anderson, Gellner) suggest that the
relationship might best be understood as
working the other way around: that is, nations
are how the ideological impulse of nationalism
is legitimated and given concrete shape.
Nationalities Ethnic groups that once had, or wish to have
or regain, autonomous political status (their
own country).
Natural Selection Originally formulated by Charles Darwin and
Alfred Russell Wallace; the process by which
nature selects the forms most fit to survive and
reproduce in a given environment, such as the
tropics.
Negative Reciprocity an exchange between enemies or strangers in
which each side tries to get the better end of
the bargain.
Neolocality Postmarital residence pattern in which a
couple establishes a new place of residence
rather than living with or near either set of
parents.
New Racism A theory of human nature that suggests that it
is natural for groups to form bounded
communities. One group is neither better nor
worse than another, but feelings of
antagonism will be aroused if outsiders are
admitted.
Nomadism, pastoral Movement throughout the year by the whole
pastoral group (men, women, and children)
with their animals; more generally, such
constant movement in pursuit of strategic
resources.
Nonconformist Behavior that openly violates norms in order to
Behaviour bring about social change.
Norms The expectations or rules of behaviour that
emerge or derive from larger values.
Nuclear Family an independent family unit formed by a
Household monogamous union.
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O
Office Permanent political position.
Oligarchy A state ruled by a privileged elite.
Olympian Religions In Wallace's typology, develop with state
organization; have full-time religious
specialists-professional priesthoods.
Open Class System Stratification system that facilitates social
mobility, with individual achievement and
personal merit determining social rank.
Organic Solidarity Emile Durkheim's view of social solidarity
pertaining to modern, urban, complex
civilizations, state societies, with many
specialzed roles functioning interdependently
on the basis of contract and centralized
authority, codified in laws.
Orientalism Refers to the way in which “The Orient” was
and is constructed by the West as a means to
claim authority and exercise control over
Eastern cultures. The Orient is not a fact, or a
specific geographical place; rather, it is the
complex layers of knowledge and mythology
that have been constructed around Western
ideas about the non-West. For example, the
way in which North American media
characterize the “Middle East” as a place of
repressive government regimes and
fundamentalist religion glosses over the vast
cultural differences between different cultural
groups of the region and contributes to the
Western assumption that domination of these
“backward” nations is legitimate and
necessary.
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P
Paradigm A framework of guiding assumptions,
theories, and methods that define a particular
approach to scientific problems.
Parallel Cousins mother's sisters' children and father's
brothers' children.
Participant In ethnography, the technique of learning a
Observation people's culture through direct participation in
their everyday life over an extended period of
time.
Particularity Distinctive or unique culture trait, pattern, or
integration.
Pastoralists People who use a food-producing strategy of
adaptation based on care of herds of
domesticated animals.
Patriarchy Political system ruled by men in which women
have inferior social and political status,
including basic human rights.
Patriclan a group that claims but cannot brace their
descent through the male line from a common
male ancestor.
Patrilineal patrilocal complex-An interrelated
constellation of patrilineality, patrilocality,
warfare, and male supremacy.
Patrilineal Descent Unilineal descent rule in which people join the
father's group automatically at birth and stay
members throughout life.
Patrilocality Customary residence with the husband's
relatives after marriage, so that children grow
up in their father's community.
Patrimonial System a system of ownership, followed in northern
and central Europe during the Middle Ages, in
which land was controlled by feudal lords who
held their domains by hereditary right.
Patron-Client a mutually obligatory arrangement between
Relationship an individual who has authority, social status,
wealth, or some other personal resource (the
patron) and another person who benefits from
his or her support or influence (the client).
Peasant Small-scale agriculturalist living in a state with
rent fund obligations.
Peer Group People who share a level of social standing,
especially in terms of age.
Periphery Weakest structural position in the world
system.
Personality The relatively orderly and predictable
attitudes and patterns of behaviour
associated with an individual.
Phenotype An organism’s evident traits, its "manifest
biology"—anatomy and physiology.
Phoneme Significant sound contrast in a language that
serves to distinguish meaning, as in minimal
pairs.
Phonemics The study of the sound contrasts (phonemes)
of a particular language.
Phonetics The study of speech sounds in general; what
people actually say in various languages.
Phonology The study of sounds used in speech.
Phratry a group that typically consists of several clans
that extend the rights and obligations of
kinship to one another but retain distinct
identities.
Pidgin a language based on a simplified grammar
and lexicon taken from one or more fully
developed languages.
Plural Society A society that combines ethnic contrasts and
economic interdependence of the ethnic
groups.
Pluralism, Ethnic The coexistence of diverse ethnic groups in
the same society.
Pluralism, The doctrine that there is not one (monism) or
Methodological two (dualism) but many causes of why society
and social phenomena are the way they
presently are.
Pluralist Theory The theory that holds that power in social
systems is distributed among a wide variety
 of groups and individuals.
Polyandry marriage between one woman and two or
more men simultaneously.
Polygamy plural marriage.
Polygyny marriage between one man and two or more
women simultaneously.
Polytheism Belief in several deities who control aspects
of nature.
Positivism theoretical position that explanations must be
empirically verifiable, that there are universal
laws in the structure and transformation of
human institutions, and that theories which
incorporate individualistic elements, such as
minds, are not verifiable.
Post-Industrial Society A society in which the production of goods is
overshadowed by the provision of services,
and in which relations between people and
machines are gradually replaced by
relationships between people.
Post-partum Sex Taboo the prohibition of a woman from having
sexual intercourse for a specified period of
time following the birth of a child.
Postmodernism Generally, postmodernism refers to a phase
in Western history that coincides with the
information revolution and new forms of
economic, social and cultural life.
Postmodernism names a period—the current
era—and points to the fundamental
differences of this era from even the recent
past (i.e., modernism, ranging from roughly
the mid 19 th to the mid 20 th century).
Postmodernism views the search for truth as
project whose real aim is achieving social
power and control, and is suspicious of any
“grand narratives” or theories that seek to
provide the single explanation for how human
beings act (such as Freudian psychoanalysis)
or how societies function (Marxism, for
example). Postmodernism also refers to
styles and movements in arts and culture
 which express this skeptical attitude,
characterized by self-consciousness, formal
and stylistic borrowing, irony, pastiche,
parody, recycling, sampling, and a mixing of
high and low culture.
Potlatch Competitive feast among Indians on the North
Pacific Coast of North America.
Power The ability to exercise one's will over others-
to do what one wants; the basis of political
status.
Power Elite Those who occupy the command posts of
power in our society, like corporation heads,
political leaders, and military chiefs. - C.
Wright Mills, The Power Elite (London: Oxford
University Press, 1956).
Pragmatics The decisions made by speakers to alter their
speech--whether in terms of grammar,
vocabulary, accent, tone or pitch--to suit a
particular audience or social context.
Prejudice Devaluing (looking down on) a group because
of its assumed behavior, values, capabilities,
attitudes, or other attributes.
Prestige Esteem, respect, or approval for acts, deeds,
or qualities considered exemplary.
Primary Deviance Deviant acts committed without the actor
having been labeled.
Primary Group A relatively small group in which people are
emotionally close and where interaction is
intimate.
Primary Labour Market The portion of the segmented labor market
that includes jobs that require stable work
habits, involve skills that are often learned on
the job, are relatively high-paying, and have
job ladders.
Primary Socialization The process by which children are prepared
for the various roles required by members of
society.
Primordialist Thesis The theory that ethnic attachments reflect a
 basic tendency of people to seek out, and
associate with, their "own kind".
Productivity A basic feature of language; the ability to use
the rules of one's language to create new
expressions comprehensible to other
speakers.
Profane the sphere of the ordinary and routine; the
everyday, natural world.
Professionalization The social process through which an
occupation acquires the cultural and
structural characteristics of a profession.
Proxemics the study of human perception and use of
space in communication and social relations.
Psychic Unity a concept popular among some nineteenth-
century anthropologists that assumed that all
people when operating under similar
circumstances will think and behave in similar
ways.
Purdah the Muslim or Hindu practice of keeping
women hidden from men outside their own
family; or, a curtain, veil, or the like used for
such a purpose.
TOP
R
Race A socially constructed label that has been
used to describe certain kinds of physical and
genetic differences between people.
Ranked Societies societies in which there is unequal access to
prestige and status e.g. chiefdoms and states.
Rational Economic the weighing of available alternatives and
Decisions calculation of which will provide the most
benefit at the least cost.
Reciprocity One of the three principles of exchange;
governs exchange between social equals;
major exchange mode in band and tribal
societies.
Redistribution Major exchange mode of chiefdoms, many
archaic states, and some states with managed
 economies.
Reflexivity the ability to stand back and assess aspects of
one’s own behavior, society, culture etc in
relation to such factors as their motivations,
origins, meanings, etc.
Religion Belief and ritual concerned with supernatural
beings, powers, and forces.
Rent Fund the portion of the peasant budget allocated to
payment for the use of land and equipment.
Replacement Fund the portion of the peasant budget allocated to
payment for the use of land and equipment.
Resocialization A deliberate effort to change an individual or
group, leading to the acquisition of new values
and behaviour, particularly in prisons, military
training camps, etc.
Revitalization Movements that occur in times of change, in
Movements which religious leaders emerge and undertake
to alter or revitalize a society.
Rickets Nutritional disease caused by a shortage of
vitamin D; interferes with the absorption of
calcium and causes softening and deformation
of the bones.
Rite of Solidarity any ceremony performed for the sake of
enhancing the level of social integration
among a group of people.
Rites of Intensification rituals intended either to bolster a natural
process necessary to survival or to reaffirm
the society's commitment to a particular set of
values and beliefs.
Rites of Passage Culturally defined activities associated with the
transition from one place or stage of life to
another.
Ritual Behavior that is formal, stylized, repetitive,
and stereotyped, performed earnestly as a
social act; rituals are held at set times and
places and have liturgical orders.
Role The behaviour expected of someone
occupying a given status in a group or society.
 TOP
S
Sacred the sphere of extraordinary phenomena associated with
awesome supernatural forces.
Sanctions Sanctions are rewards for appropriate behaviour or
punishment for inappropriate behaviour. Examples of
positive sanctions include praise, honours or medals for
conformity to specific norms. Negative sanctions range
from mild forms of disapproval to execution.
Sapir-Whorf Theory that different languages produce different ways
Hypothesis of thinking.
Science A systematic method for acquiring knowledge.
Ultimately, science simply means "knowledge".

Definitions on the Web:

a particular branch of scientific knowledge; "the science of

genetics"
www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn

ability to produce solutions in some problem domain; "the skill of a

well-trained boxer"; "the sweet science of pugilism"
www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn

a method of learning about the physical universe by applying the

principles of the scientific method, which includes making empirical
observations, proposing hypotheses to explain those observations,
and testing those hypotheses in valid and reliable ways; also refers
to the organized body of knowledge that results from scientific
study
www.coris.noaa.gov/glossary/glossary_l_z.html

The study of the natural world through observation, identification,

description, experimental investigation, and theoretical
explanations.
www.iteawww.org/TAA/Glossary.htm

Science is a way of acquiring knowledge. To do science, one must

follow a specific universal methodology. The central theme in this
methodology is the testing of hypotheses and the ability to make
predictions. The overall goal of science is to better understand
nature and our Universe.
www.geog.ouc.bc.ca/physgeog/physgeoglos/s.html

Sites distributing information related to scientific exploration. These

include science exhibits, science museums, science organizations,
science laboratories, and academic institutions.
www.webbyawards.com/main/webby_awards/cat_defs.html

knowledge in general
etext.lib.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/resources/dictionary.html

the process of gaining knowledge based on making repeated

observations about nature in controlled conditions
(experimentation) and attempting to explain what causes those
observations (theorizing) through constructing hypotheses that can
be tested experimentally. Science's only purpose is to gain
knowledge. Sometimes that knowledge may eventually lead to
things mankind finds useful technology.
www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/chemistry/mission2mars/contents/glos
sary/s.htm

The body of related courses concerned with knowledge of the

physical and biological world and with the processes of discovering
and validating this knowledge.
nces.ed.gov/pubsold/D95/defins3.html

Literally 'knowledge', science is the synthesis of the systematic

study of every aspect of our experience of reality, especially
objective reality, usually with the aim of reducing it to a logically-
consistent system of order (though modern science accepts many
paradoxes, if often with evident discomfort). The public image of
science's worldview is generally, though incorrectly, that of
scientism; in practice, the development of science depends
extensively on the intuitive mode as well as analysis.
www.tomgraves.com.au/index.php

The enterprise by which a particular kind of ordered knowledge is

obtained about natural phenomena by means of controlled
observation and theoretical interpretation
www.esb.utexas.edu/surge/Resources&Links/glossary.htm

Systematic and formulated knowledge of a subject, obtained by

scientific method that uses postulates to span the gaps left by the
limited human means of obtaining knowledge and then tests the
conclusions in every possible way.
chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/religion/bahai/sr/definit.html

Any domain of knowledge accumulated by systematic study and

organized by general principals.
www.fes-nj.com/connection-definitions.htm

— knowledge made up of an orderly system of facts that have been

learned from study, observation, and experiments
nasaexplores.com/lessons/02-034/k-4_glossary.html

The arrangement of concepts in their rational connection to exhibit

them as an organic, progressive whole. See Introduction, Lectures
on the History of Philosophy 7.
 www.class.uidaho.edu/mickelsen/texts/Hegel%20Glossary.htm

provides the store of knowledge of the physical world.

www.ee.wits.ac.za/~ecsa/gen/g-04.html

A branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or

truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of
general laws.
www.wellnesschiro.com/glossary.htm

n a) knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general

laws esp. as obtained and tested through scientific method b) such
knowledge concerned with the physical world and its phenomena
home.att.net/~tangents/data/rlgdef.htm

systematically acquired knowledge that is verifiable.

oregonstate.edu/dept/anthropology/glossary2.htm

The method of inquiry that requires the generation, testing, and

acceptance or rejection of hypotheses.
highered.mcgraw-
hill.com/sites/0072549238/student_view0/glossary.html

the state of knowing; systematic observation and testing of natural

phenomena in a search for general laws and conclusive evidence.
www.eng.iastate.edu/explorer/topics/2001/lockheed/glossary.htm

is the body of knowledge obtained by methods of observation. It is

derived from Latin word scientia, which simply means knowledge,
and German word wisenschaft, which means systematic, organized
knowledge.
www.decidestr.com/definitions.htm

Hegel’s concept of -- science for Hegel is an understanding based

on the fullest possible context, fully related with all the other parts
of the whole revolution, Hegel’s conception of -- for Hegel, it is a
revolution primarily of spirit (Geist), i.e. a complete qualitative
change to a new way of understanding
staff.bcc.edu/philosophy/HEGELMARXGLOSSARY.htm

is a way of knowing about the physical universe which requires

measurements and controlled experiments.
www.vacadsci.org/JSR/definitions.htm

the study of the natural world

www.nde.state.nv.us/sca/science/NERDS/glossary.htm

Scientism the belief that there is one and only one method of
science and that it alone confers legitimacy upon the
conduct of research.
Secondary Deviant acts committed partly in response to being
Deviance labeled "deviant."
Secondary That segment of the labor market that includes jobs that
Labour do not require stable work habits, are relatively low-
Market paying, have few chances for advancement, and have a
high turnover.
Sedentary animal husbandry that does not involve mobility.
Pastoralism
Segmentary a descent group in which minimal lineages are
Lineage encompassed as segments of minor lineages, minor
lineages as segments of major lineages, and so on.
Segmentary Political organization based on descent, usually
Lineage patrilineal, with multiple descent segments that form at
Organization different genealogical levels and function in different
(SLO) contexts.
Segmentary relatively small and autonomous groups, usually of
Societies agriculturalists. who regulate their own affairs; in some
cases, they may join together with other comparable
segmentary societies to form a larger ethnic unit.
Self One's awareness of ideas and attitudes about one's
own personal and social identity.
Self-Fulfilling The prediction of events that do in fact come about,
Prophecy because of one's belief in the prediction and enactment
or lack of enactment on that belief, thus reinforcing the
belief, i.e., if a person or group predicts and deeply
believes that certain events will come about, that person
or group will (sometimes unconsciously) modify
behaviors or engage in those behaviors that will create
those situations that will cause the predicted events to
come about. Robert K. Merton developed this concept
out of his interpretation of W. I. Thomas' "definition of
the situation," i.e., "If men define things as real, they are
real in their consequences." An example of a self-
fulfilling prophecy would be a stock market crash - you
would lose your money if you don't get out as quickly as
possible, so you sell and so do many others, and,
indeed, many people lose money because the values of
the stocks decrease.
Semantic groups of related categories of meaning in a language.
Domains
Semantics the study of the larger system of meaning created by
 words.
Semiotics the study of how signs and symbols relate to the things
they represent. As becomes evident in discussions
about culture, the meaning of a sign or symbol is not
fixed; it varies over time, in different contexts, and by
the intent of the speaker/writer. The relationship
between a symbol or sign and what it represents can
also be contested -- different individuals or groups of
individuals might have different views on the content of
a specific sign/signified relationship (as is the case with
the word "culture"). Someone interested in this process
of meaning-making -- a semiotician -- might study the
process by which contested meanings arise and are
resolved.
Semiperipher Structural position in the world system intermediate
y between core and periphery.
Serial an exclusive union followed by divorce and remarriage,
Monogamy perhaps many times.
Sexism Similar to the dynamics of racism. Males are believed to
be superior to females and when this belief is put into
action it leads to females being treated as objects, the
last to be hired, first to be fired, being paid less for equal
work, etc.
Sexual Marked differences in male and female biology, besides
Dimorphism the contrasts in breasts and genitals, and temperament.
Sexual the situation in which males and females in a society
Division of perform different tasks. In hunting-gathering societies
Labour males usually hunt while females usually gather wild
vegetable food.
Sexual A person's habitual sexual attraction to, and activities
Orientation with: persons of the opposite sex, heterosexuality; the
same sex, homosexuality; or both sexes, bisexuality.
Sexual the ranking of people in a society according to sex.
Stratification
Shaman A part-time religious practitioner who mediates between
ordinary people and supernatural beings and forces.
Shamanistic that form of religion in which part-time religious
Cult specialists called shamans intervene with the deities on
behalf of their clients.
Sharecroppin working land owned by others for a share of the yield.
g
Shifting (swidden, slash and burn) a form of plant cultivation in
Cultivation which seeds are planted in the fertile soil prepared by
cutting and burning the natural growth; relatively short
periods of cultivation on the land are followed by longer
periods of fallow.
Slash-and- a method of farming, also called swidden agriculture, by
Burn which fields are cleared, trees and brush are burned,
Agriculture and the soil, fertilized by the ash, is then planted.
Slavery The most extreme, coercive, abusive, and inhumane
form of legalized inequality; people are treated as
property.
Social The degree to which participants in social systems feel
Cohesion committed to the system and the well-being of other
participants.
Social One of two general ways (the other is essentialist) in
Constructivis which meaning and identity formation is often
m understood. Social constructivists believe that identity is
not inherent within an individual, group, or thing, but is
instead largely a creation of cultural, political, and
historical forces.
Social The undesirable consequences of any social pattern for
dysfunctions the operation of society.
Social The application of evolutionary notions and the concept
Darwinism of survival of the fittest to the social world.
Social The consequences of any social pattern for the
functions operation of society as a whole.
Social A perspective that holds that societies often reinforce
Labeling their boundaries by labeling people as well as their acts
Perspective as deviant.
Social A theory of socialization that focuses on learning
Learning through the imitation of models.
Theory
Social Race A group assumed to have a biological basis but actually
perceived and defined in a social context, by a particular
culture rather than by scientific criteria.
Social Any relatively stable pattern of social behaviour.
structure
Social Script In the dramaturgical approach to interaction, the role we
perform in relation to a particular audience.
Social Status A position in a social relationship, a characteristic that
locates individuals in relation to other people and sets of
role expectations.
Social A term characteristic of functional analysis (and
System specifically of Parsonian structural-functionalism). The
social system consists of both a social structure of
interrelated institutions, statuses, and roles and the
functioning of that structure in terms of social actions
and human interactions. The social system thus is said
to include both social change (Comte's dynamics) - the
processes and patterns of action and interaction - and
social stability (Comte's statics) - stable social structural
forms. Further, the social system constitutes a unitary
social whole reflecting a real value consensus - the
sharing of common values, social norms, and
objectives.
Social- A way of seeing society as an arena of inequality that
Conflict generates conflict and change.
Theory
Socialization the process by which a person acquires the technical
skills of his or her society, the knowledge of the kinds of
behavior that are understood and acceptable in that
society, and the attitudes and values that make
conformity with social rules personally meaningful, even
gratifying; also termed enculturation.
Society A society is a large social grouping that shares the
same geographical territory and is subject to the same
political authority and dominant cultural expectations.
Sociobiology A perspective that views social patterns among humans
and other species as the result of genetics.
Sociolinguisti Study of relationships between social and linguistic
cs variation; study of language (performance) in its social
context.
Sociological The ability to see our private experiences and personal
Imagination difficulties as entwined with the structural arrangements
of our society and the historical times in which we live.
Sororate a social custom under which a widower has the right to
marry one of his deceased wife's sisters, and her kin are
obliged to provide him with a new wife.
Sovereignty The possession of legal control and governance over a
specific geographic territory. Sovereignty once rested in
the body of the monarch, who possessed supreme
power over his or her kingdom. In the modern context,
sovereignty has been located in nation-states.
Globalization has been understood by many scholars as
having complicated and undermined the sovereignty of
nation-states. The growth in the political power of
international organizations (e.g., United Nations, World
Trade Organization) and the rise of non-governmental
organizations has redistributed nation-state sovereignty
to a multiplicity of sites and political levels (from local to
global).
Specialized the adaptive strategy of exclusive reliance on animal
Pastoralism husbandry.
Split Labour- The theory that racial and ethnic conflict are rooted in
Market differences in the price between people.
Theory
State Complex sociopolitical system that administers a
territory and populace with substantial contrasts in
occupation, wealth, prestige, and power. An
independent, centrally organized political unit; a
government. A form of social and political organization
with a formal, central government and a division of
society into classes.
State An economic system in which the state owns some
Capitalism means of production but operates them according to
capitalist principles.
State or Complex sociopolitical system that administers a
Nation-State territory and populace with substantial contrasts in
occupation, wealth, prestige, and power. An
independent, centrally organized political unit; a
government. A form of social and political organization
with a formal, central government and a division of
society into classes.
Status Any position that determines where someone fits in
society; may be ascribed or achieved.
Status Define by Henry Maine, a cultural evolutionist, in terms
Societies of a society that is family-oriented, where property is
held in common, and where social control is maintained
primarily by sanctions.
Status- Models of the determinants of achievement in the labour
Attainment force based on regression models that include individual
Models variables, such as social-class status, schooling,
intelligence, aspirations, and achievement.
Stereotypes Exaggerated, oversimplified images of the
characteristics of social categories.
Stratification Characteristic of a system with socioeconomic strata,
sharp social divisions based on unequal access to
wealth and power; see stratum.
Structural- Theory that sees society as a complex system whose
Functionalis parts work together to promote stability.
m
Structuralism An analytical approach characterized largely by a shift
in focus from interpreting a text in order to unveil its
hidden meaning to identifying and interrogating the
ways in which meaning is brought into being
structurally. Structuralism is a diverse approach
encompassing numerous methodologies, connected by
this concern with the ways in which the structure of any
given text is implicated in the production of its meaning.
Although it has been subject to intensive critique
(focusing, for example, on its inability to take account of
historical change), structuralism’s once-radical rejection
of the role of relationship and context in determining
meaning has been enormously influential in many
disciplines.
Structuralism the theoretical school founded by Claude Levi-Strauss
- French that finds the key to cultural diversity in cognitive
structures.
Style Shifts Variations in speech in different contexts.
Subcultures Different cultural traditions associated with subgroups in
the same complex society.
Subordinate The lower, or underprivileged, group in a stratified
system.
Subordinate In the primary labor market, jobs that involve routine
Primary Jobs tasks and encourage workers to be obedient to
authority.
Substantivis a school of economic anthropology that seeks to
m understand economic processes as the maintenance of
an entire cultural order.
Superego In Freudian theory, the conscience containing all of the
culturally constructed ideas of what is right and what is
wrong.
Superordinat The upper, or privileged, group in a stratified system.
e
Surplus Value The value of goods and services that is kept by
employers as profit after paying workers whatever is
needed to buy their labor power and reproduce
themselves.
Symbol Something, verbal or nonverbal, that arbitrarily and by
convention stands for something else, with which it has
no necessary or natural connection.
Symbolic- Theory that sees society as the product of the everyday
Interactionis interaction of individuals.
m
Symbols A thing, image or sign that is mean to stand in for the
idea, belief or principle to which it refers. Any object,
image or sign to which people attach meanings and
then use to communicate with others.
Syncretisms Cultural blends, or mixtures, including religious blends,
that emerge from acculturation, particularly under
colonialism, such as African, Native American, and
Roman Catholic saints and deities in Caribbean vodun,
or "voodoo," cults; the exchange of cultural features
when cultures come into continuous firsthand contact.
taboo-Set apart as sacred and off-limits to ordinary
people; prohibition backed by supernatural sanctions.
Synergy A strategy of synchronizing and actively forging
connections between directly related areas of
entertainment. For example, the merger of media giant
Time Warner with Internet giant AOL was intended to
allow content developed for one communication
medium (e.g., television) to be re-used, recycled, and
reinforced in different media (e.g., film, Internet, etc.).
Syntax The arrangement and order of words in phrases and
sentences.
TOP
T
Taboo Set apart as sacred and off-limits to ordinary
people; prohibition backed by supernatural
sanctions.
Theoretical paradigm A set of fundamental assumptions that guides
thinking and research.
Theory A statement of how and why specific facts are
related.
Third World Those less powerful, non-Western nation-
states that have experienced colonialization,
are ex-colonized, or have experienced modern
capitalism as a form of imperialism, i.e., those
countries whose cultures have been disrupted
by industrialization and expropriation of their
natural resources with little or no concern by
the capitalists about the disruption,
oppression, and exploitation of the people or
just compensation for their labor or natural
resources. The third world includes those
countries of Central and South America,
Africa, and Asia. The first world refers to
Western capitalistic countries of America and
Western Europe. The second world referred to
the Soviet Union and its block of countries.
Total Institution An organization such as a prison in which all
aspects of people's daily lives are controlled
by authorities.
Totem a plant or animal whose name is adopted by a
clan and that holds a special significance for
its members, usually related to their mythical
ancestry.
Totemism A religion based on the belief that sacred
objects (totems) possess supernatural power.
Transhumance One of two variants of pastoralism; part of the
population moves seasonally with the herds
while the other part remains in home villages.
Transnational A firm that operates on a global scale and
Corporation works, to a greater or lesser extent, outside of
national jurisdictions. For example, former
General Electric CEO Jack Welch’s fantasy of
operating the company from a permanently
floating barge in order to avoid all national
trade regulations and laws would be an
example of a completely transnational
company—it operates worldwide without
operating from within any specific country.
Tribe Form of sociopolitical organization usually
based on horticulture or pastoralism.
Socioeconomic stratification and centralized
rule are absent in tribes, and there is no
means of enforcing political decisions.
TOP
U
Unilineal Descent Matrilineal or patrilineal descent.
Unilineal Evolution a pattern of cultural progress through a
sequence of evolutionary stages; the basic
premise of the early cultural evolutionists.
Universal Something that exists in every culture.
Urbanization The long-term but increasingly intensifying shift
of human populations from the country to the
city. It is a process that has contributed
significantly to the reduction of open spaces
available for recreation as land was
expropriated for the building of industrial
infrastructure. As fields disappeared with no
new playgrounds to replace them, it became
harder to find places to hold outdoor sports,
festivals, and other forms of public gathering,
which shaped the development of popular
culture in significant ways.
Use Value The attribution of value to goods and services
based upon their usefulness to those who
consume them.
TOP
V
Values The standards by which people define what is
 desirable or not, good or bad, ugly or beautiful;
attitudes about the way the world ought to be.
Vertical Integration A synergistic venture wherein one company
acquires the means by which a particular
product or service is manufactured, distributed,
and sold. Its aim is to increase a corporation’s
control over its own products by diminishing its
reliance on other companies. Vertical
integration is considered by some to be
responsible for a reduction in the diversity of
available cultural products.
Vertical Mobility Upward or downward change in a person's
social status.
Vertical Mosaic A social structure where ethnic groups occupy
different, and unequal, positions within the
stratification system.
Victimless Crime An offense in which no one involved is
considered a victim.
Village Head A local leader in a tribal society who has limited
authority, leads by example and persuasion,
and must be generous.
TOP
W
Wage Labour A term used by Marx to describe the fact that
capitalism converts labor from the human
activity of producing culture into a commodity.
The price of commodity labor is called wages.
In a capitalist system, people have only labor
power to sell to get the necessities of life.
Wages are set by demand and supply but can
be reduced to below the level required for
reproducing the labor force by cooperation
among capitalists and enforced competition
between workers; by recruiting from
underdeveloped nations and by a large surplus
population. It is increased by unions, by
internationalism and/ or by welfare programs.
Wealth All a person's material assets, including
income, land, and other types of property; the
basis of economic status.
Weber, Max (1864-1920): Weber contributed much to
sociology; his critique/analysis of bureaucracy,
his concern with forms of stratification other
than class, his work on power and authority all
help one understand the larger structures
which defeat democracy and human agency.
He is best noted for his work on the sociology
of religion in which he made the connection
between the Protestant ethic of hard work,
frugality, and stewardship of wealth [on behalf
of God] with the Spirit of Capitalism. In
methodology, he is known for his use of 'ideal
types' as keys to understanding a society or an
age--and for verstehen as a pathway to
knowledge; verstehen contrasts to empirical
analysis and inference.
White-collar Crime Crimes that people are able to commit because
of the power and opportunities afforded by
social statuses--usually occupations--they
occupy.
Witchcraft use of religious ritual to control, exploit, or
injure unsuspecting, or at least uncooperating,
other persons.
Working Class Or proletariat; those who must sell their labor to
survive; the antithesis of the bourgeoisie in
Marx's class analysis.
TOP
Z
Zero-Sum Game A game in which the success of one player
requires the failure of another.
Zoomorphic "animal-like"

Adapted from the following sources:

1. Conrad Kottak. 2002. Cultural Anthropology. 9th ed. Mc-Graw-Hill.
2. Robert J. Brym, ed. 2003. New Society: Sociology for the 21st
Century. 3rd ed. Thomson-Nelson.
3. Richard T. Schaefer. Sociology: A Brief Introduction. Online glossary.
4. Anthropology glossary and Anthropology dictionaries at glossarist.com
5. Anthropology dictionary at webref.org
6. Sociology dictionary at webref.org
7. Dictionary of Critical Sociology at Iowa State University
8. Anthropology Biography Web, Minnesota State University at Mankato
9. Nelson - Sociology Glossary
10. Nelson - Popular Culture - A user's Guide/Glossary