SOC100H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Cultural Relativism, Making Money, Consumerism

• School: UTM
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC100H5
• Professor: Jayne Baker

Document Summary

Symbols: abstraction - the human capacity to create general ideas or ways of thinking that are not linked to particular instances, symbols - anything that carriers a particular meaning, including the components of language, mathematical notations, and signs. Symbols allow us to classify experience and generalize from it: allow us to classify experience and generalize from it. Norms and values: cooperation - the human capacity to create a complex social life by sharing resources and working together, norms - generally accepted ways of doing things. Production, material culture, and non-material culture: production - the human capacity to make and use tools. It improves our ability to take what we want from nature: material culture - the tools and techniques that enable people to accomplish tasks, non-material culture - symbols, norms, and other non-tangible elements of culture. When someone violates a taboo, it causes revulsion in the community and punishment is severe: ex) incest.