Culture Exam Prep Chapter 3 Concise Edition

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 1

1) Which of the following examples does not illustrate a conflict over culture?

Page reference: See section “How Do Sociologists Study Culture?”

a. Different states have different speed limits on their state highways.

b. In the 1990s, watchdog groups required albums with lyrics deemed offensive to be labeled with a parental warning.

c. In the 1950s, a Senate subcommittee investigated the dangers of comic books.

d. At the heart of many debates over public school dress codes is the claim that some clothes—such as leggings, or tops with narrow straps—sexualize girls. Some people argue that they do, while others argue that it is not clothing itself but the policies about them that sexualize girls.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 2

2) What term describes the entire set of beliefs, knowledge, practices, and material objects that a society defines as meaningful and that it seeks to pass from one generation to the next?

Page reference: See subsection “What is Culture?”

a. Culture

b. Society

c. Art and craft

d. Meaning

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 3

3) The work of society is to teach its people the social meaning of its culture. This process is termed

Page reference: See subsection “What is Culture?”

a. encoding.

b. socialization.

c. cultural imperialism.

d. cultural hierarchy.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 4

4) In American culture, closing one eye quickly but not the other (“winking”) can indicate a joke, flirtation, or a lie. The ambiguity of this gesture illustrates that symbolic meanings

Page reference: See subsection “What is Culture?”

a. are so unstable as to be nearly impossible to understand.

b. vary from culture to culture.

c. must be understood in the context of interactions and relationships.

d. change over time.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 5

5) Culture is always changing because

Page reference: See section “How Do Sociologists Study Culture?”

a. people generally prefer to recover old cultural practices and return to them in order to preserve tradition.

b. technological innovation generally fails, so we are frequently testing out and then rejecting new technologies.

c. individuals and groups are constantly trying to distinguish themselves by using culture in new ways.

d. culture is a by-product of the natural world; therefore, as the natural world changes, so too will culture.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 6

6) Which of the following is an example of ideal culture?

Page reference: See subsection “Ideal and Material Culture.”

a. A teacher’s whistle

b. A playground

c. A red rubber playground ball

d. The rules of kickball

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 7

7) Which of the following is an example of material culture?

Page reference: See subsection “Ideal and Material Culture.”

a. Doing the “wave” at a baseball game as an expression of solidarity with other fans

b. Booing an umpire to express disapproval of a decision to call a ball a strike in baseball

c. Popcorn and crackerjacks

d. Singing the national anthem at a baseball game as an expression of patriotism

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 8

8) What are “traditional values”?

Page reference: See subsection “Ideal and Material Culture.”

a. Religion, no matter what form it takes, and family, no matter what form it takes

b. Religious tolerance, multiculturalism, cooperation

c. Violence (“might makes right”), questioning of authority

d. Traditional religion, family, national pride

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 9

9) What are “survival values”?

Page reference: See subsection “Ideal and Material Culture.”

a. Respect for nature and environmental protections

b. Rugged individualism and self-sustainability, such as the ability to hunt and fish

c. Economic and physical security

d. Pessimism and resignation to the difficulties of life

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 10

10) What are “secular-rational values”?

Page reference: See subsection “Ideal and Material Culture.”

a. Individualism, science, and critique

b. Kindness, “saving face,” and protecting the dignity of others

c. Competition, economic striving, and relentless commitment to work

d. Art, creativity, and intuition

Type: multiple choice question 

Title: Chapter 4 Question 11 

11) What are “self-expression values”? 

Page reference: See subsection “Ideal and Material Culture.”

a. Tolerance, political participation, and personal happiness 

b. Tribalism, respect for hierarchy, and pride in tradition 

c. Collaboration, gratitude, and accountability to one’s community 

d. Artistic performance, public funding for the common good, and anarchy 

Type: multiple choice question 

Title: Chapter 4 Question 12

12) When Durkheim argued that beliefs are primarily social, he meant that 

Page reference: See subsection “Ideal and Material Culture.”

a. each generation must create its beliefs on its own, apart from the influence of previous generations.

b. individuals have tremendous power in changing ideology.

c. what we believe is shaped by the groups to which we belong. 

d. most of the time, most people resist believing what they are taught; they must be coerced into it.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 13

13) A profound, society-threatening conflict over values is called

Page reference: See subsection “Ideal and Material Culture.”

a. a culture war.

b. discourse.

c. cultural imperialism.

d. cultural hierarchy.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 14

14) Systems of shared meaning that justify existing relationships of power and privilege are

Page reference: See section “Culture and Power.”

a. cultural hierarchies.

b. ideologies.

c. forms of cultural imperialism.

d. stereotypes.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 15

15) Which statement is true about stereotypes?

Page reference: See section “Culture and Power.”

a. They are always directed from less powerful to more powerful people.

b. They are always negative.

c. They are always rooted in some germ of fact.

d. They can be positive or negative, though both positive and negative stereotypes cause harm.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 16

16) Foucault’s insights about power, self-control, and surveillance emerged from his observations in

Page reference: See section “Culture and Power.”

a. weight loss spas.

b. mental hospitals.

c. military barracks.

d. strip clubs.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 17

17) We rely on _______ to tell us what cultural practices and objects are better and worse than others.

Page reference: See section “Culture and Power.”

a. multiculturalism

b. discourse

c. subcultures

d. cultural hierarchies

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 18

18) When sociologist Harold Garfinkel said in 1967 that people are not “cultural dopes,” he meant that

Page reference: See subsection “Recognizing and Resisting Cultural Power.”

a. people are unable to see themselves as victims of cultural power.

b. people unthinkingly accept the messages encoded in cultural symbols.

c. people can resist the messages that their culture sends.

d. it takes a strong, innovative leader to point out when cultural messages are harmful.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 19

19) The processes through which powerful people try to create forms of material and ideal culture and by which everyday people interpret that culture are called

Page reference: See subsection “Recognizing and Resisting Cultural Power.”

a. encoding and decoding.

b. cultural imperialism and globalization.

c. activation and resistance.

d. xenophobia and multiculturalism.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 20

20) When ethnocentrism remains unchallenged, it can lead to

Page reference: See subsection “Recognizing and Resisting Cultural Power.”

a. xenophobia.

b. globalization.

c. multiculturalism.

d. cultural relativism.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 21

21) Dr. Jong is studying a group of teenagers who enjoy playing fantasy tabletop games such as Dungeons and Dragons. She observes that this game is deeply meaningful to the teens but that their parents are frustrated with their interest in the game, arguing that it is a meaningless waste of time. Dr. Jong encourages the parents to try to understand how the game can be meaningful to their teenage children at the stage of life and in the social situation they are currently in. In this way, Dr. Jong is encouraging the parents to adopt a perspective that values

Page reference: See subsection “Recognizing and Resisting Cultural Power.”

a. cultural relativism.

b. cultural hierarchies.

c. multiculturalism.

d. encoding and decoding.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 22

22) A society’s commitment to the celebration and protection of all the different cultural practices and traditions of its people is termed

Page reference: See subsection “Recognizing and Resisting Cultural Power.”

a. globalization.

b. cultural relativism.

c. Multiculturalism.

d. tolerance.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 23

23) In recent years, street artists in Bulgaria, a former communist state, have taken to painting statues of Soviet leaders from the communist era to look like icons from American popular culture. Thus, statues that were intended to represent pride in the Soviet domination of Bulgaria now look like Ronald McDonald and Captain America. What practice of cultural resistance are these artists enacting?

Page reference: See subsection “Recognizing and Resisting Cultural Power.”

a. Cultural imperialism

b. Multiculturalism

c. Ethnocentrism

d. Culture jamming

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 24

24) Which of the following statements is an example of global material culture?

Page reference: See section “Types of Culture in Today’s World.”

a. Democracy is valued in many different societies.

b. Some of the same inventions emerged in different places at the same time, even though the people from those places had no contact with each other.

c. People around the globe are able to buy the same products from multinational corporations, such as iPhones and Nike athletic shoes.

d. English, Mandarin, Spanish, and Arabic have spread far beyond the places where these languages originated.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 25

25) What did media critic Herbert Schiller mean when he said, in 1991, that American television is a “cultural bomb”?

Page reference: See subsection “Global Culture.”

a. American TV is particularly risqué and sexually offensive.

b. American television programming shows the worst excesses of American culture, not Americans as they really are, which creates stereotypes of Americans.

c. American media is particularly violent, but because the US is far more violent than most other nations, American viewers do not notice it.

d. American programming, once introduced to a local culture, replaces programming that tells local stories and uses art forms familiar to that culture.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 26

26) How does McDonald’s seek to reach an Indian market, given that many people in India do not eat beef for religious reasons?

Page reference: See subsection “Global Culture.”

a. They call beef by another name there, though it is still the same product.

b. They sell a sandwich that features a slab of fried cheese for the many vegetarians in India.

c. They have tried to influence important Hindu leaders to change the religion’s teachings about cows.

d. They are only open in the morning, when they sell breakfast items that include pork but not beef.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 27

27) When it comes to a choice between a local brand and a global brand, in general, people

Page reference: See subsection “Global Culture.”

a. have no preference between them.

b. have a preference for global brands.

c. are unable to distinguish between them.

d. have a preference for products more closely connected to their specific culture.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 28

28) Which is an example of a policy that seeks to privilege local and national culture?

Page reference: See subsection “Global Culture.”

a. A tariff on Mexican-grown avocados enacted right before the Super Bowl, when avocado sales spike as many people make guacamole, which lawmakers hope will drive more sales of avocados grown in California and Florida

b. The firing of a Tennessee judge who tried to force parents to change their baby son’s name from Messiah to Martin because the name Messiah could only, according to the judge, refer to Jesus, the central figure of the Christian faith

c. The prohibition against bringing soil from another country into the United States because that soil might contain aggressive non-native organisms that could hurt American ecosystems

d. The Smithsonian American History Museum selling knick-knacks celebrating material items from American popular culture, such as a coaster with a picture of Dorothy’s ruby-red slippers from The Wizard of Oz.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 29

29) Which is evidence of the existence of a world culture?

Page reference: See subsection “Global Culture.”

a. Most national constitutions are relatively similar, regardless of the nation.

b. Regardless of which society they live in, when individuals become wealthier, they tend to spend more money on luxury items.

c. McDonald’s now operates in most countries in the world.

d. Manga was created in Japan but is now popular in the United States.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 30

30) Which of the following is an example of a person, group, or government rejecting the norms and values of world culture?

Page reference: See subsection “Global Culture.”

a. The Saudi government regularly engages in harassment, violence, and even murder of journalists.

b. Costa Rica does not maintain a military but instead relies on its political allies for defense against hostility. It then invests the money that it might otherwise spend on the military into a public good, such as education.

c. The United Nation’s Security Council consists of five permanent members and ten rotating ones, ensuring that the UK, France, the US, the Russian Federation, and China are always part of the Council.

d. The 1977 film Star Wars was banned in China.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 31

31) Which of these NGOs addresses the global problem of hunger by publicizing it as a violation of world culture?

Page reference: See subsection “Global Culture.”

a. Doctors without Borders

b. Habitat for Humanity

c. Oxfam

d. Transparency International

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 32

32) “DIY culture” refers to

Page reference: See subsection “Popular Culture, Commercial Culture, and High Culture.”

a. cultural practices that promote self-sustainability, reducing consumption, and reusing objects, often in innovative ways.

b. rejecting subcultures in favor of dominant culture.

c. cultural products accessible only to those with a lot of money.

d. the way that people with cultural capital are able to acquire more cultural capital.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 33

33) Manga is a kind of

Page reference: See subsection “Dominant Cultures and Subcultures.”

a. music.

b. board game.

c. comic art.

d. political parody.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 34

34) Dominant culture consists of the

Page reference: See subsection “Dominant Cultures and Subcultures.”

a. cultural practices that push the boundary of what is acceptable in a society at that time.

b. cultural practices of younger generations, who will quickly come to control the market of what is “cool.”

c. ideas, values, beliefs, norms, and material culture of society’s most powerful groups.

d. most long-lasting cultural practices, which explicitly seek to honor tradition.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 35

35) What evidence do sociologists have for the claim that dominant culture is an ideology?

Page reference: See subsection “Dominant Cultures and Subcultures.”

a. Subcultures do not survive for more than a generation.

b. Few people engage in subcultures.

c. Dominant cultures eliminate subcultures.

d. Dominant cultures suggest that their cultural practices are the practices of all people in a society.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 36

36) All of the following might be considered a subculture except

Page reference: See subsection “Dominant Cultures and Subcultures.”

a. members of the Southern Baptist Convention, who comprise the single largest Protestant group in the US.

b. the Amish, who do not use electricity.

c. Hasidic Jews, who wear distinct hairstyles.

d. Muslim women who choose to wear a hijab to cover their hair.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 37

37) The genre of “conscious rap” is characterized by

Page reference: See subsection “Dominant Cultures and Subcultures.”

a. politically charged commentary about social issues relevant to people living in American cities today.

b. boasts about material possessions and economic success.

c. laments about loss of conservative social values.

d. complaints about individuals’ struggles without placing them into a larger social context.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 38

38) A commodity is a(n)

Page reference: See subsection “Popular Culture, Commercial Culture, and High Culture.”

a. object bought or sold in the market.

b. object you make for yourself to enjoy.

c. skill you pass on to a member of the next generation.

d. skill that is now extinct because of competition from global culture.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 39

39) All of the businesses in the list below are part of the concentrated ownership of commercial culture except

Page reference: See subsection “Popular Culture, Commercial Culture, and High Culture.”

a. Disney

b. Your aunt’s Etsy store, where she sells handmade earrings

c. Comcast, the cable company

d. Nestlé, which owns a variety of food brands and has even sought to privatize water

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 40

40) The International Workers of the World (IWW) is an organization promoting the interests of

United States and around the globe.

Page reference: See subsection “Popular Culture, Commercial Culture, and High Culture.”

a. athletes.

b. laborers of all kinds.

c. international business owners.

d. people who work in the creative industries.