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Review Sheet for Mid-term Exam 2: Cultural Theory

Introduction to Sociological Theory

Prof. Gabe Ignatow

Review Sheet for Mid-term Exam 2: Cultural Theory

(June 24 in class)

The second mid-term covers only cultural theory, including Cultural Functionalism, Conflict Theories of Culture, Theories of Religion and Individual Meaning, and Durkheimian Cultural Theory.


You should be able to define and discuss all of the following terms:

Instinct vs. Culture

Meaning

Blinking vs. Winking

Symbols

Signs

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Linguistic Relativism

Linguistic Determinism

Linguistic Categories

Beliefs

Values

Norms

Material Culture

High Culture

Low Culture

Popular Culture

Cultural Capital

Subcultures

Countercultures

Ethnocentrism

Cultural Relativism

Cultural Lag

Synchronic Analysis

Diachronic Analysis

Cultural Functionalism

Cultural Anthropology

Critical Theory

The Frankfurt School

The Culture Industry

The “lowest common denominator”

Horkheimer and Adorno

Antonio Gramsci

Organic Intellectuals

Hegemony

Peter Berger

“Sacred Canopy”

The Secularization Thesis

Max Weber

“Railroad Switchman”

Theodicy

Salvation

Calvinism

Other-worldly religion

This-worldly religion

Predestination

Rationalization

The Protestant Ethic

Emile Durkheim

The Elementary Forms…

Aborigines and Native Americans

The Sacred

The Profane

Rituals

Totems

“Collective Effervescence”

Social Solidarity

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