Culture

 Material Culture: These material objects are associated with a cultural group. As American's we are constantly "on the go" and our material culture really reflects that.

 Symbolic Culture: symbols are loaded in our culture. While brands become symbols, also thoughts, ideas, and beliefs do as well. Gestures that we make with our bodies also have meaning. Like extending your middle finger alone carries a very strong meaning in our culture, whereas it can mean something totally different in another.

 Language: Humans use language which includes words, gestures, sounds, and written symbols to convey meaning and communicate. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis argues that language structures thought and shapes how we see things.

 Folkway: Societies are made up of different strictness' of norms. A loosely enforced norm is known as a folkway, and makes interactions awkward or not. They insure smooth social interaction, like holding a door for a person.

 Taboo: Is an extreme form where even thinking about violating these things create disgust. These rules are ingrained so deeply that most people are completely repulsed by these actions, such as cannibalism. We value human life so much that the thought of a person eating another human creates horror.

 Sanctions: Sanctions are used to establish social control. They also increase social cohesion. They come in positive and negative. The negative is like a punishment... people in line often use negative sanctions like grunting and "toe-tapping" in order to insure that the person holding up the line knows that they are doing something wrong.

Subculture: A subculture is differentiated by it's distinct values, norms, and lifestyles. It can include ways or talking and ways of dress. Here we have a subculture of skateboarders who dress alike and have a special lingo for what they do.