In plain English: D2.Soc.6.9-12 is the C3 Framework sociology indicator for grades 9-12 that asks students to identify the major components of culture. Students learn to name and spot symbols, language, values, beliefs, norms (folkways, mores and laws) and material culture, and compare early definitions of culture with a current federal one. It is usually taught in a high school sociology course.
Identify the major components of culture.
C3 Framework for Social Studies (NCSS) · Dimension 2: Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools · Discipline: Sociology · Social Structure: Culture, Institutions, and Society · Official standard
D2.Soc.6.9-12 asks students to identify the major components of culture. Culture is the shared, learned way of life of a group: what its members make, say, value, believe and expect of one another. Many sociology courses sort it into six components: symbols, language, values, beliefs, norms (folkways, mores, laws and taboos) and material culture, the objects a group makes and uses. The first five together are often called nonmaterial culture.
Students test this list against three real attempts to say what culture contains: Edward B. Tylor's 1871 definition, which helped found anthropology; Clark Wissler's 1923 "universal pattern" of nine headings; and the Library of Congress's account of American folklife, which restates, in close but not exact wording, the definition Congress wrote into law in 1976. Two invented sources, field notes from a harbor town's festival and a newcomer's first week in an invented country, let students find every component in action.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Name and define the major components of culture: symbols, language, values, beliefs, norms and material culture
Tell folkways, mores, laws and taboos apart by the sanctions that back them
Identify components of culture in historical definitions, a federal definition and descriptions of community life
Distinguish material from nonmaterial culture and explain how one object can carry both
Compare older and current definitions of culture, separating lasting ideas from outdated ones
Prior Knowledge Required
Students should already be comfortable with:
The sociological perspective D2.Soc.1.9-12
Social context as the external forces that shape behavior D2.Soc.2.9-12
"A visitor from far away spends one day at our school. List five things they would need to learn to fit in. Then circle the ones they could see, and underline the ones someone would have to explain."
Collect answers on the board in two columns: things a visitor can see (objects, clothing, signs) and things that must be learned (words, rules, what people care about). The first column is material culture; the second holds the nonmaterial components. Today students name each component precisely.
Direct Instruction20 minutes
Six components of culture (definitions and examples written for this page)
Component
What it is
Everyday example
Symbols
Anything that carries a meaning the group shares: an image, a color, a gesture, an object
A flag, a school mascot, a raised hand in class
Language
A system of words, signs and writing for sharing meaning; it also carries the group's categories
A family's nicknames, a sport's special vocabulary, sign language
Values
Shared ideas about what is good, right or important
Fairness, hard work, loyalty to family
Beliefs
Specific ideas people hold to be true, religious, scientific or folk
That a charm brings luck, that exercise protects health
Norms
Shared expectations for behavior, backed by sanctions (rewards and penalties)
Folkways (lining up), mores (not stealing), laws (speed limits), taboos (the strongest prohibitions)
Material culture
The physical objects a group makes and uses
Tools, buildings, clothing, phones, recipes written in a book
Kinds of norms. William Graham Sumner, a Yale sociologist, gave American social science the words folkways and mores in his book Folkways (1906). Folkways are everyday customs; breaking one brings a look, a joke or teasing (an informal sanction). Mores (pronounced MOR-ays) are norms a group sees as moral; breaking one brings anger or exclusion. Laws are norms written down and enforced by an authority with formal sanctions such as fines. A taboo is a prohibition so strong that the act is hardly thinkable.
Read Source 1. Edward B. Tylor (1832-1917) published Primitive Culture in London in 1871; its first chapter opens with one of the first definitions of culture in the modern sense. Dated language: Tylor uses "Civilization" as another word for culture and "man" for people, and he describes cultures as "grades" or "stages," an idea later anthropologists rejected; the book's title uses "primitive" in the same outdated sense.
1Culture or Civilization, taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. The condition of culture among the various societies of mankind, in so far as it is capable of being investigated on general principles, is a subject apt for the study of laws of human thought and action. On the one hand, the uniformity which so largely pervades civilization may be ascribed, in great measure, to the uniform action of uniform causes: while on the other hand its various grades may be regarded as stages of development or evolution, each the outcome of previous history, and about to do its proper part in shaping the history of the future. [...]
[...]
2A first step in the study of civilization is to dissect it into details, and to classify these in their proper groups. Thus, in examining weapons, they are to be classed under spear, club, sling, bow and arrow, and so forth; among textile arts are to be ranged matting, netting, and several grades of making and weaving threads; myths are divided under such headings as myths of sunrise and sunset, eclipse-myths, earthquake-myths, local myths which account for the names of places by some fanciful tale, eponymic myths which account for the parentage of a tribe by turning its name into the name of an imaginary ancestor; under rites and ceremonies occur such practices as the various kinds of sacrifice to the ghosts of the dead and to other spiritual beings, the turning to the east in worship, the purification of ceremonial or moral uncleanness by means of water or fire. Such are a few miscellaneous examples from a list of hundreds, and the ethnographer’s business is to classify such details with a view to making out their distribution in geography and history, and the relations which exist among them. [...] Just as the catalogue of all the species of plants and animals of a district represents its Flora and Fauna, so the list of all the items of the general life of a people represents that whole which we call its culture. [...]
Edward B. Tylor, Source 1: Tylor defines culture and proposes to classify it (1871) (1871; this edition 1920). Public domain (published 1920). Source text.
Next read Source 2. When he wrote Man and Culture (1923), Clark Wissler was curator-in-chief of the Division of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, as the book's title page says. Paragraph 1 is his Culture Scheme table, printed line by line. Then read Source 3, from the Library of Congress's American Folklife Center. Folklife means the traditional, everyday culture of groups such as families, workers or regions. The list in paragraph 2 repeats "drama, ritual" as printed on the Library's page. The page's wording is close to the law's but not exact: the law itself (20 U.S.C. 2102) has "literature, art" where the page repeats "drama, ritual."
1THE CULTURE SCHEME 1. Speech Languages, writing systems, etc. 2. Material Traits a. Food habits b. Shelter c. Transportation and travel d. Dress e. Utensils, tools, etc. f. Weapons g. Occupations and industries 3. Art. Carving, painting, drawing, music, etc. 4. Mythology and Scientific Knowledge. 5. Religious Practices a. Ritualistic forms b. Treatment of the sick c. Treatment of the dead 6. Family and Social Systems a. The forms of marriage b. Methods of reckoning relationship c. Inheritance d. Social control e. Sports and games 7. Property a. Real and personal b. Standards of value and exchange c. Trade 8. Government a. Political forms b. Judicial and legal procedures 9. War
[...]
2In the first place, students of cultures find that the same general outline will fit all of them; thus, we say the facts of culture may be comprehended under nine heads as in the accompanying table; viz., Speech, Material Traits, Art, Mythology, Religion, Social Systems, Property, Government, and War. This outline can be greatly elaborated, if the reader gives his constructive imagination full play. It is, however, full enough for our purposes.
3Now, if we take up our own culture and fit the details into this scheme, we see how readily they fall under these heads. So do the old cultures of Rome, Greece, etc. But these and our own are so intimately connected in origin that we should suspect the pattern of one to fit all. [...]
[...]
4[...] However, the present value of this concept consists in its emphasis on the fundamental similarities between cultures, whereas we are apt to overstress the objective differences. It is this fundamental similarity which we express by the term pattern, or skeleton of culture. [...]
5Now we have, as it were, set up a few categories which, taken together, seem to cover the entire range of culture content. Thus, under speech we may include language, sign-talk, gesture, and all forms of writing, and so far as we now see, something under this category will be found in every culture. Yet, the several tribal cultures will differ in the kinds and number of trait-complexes falling under this head. If we turn to art, the facts are similar, and so on through the series. Nor need we trouble ourselves with the question as to whether culture was always laid out in this way, for that would lead us off into a search for other patterns, a problem to come later. Moreover, the pattern we have sketched here is the human pattern, the justification for that term resting upon usage, for by man is usually meant a mammal that possesses a culture conforming to this pattern.
Clark Wissler, Source 2: Wissler's "universal pattern" of culture (1923) (1923). Public domain (published 1923). Source text.
1When Congress created the American Folklife Center in 1976, it had to define folklife in order to write the law. Here is what the law says:
2American folklife is the traditional, expressive, shared culture of various groups in the United States: familial, ethnic, occupational, religious, and regional. Expressive culture includes a wide range of creative and symbolic forms, such as custom, belief, technical skill, language, drama, ritual, architecture, music, play, dance, drama, ritual, pageantry, and handicraft. Generally these expressions are learned orally, by imitation, or in performance, and are maintained or perpetuated without formal instruction or institutional direction.
[...]
3Initially, then, the desire to collect folklore and folksong derived largely from the fear that these aspects of cultural expression were disappearing -- a valid motive that continues to impel collectors. But folklorists no longer believe that folklore and folklife are cultural remnants from the past or that they exist only in isolated pockets of the country. Folklife is universal to human culture and dynamic. Particular traditions come to an end or are modified; particular events, objects, and forms of expression change and evolve, but the process continues by which traditional culture is created. All of us participate in folklife activities and expressions, and folklife is alive in all our many and diverse American communities.
American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Source 3: The Library of Congress on American folklife (2015). US government work (17 U.S.C. 105). Source text.
Components in an early definition: Source 1, paragraph 1
Which of the six components can you find in Tylor's list "knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom"?
Result: Knowledge and belief are beliefs; morals are close to values; law and custom are norms; art includes symbols and, as objects, material culture.
Using a scheme: Source 2, paragraph 1
Under which of Wissler's nine heads would a city bus, a funeral and a youth soccer league go?
Result: A bus goes under 2. Material Traits (c. Transportation and travel). A funeral goes under 5. Religious Practices (c. Treatment of the dead). A soccer league goes under 6. Family and Social Systems (e. Sports and games).
Telling norms apart (invented examples)
Classify each norm and its sanction: saying "excuse me" after bumping into someone; not stealing from a friend; an invented town curfew for drivers under 18.
Result: "Excuse me" is a folkway: forgetting it brings a frown. Not stealing from a friend is a more: breaking it can end the friendship. The curfew is a law: police can stop the driver and a court can fine the family. The sanction grows with the moral weight of the norm.
Components in a federal definition: Source 3, paragraph 2
Source 3's version of the 1976 definition lists "custom, belief, technical skill, language, drama, ritual, architecture, music, play, dance ... pageantry, and handicraft." Sort these into components.
Result: Custom is a norm; belief is a belief; language is language; architecture and handicraft are material culture, and technical skill is the knowledge needed to make them; drama, ritual, music, dance and pageantry use symbols to share meaning.
Material and nonmaterial culture in one object
A smartphone sits on a dinner table. Find material and nonmaterial culture in the scene.
Result: The phone is material culture. A family rule that phones stay off at dinner is a norm, the value behind it might be time together, and the emoji on its screen are symbols. One object can carry several components at once.
Close the segment: Which component of culture is easiest for an outsider to see, and which is hardest? Students often say material culture is easiest and values hardest, because values must be inferred from what people do and say.
Guided Practice15 minutes
Read Source 4 together. These are invented field notes about an invented town. Diagram 1 shows the same six components in another invented setting, a high school.
1Invented field notes, written for this page. Every April, the invented harbor town of Port Alder holds Launch Day, when its rowing and fishing crews put their boats in the water for the season. A student researcher spent the day there and wrote these notes.
2Before dawn, crews gather at the slipway. Each boat flies a small blue flag with a white anchor, the town's emblem; the same anchor is painted on the harbor wall and engraved on the race trophy. Older crew members call the first hour of the day "the slack," a word the younger visitors did not know, and greet one another with "Fair tide."
3The oldest crew member in town is asked to push the first boat into the water. Several people told me this honors the people who kept the harbor working through hard years. Many families say that the first boat out brings luck to the whole season.
4Some rules are light and some are serious. Visitors who wear red are teased, because red is the color of the rival town across the bay. Taking another crew's oars without asking is treated as theft: a man who did it years ago is still not welcome on the docks. A town law requires everyone in a boat to wear a life jacket, and the harbor master fines anyone who does not.
5The boats are wooden, built in a shed by the harbor with hand tools that families pass down. In recent years, crews have also started to log their race times with a phone app.
SVHS (invented scenario), Source 4: Launch Day in Port Alder (invented field notes) (2026). Original passage written for this page.
Inventory. In pairs, list every component of culture you can find in Source 4, with its paragraph number.
Norms and sanctions. Paragraph 4 describes three rules. Rank them from lightest to most serious and name the sanction each carries.
Values from behavior. Which value can you infer from paragraph 3, and what evidence supports it?
Change. Which detail in Source 4 shows the town's culture changing, and does the change alter its values?
Independent Practice15 minutes
Students read Source 5 on their own and use all five sources for the quiz and homework. Source 5 is an invented case set in an invented country, so it describes no real people.
1Invented case, written for this page. Lena, an exchange student, spends her first week with a host family in the invented country of Varenna.
2On her first morning, Lena gives her host father a thumbs-up to say the breakfast is good. He looks hurt: in Varenna, the gesture means "go away." Her host sister explains that people there show thanks by touching the right hand to the heart.
3At dinner, the oldest person at the table is always served first and starts eating before anyone else. When Lena reaches for the bread early, her host mother gently moves the basket toward the grandmother. Nobody scolds Lena, but she notices the silence.
4Lena learns the word "tavi," which means both "friend" and "neighbor." Her host sister says people in her town expect neighbors to help with harvests and repairs without being asked.
5In the hallway, the family keeps a painted tea set that belonged to a great-grandmother. It is used only when a baby is born or a couple marries. By Friday, Lena takes her shoes off at the door without being reminded.
SVHS (invented scenario), Source 5: A newcomer's first week in Varenna (invented case) (2026). Original passage written for this page.
Task: make a chart with the headings Detail, Component, and How Lena learned it. Fill one row for each of paragraphs 2-5 of Source 5.
Closure5-10 minutes
Exit ticket: "Name the six components of culture. Give one example of each from school life or from Sources 4 and 5, and mark the one that would be hardest for a visitor to notice."
Teacher notes. (1) Sources 1 and 2 use the language of their time: "primitive," "civilization," "tribal" and "man" for people, and Tylor's idea of cultures as "grades" or "stages." Present these as historical terms. Wissler's passage on Aboriginal Australians, written in the dismissive terms of 1923 even as he argued that their culture was complex, is left out. (2) When students give examples from real communities, keep them at the level of groups and customs, described without ranking. A custom is different, not better or worse. (3) Religion appears here only as a part of culture that sociologists describe; the lesson takes no position on any belief. (4) Sources 4 and 5 are invented, and so are the school in Diagram 1 and the curfew example.
Differentiation Strategies
For Struggling Students
Give the six-component table as a card each student keeps on the desk during the sources
Pre-mark Source 4 with one highlighted detail per paragraph to label
Provide the frame: "The detail ___ is an example of ___ because ___."
For Advanced Students
Find a component in the six-part list that none of Wissler's nine heads names directly, and propose where he might have placed it
Rewrite Tylor's definition in present-day language without losing any of its parts
Explain why Source 3's version of the 1976 definition says folklife is maintained "without formal instruction or institutional direction," and name a part of culture that is taught formally
Assessment Guidance
What to Look For
Strong answers name the component precisely, point to a specific detail, and explain why the detail fits: for norms, the sanction; for values, the behavior that reveals them; for symbols, the shared meaning. Watch for students who treat values and norms as the same thing, who call every object a symbol, or who rank one group's customs above another's.
02
Classroom Activities
3 Activities
1
Component Sort: Sixteen Cards
15 minGroups of 3-4
Each group sorts 16 cards into the six components of culture. For every norm, the group also writes its type (folkway, more, law or taboo) and the sanction that backs it. Groups set aside any card that fits two components and explain why.
The 16 Cards
A team mascot
Slang words used mostly by one generation
A wedding ring
The idea that hard work should be rewarded
A rule against cheating on tests
A posted speed limit
Saying "bless you" after someone sneezes
A belief that a rabbit's foot brings luck
A family recipe book
Sign language
Holding a door for the person behind you
A smartphone
The idea that everyone deserves a fair trial
A national anthem
The belief that germs cause disease
A rule in some faiths against eating certain foods
Suggested Key
Symbols: 1, 14 (and 3). Language: 2, 10. Values: 4, 13. Beliefs: 8, 15. Norms: 5 (more, a failing grade or worse), 6 (law, a fine), 7 and 11 (folkways, a look or a comment), 16 (taboo for members, strong disapproval). Material culture: 9, 12 (and 3). Card 3 is both an object and a symbol of marriage.
Debrief Questions
Which cards could move to another component if you changed the setting?
Which values stand behind cards 5 and 6?
Is a recipe material or nonmaterial culture: the book, or the knowledge in it?
2
Three Lists, One Culture
20 minGroups of 3, one list per member, then together
Each member becomes the expert on one source list: Tylor's six named items (Source 1, paragraph 1), Wissler's nine heads (Source 2, paragraph 1) or the 1976 folklife list (Source 3, paragraph 2). The group compares the three with the six-component table and then tests the lists on Source 4.
Three Lists Organizer
Which of the six components does your list name, in its own words?
Which component does it leave out or hide inside another heading?
What does your list include that the six-component table does not?
Use all three lists to sort five details from Source 4. Which list fits the town best, and why?
Teacher Note
There is no single right ranking of the lists. Push groups to notice that each list was built for a purpose: Tylor to found a science, Wissler to compare whole cultures, and the 1976 law to say what a federal center would collect.
3
Design a Culture Kit on Paper
15 minPairs
Pairs design, on paper only, a museum "culture kit" of 8 items that would teach a visitor about one community: an invented one or their own school. The kit must include at least one item for each of the six components. Another pair then reads the kit and labels each item's component.
Culture Kit Planning Sheet
The community and why you chose it
Eight items, each with a one-sentence label a visitor would read
For each item, the component it shows and, for norms, the sanction
One part of the culture your kit cannot show, and why
Teacher Note
Kits describe groups, never individual classmates. If a pair chooses a real community, the labels describe customs without ranking them.
Variation
Limit the kit to objects only. Pairs must choose objects that also point to symbols, language, values, beliefs and norms, for example a rule book or a team banner.
03
Diagrams & Visual Aids
1 diagrams
Diagram 1: The Six Components of Culture in an Invented High School
Invented example. The five nonmaterial components are on the left and objects on the right. The line joins the belief about the seniors' bench to the bench itself: one object can carry a belief, a symbol and a norm at once.
04
Homework Assignment
~30 min
Homework: Finding the Components of Culture
Directions: Part 1 uses Sources 1, 2 and 3. Quote every source you use with its paragraph number. Part 2 asks you to plan and write on paper only: do not interview or observe anyone for this homework.
Part 1: Reading the Sources (Problems 1-3)
Tylor's definition in Source 1, paragraph 1 names six items. Sort them into material and nonmaterial culture, explaining any item that could go either way. Then find two examples of material culture in paragraph 2.
Place each of these five items under one of Wissler's nine heads in Source 2, paragraph 1: a graduation ceremony, a family recipe, a smartphone, a city council, a sports team's mascot. Name one item from present-day life that does not fit any head well, and propose a tenth head for it.
Source 3, paragraph 2 says folklife belongs to groups that are "familial, ethnic, occupational, religious, and regional." Describe one tradition of an occupational group and one of a regional group (from your knowledge or invented, described neutrally), and name the component of culture each shows.
Part 2: Applying and Planning (Problems 4-6)
Plan, on paper only, a culture inventory of a school club or team, without naming any person. List what you would look for under each of the six components, and say which components you could observe and which you would have to ask about.
Write one new example each of a folkway, a more, a law and a taboo, from any setting other than the sources. For each, name the sanction and explain how it shows the norm's weight.
Choose one component, such as greetings or meals. Explain how two cultures can share the component while differing in its form, and say under which of Wissler's heads in Source 2, paragraph 1 you would place it.
Rubric
Criterion
Full Credit (2 pts)
Partial Credit (1 pt)
No Credit (0 pts)
Components
Each example is matched to the correct component, with norms typed by sanction
One or two mismatches
Components confused
Evidence
Quotations with source and paragraph numbers support each claim
One claim unsupported
No evidence
Explanation
Explains why each example fits, including the material and nonmaterial distinction
Explanations brief or partly circular
No explanation
Fairness
Groups described neutrally; no ranking of customs; plans stay on paper
Mostly neutral, with one loaded word
Ranks or stereotypes a group
05
Quiz: 20 Questions
Interactive, with answers
Instructions
Sources 1, 2 and 3 are printed in Direct Instruction, Source 4 in Guided Practice and Source 5 in Independent Practice. Source 1 is used in Questions 1-4, 15 and 20; Source 2 in Questions 5-7, 15 and 19; Source 3 in Questions 8, 9, 16 and 20; Source 4 in Questions 10-12 and 17; and Source 5 in Questions 13, 14 and 18. Questions 1-14 are multiple choice; 15-20 are short answer.
Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which of these does Tylor's definition in Source 1, paragraph 1 name as part of culture?
Answer: B
Tylor lists "knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom." Morals are close to what sociologists now call values. A, C and D are not learned "as a member of society": climate is physical geography, and skin color and inborn talent are inherited, which is the opposite of how Tylor says culture is gained.
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
What does Tylor's phrase "acquired by man as a member of society" in Source 1, paragraph 1 tell you about culture?
Answer: C
"Acquired ... as a member of society" means culture is learned from the group a person lives in. A confuses learning with biological inheritance. B misreads the passage: Tylor applies the definition to "the various societies of mankind." D ignores "member of society": culture is shared, not private.
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 1, paragraph 2, what does Tylor compare a list of all the items of a people's life to?
Answer: A
"Just as the catalogue of all the species of plants and animals of a district represents its Flora and Fauna, so the list of all the items of the general life of a people represents that whole which we call its culture." B, C and D are not in the source; the catalogue of species is Tylor's model for listing culture.
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 1, paragraph 2, what is "a first step in the study of civilization"?
Answer: B
Tylor writes that the first step is "to dissect it into details, and to classify these in their proper groups," for example weapons, textile arts, myths and rites. A names an idea from his first paragraph ("grades," "stages"), not the first step. C and D are not in the source.
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Under which of Wissler's nine heads in Source 2, paragraph 1 is "Social control" listed?
Answer: D
The Culture Scheme lists "d. Social control" under "6. Family and Social Systems," with marriage, kinship, inheritance and sports. Social control is how a group enforces its norms. A is a reasonable guess, since "Judicial and legal procedures" sit under Government, but it is not where Wissler put social control. B and C list other items.
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 2, paragraph 4, what is the main value of Wissler's idea of a universal pattern?
Answer: B
Its value is "its emphasis on the fundamental similarities between cultures, whereas we are apt to overstress the objective differences." A reverses the claim: the pattern fits every culture. C and D are not in the source.
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 2, paragraph 5, what does Wissler include under speech besides spoken language?
Answer: D
"Under speech we may include language, sign-talk, gesture, and all forms of writing." Language is wider than speech. A confuses speech with his separate head of Art. B belongs under Mythology and Scientific Knowledge, and C under Government.
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 3, paragraph 2, how are the expressions of folklife generally learned?
Answer: A
The definition says they "are learned orally, by imitation, or in performance, and are maintained or perpetuated without formal instruction or institutional direction." B, C and D each describe the formal instruction or institutional direction the definition rules out.
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 3, paragraph 3, what do folklorists no longer believe?
Answer: C
"Folklorists no longer believe that folklore and folklife are cultural remnants from the past or that they exist only in isolated pockets of the country." A and B are what they now do believe: folklife is "dynamic" and "All of us participate." D contradicts "a valid motive that continues to impel collectors."
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 4, paragraph 2, the blue flag with a white anchor is an example of which component of culture?
Answer: C
The anchor is "the town's emblem": it carries a shared meaning and appears on the flags, the harbor wall and the trophy. A, B and D are kinds of norms, which are expectations for behavior, not images; the flag may stand for a value such as pride in the harbor, but the flag itself is a symbol.
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 4, paragraph 4, the rule against taking another crew's oars is which kind of norm?
Answer: D
It "is treated as theft," and the man who broke it "is still not welcome on the docks": a norm with moral weight, backed by exclusion, is a more. A fits the teasing over red clothing, a folkway. B confuses it with the life-jacket law, the rule the harbor master enforces with fines. C overstates it: someone did break the rule.
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which detail from Source 4 is an example of material culture?
Answer: B
Paragraph 5 says the wooden boats are built "with hand tools that families pass down": physical objects a group makes and uses. A is language, C is a belief, and D is the informal sanction for a folkway.
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 5, paragraph 3, what does serving the oldest person first most likely show about the host family's culture?
Answer: A
The oldest person "is always served first," and the family quietly corrects Lena: the custom points to a shared value, respect for age, backed by a folkway. B is wrong because no authority enforces it; the only sanction is silence. C and D are not in the source.
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
What does the thumbs-up in Source 5, paragraph 2 show about symbols?
Answer: C
The same gesture means praise to Lena and "go away" in Varenna: a symbol's meaning is learned and shared inside a group, not built into the gesture. A is what Lena assumed and what the scene disproves. B is wrong because the gesture is not written. D confuses a gesture with an object.
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
Compare Tylor's list (Source 1, paragraph 1) with Wissler's nine heads (Source 2, paragraph 1). Name two components of culture both include and one that Wissler names but Tylor's definition does not, quoting each source.
Model answer: Both include beliefs: Tylor names "knowledge, belief," and Wissler names "Mythology and Scientific Knowledge" and "Religious Practices." Both include norms: Tylor names "law, custom," and Wissler names "Social control" and "Judicial and legal procedures." Wissler names language ("Speech: Languages, writing systems") and material culture ("Material Traits"), which Tylor's definition does not list, although his second paragraph gives material examples such as weapons. Rubric: 1 point for each shared component with quotes; 1 point for the difference.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
Source 3, paragraph 2 gives the Library's version of the 1976 definition of folklife. Identify three different components of culture in its list, and give a present-day example of each from any community, described neutrally.
Model answer (one of many): "Language": a regional way of saying "you all." "Custom," a norm: a family's habit of eating together on Sundays. "Handicraft," material culture: quilts made from family clothing. Other accepted pairs: "belief" (a folk belief about weather), "music" or "dance" (symbols shared at a festival), "architecture" (a regional style of porch). Rubric: 1 point for each component correctly named with a fitting, neutral example.
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
Using Source 4, identify one example each of language, a value, a belief and a law, and explain in a sentence why each detail fits that component.
Model answer: Language: "the slack" and "Fair tide" (paragraph 2) are words and a greeting only insiders know. Value: honoring "the people who kept the harbor working through hard years" (paragraph 3) shows that the town prizes respect for elders and persistence. Belief: "the first boat out brings luck to the whole season" (paragraph 3) is an idea held to be true. Law: the town law requiring life jackets, enforced by fines (paragraph 4), is a written norm with a formal sanction. Rubric: 1 point for each correct example with a reason.
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
Read Source 5, paragraphs 4 and 5. Identify the component of culture shown by "tavi," by the tea set and by taking shoes off at the door, and explain how the tea set is both material and nonmaterial culture.
Model answer: "Tavi" is language; because one word means both "friend" and "neighbor," it also reflects a value of helping neighbors. The tea set is material culture, an object. Taking shoes off is a folkway that Lena learned by imitation. The tea set is also nonmaterial: it is used "only when a baby is born or a couple marries," so it has become a symbol of family continuity, and the rule about when to use it is a norm. Rubric: 1 point for each component; 1 point for the material and nonmaterial explanation.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
Wissler lists "Occupations and industries" under Material Traits (Source 2, paragraph 1). Explain the difference between material and nonmaterial culture, and argue whether an occupation such as fishing is mainly material or nonmaterial culture.
Model answer: Material culture is physical objects a group makes and uses; nonmaterial culture is its symbols, language, values, beliefs and norms. Fishing uses material culture (boats, nets, hooks), which may be why Wissler placed occupations with food, shelter and tools. But an occupation is also knowledge, skill, words and rules about who may fish where, all nonmaterial. A strong answer takes a side and notes that the occupation joins both. Rubric: 1 point for the distinction; 1 point for an argument with examples; 1 point for acknowledging the other side.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
Source 1, paragraph 1 says culture's "various grades may be regarded as stages of development or evolution." Explain what this outdated idea assumes, and how Source 3, paragraph 3 describes folklife differently.
Model answer: Tylor assumes cultures can be placed on one ladder from lower to higher stages, so some peoples' ways of life are treated as earlier or lesser versions of others. Source 3 says folklife is not a set of "cultural remnants from the past"; it is "universal to human culture and dynamic," and "All of us participate." Every group has a full culture that keeps changing, which is not the same as climbing toward one end point. Rubric: 1 point for Tylor's assumption; 1 point for the quotation from Source 3; 1 point for the contrast.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
06
Frequently Asked Questions
10 Questions
What does D2.Soc.6.9-12 mean?
D2.Soc.6.9-12 asks high school students to identify the major components of culture. It is the first indicator in the C3 sociology companion's group on social structure: culture, institutions and society (Appendix C).
What are the major components of culture?
Many sociology courses use six: symbols, language, values, beliefs, norms and material culture. Some lists combine values and beliefs or add technology and knowledge as separate items; the indicator does not fix one official list.
What is the difference between values and norms?
Values are ideas about what is good or important; norms are expectations for what people should do. A value such as honesty stands behind a norm such as not cheating on tests.
What is the difference between folkways and mores?
Both are norms, but they differ in weight. Breaking a folkway, such as forgetting to say thank you, brings a mild reaction; breaking a more, such as stealing from a friend, brings anger or exclusion. William Graham Sumner introduced both terms in 1906.
Is a law part of culture?
Yes. Laws are norms that a group writes down and enforces with formal sanctions such as fines. Tylor's 1871 definition of culture names law directly.
What is material culture?
Material culture is the physical objects a group makes and uses, such as tools, buildings, clothing and phones. Objects often carry nonmaterial culture too: a ring is an object and a symbol of marriage.
Why does this lesson use definitions from 1871 and 1923?
They are among the first attempts to say what culture contains, and their lists still shape how courses teach it. Students also learn to spot what has changed: these authors ranked cultures in ways scholars no longer accept.
Is D2.Soc.6.9-12 taught in sociology or anthropology?
In high school, it is usually taught in a sociology course. The idea of culture comes largely from anthropology, which is why the lesson reads two early anthropologists alongside the Library of Congress.
How can students study culture without stereotyping?
Describe customs as the shared patterns of a group, not traits of every member, and avoid words that rank one way of life above another. The invented sources on this page let students practice without describing any real group.
How does D2.Soc.6.9-12 connect to other indicators?
It names the parts of culture that D2.Soc.7.9-12 asks students to trace into individual lives, and it sits beside D2.Soc.8.9-12 on social institutions. D2.Soc.10.9-12 later asks how cultures change.
07
Related Standards
6 standards
These standards connect to D2.Soc.6.9-12: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.
Before this lesson
D2.Soc.1.9-12Prerequisite
Explain the sociological perspective and how it differs from other social sciences
Standard text: National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History (Silver Spring, MD: NCSS, 2013). NCSS was not involved in the production of this lesson and does not endorse it.
