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Reading Comprehension Activity
Tiffani Tijerina
Created on May 15, 2023
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Reading Comprehension Activity
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This work by Tamara Powell and Tiffani Tijerina is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
Read the following paragraph and answer the questions. The reading is from OpenStax Introduction to Sociology.
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Cultural Universals
Although cultures vary, they also share common elements. Cultural universals are patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies. One example of a cultural universal is the family unit: every human society recognizes a family structure that regulates sexual reproduction and the care of children. Even so, how that family unit is defined and how it functions vary. In many Asian cultures, for example, family members from all generations commonly live together in one household. In these cultures, young adults continue to live in the extended household family structure until they marry and join their spouse’s household, or they may remain and raise their nuclear family within the extended family’s homestead. In the U.S., by contrast, individuals are expected to leave home and live independently for a period before forming a family unit that consists of parents and their offspring. Other cultural universals include customs like funeral rites, weddings, and celebrations of births. However, each culture may view and conduct the ceremonies quite differently. Anthropologist George Murdock first investigated the existence of cultural universals while studying systems of kinship around the world. Murdock found that cultural universals often revolve around basic human survival, such as finding food, clothing, and shelter, or around shared human experiences, such as birth and death or illness and healing. Through his research, Murdock identified other universals including language, the concept of personal names, and, interestingly, jokes. Humor seems to be a universal way to release tensions and create a sense of unity among people (Murdock, 1949). Sociologists consider humor necessary to human interaction because it helps individuals navigate otherwise tense situations.
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Reading Comprehension Questions
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Reading Comprehension Questions
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Reading Comprehension Questions
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Well done! Please continue with the module content or go back to start for review.
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This work by Tamara Powell and Tiffani Tijerina is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International