Concept of Culture

What is Culture?Principle of HolismAssumptions of Culture Cultural Relativism Cultural Universals

What is Culture?

Culture:

Socially transmitted knowledge shared by some group of people▪ So, there is an American, a Japanese etc. culture

Everything that people have, think, and do as members of society▪ So, it is both material and non-material (e.g. values)

The non-biological means of human adaptation

All cultures are made up of material objects, ideas, values and attitudes and patterned ways of behaving

Franz Boas (Father of American Anthropology)

Edward Tylor

In 1873, Edward Tylor, sometimes called the “Father of Anthropology" introduced the concept of culture as an explanation of the differences among human societies

Tylor defined culture as:

That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities acquired by man as a member of society

He defined anthropology as the study of culture

Believed in a Unilineal Evolution of Culture

Hunter-Gatherers -> Savagery -> Barbarism -> Civilization

Unilineal Evolution

19th Century Concept of Cultural Evolution The process by which new cultural forms emerge out

of older ones

Each Society is believed to PROGRESS through the same stages of development, from SAVAGERY to BARBARISM to CIVILIZATION

▪ Only Europeans had reached civilization

E.g. See Lewis Henry Morgan’s idea that

the “tribes of mankind can be classified,

according to the degree of their

relative PROGRESS”

5

Civilization Barbarism

Savagery

Assumptions of Culture

Culture is based on symbols (Symbolic Interactionism)

Symbol = something verbal or nonverbal within a culture that comes to stand for something else

Language is a system of symbols: the primary means by which culture is transmitted

from one generation to another

language is a symbolic replacement for meanings

E.g. wedding rings, crucifixes, Red Dragon, golden arches, school books

Assumptions of Culture – Just copy the main headings

Culture is learned We learn what the symbols are for from our parents, surroundings, &

friends through enculturation.

Enculturation is the process by which a society's culture is transmitted from generation to another

Everyone acquires the particular culture they are raised in

Children learn about their culture through observation of their parents, teachers, friends, TV

We learn correct value systems and appropriate modes of behavior

Culture can be seen as a plan or recipe

Humans are the learning animals beyond all others. We have more to learn, take longer, and learn it in more complex ways.

E.g. How did you learn to speak your first/native language? What other things have you learned without being aware of it?

Assumptions of Culture Culture is Shared In order to be part of a culture, we share the same meanings for symbols;

it's a way of thinking and interacting

This results in a certain amount of regularity, predictability

people can reasonably predict how others will behave

▪ E.g. They will feel/look awkward if you noisily slurp your noodles. In Japan, they will feel/look awkward if you do not.

BUT-culture does not determine behavior, does not imply we lack free will

▪ E.g. We get confused when someone doesn't act predictably-murder, violence, dressing differently.

There is variability in the sharing of culture:

Age variation-generation gaps

Sex variation-males and females are different

Subcultures-a system of values and beliefs that are different from main stream. Their success varies from society to society

▪ E.g. Amish-active isolation, other religious groups

Assumptions of Culture

Culture is Integrated All aspects of culture function as an inter-related

whole

If one part of a culture changes it tends to affect another part E.g. Most American women in the 1950s expected to

have domestic careers as homemakers and mothers; today college women expect to get jobs when the graduate.

As women enter the work force their attitudes toward marriage, family, and children change. Changes include later marriages, increased divorce rates, and daycares.

Also related to economic changes and families not being able to make it on one income.

Assumptions of Culture Culture is Adaptive Adaptation-the way living populations relate to their environment so they can survive

and reproduce.

Humans are the only animals that mainly depend on their culture for survival

Exploitation of marginal environments like arctic or desert would not be possible without (material) culture

Most other animals use anatomical or physiological mechanisms as a means to survive

Animals such as dogs, large cats get meat by using teeth, etc. while humans use weapons, specialization, organization

Not all cultural behaviors are adaptive

Some are neutral & some are maladaptive

E.g. poaching endangered animals to support cultural material such as jewelry can be seen as maladaptive, or automobiles are great but pollute environment

Avenues for Cultural Adaptation

Technological-material culture creates a buffer between humans and their environments-tools, clothes

Organizational Adaptation -ordering of groups-kinship, family, marriage

Ideological Adaptation -beliefs such as religion

Assumptions of Culture

Cultures are Dynamic They are ever-changing, non-static; this is referred to as cultural evolution

Many cultures today are very different from what they were years ago

some aspects of culture change little but can have larger effect

E.g. relationship between people and the sun mediated by culture

▪ In early 20th century people stayed out of sun, then became "sun-worshippers", now with threat of cancer…change again

Culture change can come from outside (domination of other culture) or inside (women entering work force)

American Indian cultures are very different from what they were 200-300 years ago-due to outside forces

Culture Change by invention and diffusion

Invention (internal)-new thing or idea

Diffusion (external)-spreading of cultural elements from one culture to another

Gestures

Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

What are some of the common gestures in our society? What do they mean? What do they

symbolize?

Can you think of any gestures in a different culture that mean something completely different to our own?

Gestures

Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Gestures

Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Cultural Universals

Despite many differences, there are some underlying similarities with cultures

Can you think of what they are?

Some Cultural Universals: Art

Bodily Adornment

Cooking

Education

Family

Incest Taboos

Language

Music

Specific practices for each of these is guided by a social convention: a moral contract which encourages and reinforces consensus on particular practices and ideas held within a community. Community members act in accordance with expectations set for them by the accepted convention.

Human Diversity

So… what makes our world culture what it is today? – HUMAN DIVERSITY!

Kluckhohn: “Every human is like all other humans, some other humans, and no other human.” - American Anthropologist

The major objective of cultural anthropology is to investigate the validity of this statement.

So with Human Diversity in mind…

Art

Extreme Body Modification

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z3kNnRqqQg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o-SVDiGVHk&index=3&list=PLWUA3UottU6n5mlEUMT5mCeu_jVx4P_n8

http://list25.com/25-crazy-rites-of-passage/

Bodily Adornment: Tattooing

tattooed chief at Taiohae, Nukuhivadrawing, 19th century Tattooing comb, The

plate of the comb is made of bone and turtle shell.Samoan Islands, 19th century

Portrait of Tawhaiao Potatau Whero, a Maori chief, New Zealand, 19th century

http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/exhibits/online_exhibits/body_modification/bodmodintro.shtml

Bodily Adornment: Piercing

Male with pierced ear,Iraq, 9th century B.C

A woman with pierced ears and stretched lobes, Borneo, 1988

http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/exhibits/online_exhibits/body_modification/bodmodintro.shtml

Male with multiple ear piercings,suburban Philadelphia, 1998

Bodily Adornment: Painting

woman with face painting Papua, New Guinea, 1982Decorated for an annual festival

Need I say more?http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/exhibits/online_exhibits/body_modification/bodmodintro.shtml

Bodily Adornment: Neck Rings

Ndebele woman, S. Africa

The Pa Dong Village of Nai Soi, Thailand

Overall? Culture is Social

Living in social groups that transmit culture is the adaptive strategy of humans.

All humans have learned transmitted skills for acquiring food called subsistence techniques.