Concept of Culture

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Concept of Culture

• What is Culture?
• Holism
• Assumptions of Culture
• Cultural Relativism
• Cultural Universals

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What is Culture?

• Culture
• socially transmitted knowledge shared by some
  group of people.
• everything that people have, think, and do as
  members of society.
• the nonbiological means of human adaptation.
• all cultures are made up of material objects,
  ideas, values and attitudes and patterned ways of
  behaving.
• 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.

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Holism

• The philosophical view that no complex entity can
  be considered to be only the sum of its parts as
  a principle of anthropology, the assumption that
  any given aspect of human life is to be studied
  with an eye to its relation to other aspects of
  human life.
• Anthropological concept denoting a "totalizing,
  all-encompassing perspective".
• A holistic analysis will take the social whole
  into consideration - the context - that surrounds
  the phenomena. In the history of anthropology,
  holism is associated in part with a
  methodological ideal (to see as many connections
  as possible), in part with a theoretical ideal in
  structural functionalism, where social phenomena
  a priori were assumed to "maintain the whole".
• As a methodological ideal, holism implies i.e.
  that one does not permit oneself to believe that
  our own established institutional boundaries
  (e.g. between politics, sexuality, religion,
  economics) necessarily may be found also in
  foreign societies. One of the greatest advances
  of structural functionalism was their detailed
  documentation of how e.g. religion, economy and
  politics were interconnected. Kinship was the
  "glue" that held these spheres together.

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Assumptions of Culture

• Culture is based on symbols
• Symbol-something verbal or nonverbal within a
  culture that comes to stand for something else.
• Language is most important symbol.
• primary means by which culture is transmitted
  from one generation to another.
• language is a symbolic replacement for meanings.
• i.e. symbols-wedding rings, crucifixes, Red
  Dragon.

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Assumptions of Culture

• Culture is learned
• We learn what the symbols are for, not born with
  cultures we learn it from our parents,
  surroundings, friends through enculturation.
• enculturation is the process by which a society's
  culture is transmitted from generation to
  another.
• acquiring culture after we are born, everyone
  acquires culture-this is enculturation.
• Children learn about their culture through
  observation of their parents, teachers, friends,
  TV.
• 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.
• i.e. how did you learn to speak English or other
  native language? What other things have you
  learned without being conscious of it?

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Assumptions of Culture

• Culture is Shared
• We share the same meanings for symbols to be a
  part of a culture, it's a way of thinking and
  interacting.
• results in a certain amount of regularity,
  predictability.
• people can predict how others will behave.
• BUT-culture does not determine behavior, does not
  imply we lack free will.
• i.e. We get confused when someone doesn't act
  predictably-murder, violence, dressing
  differently.
• There is variability in the sharing of culture.
• a. age variation-generation gaps.
• b. sex variation-males and females are different.
• i.e. Women in Citidel-confusion.
• c. subcultures-a system of values and beliefs
  that are different from main stream. There succes
  varies from society to society.
• i.e. Amish-active isolation, other religious
  groups.

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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.
• i.e. 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.

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Assumptions of Culture

• Culture is Adaptive
• Adaptation-the way living pops 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 culture.
• Most other animal 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.
• Not all cultural behaviors are adaptive.
• some are neutral some are maladaptive.
• i.e. 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 buffers between humans and
  their environments-tools, clothes.
• Organizational-ordering of groups-kinship,
  family, marriage.
• Ideological-beliefs such as religion.

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Assumptions of Culture

• Cultures are Dynamic
• They are ever-changing, non-static, 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.
• relationship between people and the sun mediated
  by culture.
• i.e. In early 20th century people stayed out of
  sun, then became "sunworshippers", 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.

10
Cultural Relativism

• Definition-any part of a culture must be viewed
  from within its cultural context-not that of the
  observer.
• First formulated by Franz Boas at the turn of the
  century-no culture should be judged by the
  standars of another.
• Related to ethnocentrism-the supposed superiority
  of one's own group.
• i.e. Nazi Germany would be a good example of
  ethnocentrism, or not practicing cultural
  relativism.
• Anthros are as guilty of this as other people,
  but since they take the responsibility for
  studying many different cultures, they make
  efforts not to do this.
• A specific example of this would be studies of
  the Eskimo. Traditionally, if an elderly member
  was unable to keep up with the group they were
  left in the cold to die. We would think it is
  cruel and heartless, but in the eyes of the
  Eskimo it is seen as someone unable to support
  themselves and a detriment to the whole group.

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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

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Art
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Bodily Adornment Piercing
Male with pierced ear,Iraq, 9th century B.C
A woman with pierced ears and stretched lobes,
Borneo, 1988
Male with multiple ear piercings,suburban
Philadelphia, 1998
http//www.museum.upenn.edu/new/exhibits/online_ex
hibits/body_modification/bodmodintro.shtml
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Bodily Adornment Tattooing
tattooed chief at Taiohae, Nukuhivadrawing, 19th
century
Portrait of Tawhaiao Potatau Whero, a Maori
chief, New Zealand, 19th century
Tattooing comb, The plate of the comb is made of
bone and turtle shell.Samoan Islands, 19th
century
http//www.museum.upenn.edu/new/exhibits/online_ex
hibits/body_modification/bodmodintro.shtml
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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_ex
hibits/body_modification/bodmodintro.shtml
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Bodily Adornment Neck Rings
The Pa Dong Village of Nai Soi, Thailand
Ndebele woman, S. Africa