WHAT IS CULTURE?

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WHAT IS CULTURE?
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CULTURE

• is a key concept in anthropology. The term is now
  widely adopted by other social sciences and
  humanities. Despite its common usage in everyday
  reference the term culture as employed in
  anthropology does have a more specific meaning.

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CULTURE

• has been defined in various ways but most
  anthropologists would agree on the following
  definition

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• CULTURE is the customary behavior, beliefs,
  values and ideals that are passed on through the
  generations among members of a social group.
  Culture can be thought of as the total life way
  of a group encompassing its symbolic beliefs.

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The key ideas within the concept of culture are
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1) that culture is shared among a group.
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2) that culture is learned by members of a
social group not genetically inherited. The
process of learning ones culture is termed
enculturation.
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• 3) that culture is integrated, i.e. change in
  one aspect of a culture can bring change to other
  parts.

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• 4) that culture is adaptive, its ways changing
  in response to new circumstances and new
  influences. Within any culture there is more or
  less room for diversity and dissention.

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• In anthropology we are interested in studying
  cultural behavior and beliefs, i.e. we are
  interested in what people do and why they do it
  what people say and why they say it.

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• What we are NOT interested in doing is judging
  other peoples culture by our own cultural
  standards.

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• To judge others culture by our own standards
  would be termed ethnocentric.

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• We define ethnocentrism as the tendency to view
  ones own culture as superior and apply ones own
  cultural values in judging the behavior and
  beliefs of people from other cultures.