Part 5 Culture And Survival

1
Part 5 Culture And Survival

• The Challenge of Communicating, Raising Children,
  and Staying Alive

2
Part Outline

• Chapter 14 The Characteristics of Culture
• Chapter 15 Language and Communication
• Chapter 16 Social Identity, Personality, and
  Gender
• Chapter 17 Patterns of Subsistence
• Chapter 18 Economic Systems

3
Chapter 14

• The Characteristics of Culture

4
Chapter Outline

• What is culture?
• How is culture studied?
• Why do cultures exist?

5
Characteristics Of Culture

• Culture is shared.
• Culture is learned.
• Culture is based on symbols.
• Culture is integrated.

6
Culture Is Shared

• Culture cannot exist without society.
• There are no known human societies that do not
  exhibit culture.
• All is not uniform within a culture There is
  some difference between mens and womens roles
  in any human society.

7
Culture Is Learned

• All culture is learned rather than biologically
  inherited.
• The process of transmitting culture from one
  generation to the next is called enculturation.
• Through enculturation individuals learn the
  socially appropriate way to satisfy biologically
  determined needs.

8
Culture Is Based on Symbols

• Culture is transmitted through ideas, emotions,
  and desires expressed in language.
• Through language, humans transmit culture from
  one generation to another.
• Language makes it possible to learn from
  cumulative, shared experience.

9
Culture Is Integrated

• All aspects of a culture function as an
  integrated whole.
• A change in one part of a culture usually will
  affect other parts.
• A degree of harmony is necessary in any properly
  functioning culture, but complete harmony is not
  required.

10
Ethnic Groups of the Russian Federation
11
Describing a Culture Without Bias

• Anthropologists must
• Examine peoples notion of the way their society
  ought to function.
• Determine how people think they behave.
• Compare these with how people actually do behave.

12
The Barrel Model of Culture
13
Functions of Culture

• Provide for the production and distribution of
  goods and services necessary for life.
• Provide for biological continuity through the
  reproduction of its members.
• Enculturate new members so that they can become
  functioning adults.

14
Functions of Culture

• Maintain order among members, as well as between
  them and outsiders.
• Motivate members to survive and engage in those
  activities necessary for survival.
• Be able to change to remain adaptive under
  changed conditions.

15
Why Cultures Change

• Environment they must cope with has changed.
• Intrusion of outsiders.
• Values have changed.

16
Evaluating a Culture

• Cultures can be evaluated according to
• Nutritional status
• Physical and mental health of population
• Incidence of violence, crime and delinquency
• Demographic structure
• Stability and tranquility of domestic life