Anthropology Ch. 2: Culture

7. Culture is contested

* Ideal culture consists of what people say they should do and what they say they do * Real culture refers to their actual behavior as observed by the anthropologists * Day-to-day action, practice, or resistance make and remake culture-change culture is contested: different actors/ goals. * Agency: individual and collective actions in forming and transforming culture identity

3. Culture is symbolic

* a symbol is something verbal or nonverbal within a particular language or culture, that comes to stand for something else * Examples: language, religious and national signs, art, games, rituals... * The association between the symbol and what is symbolized is completely arbitrary and conventional

4. Culture is all-encompassing and integrated

* anthropology defines culture very broadly * it includes trivial features like U.S popular Culture ( TV, films, etc) * Cultures are integrated systems. IF one part changes, other parts change as well ( values, religions affiliations) * Cost values of US culture: work ethnic and individualism

Cultural Relativism

* argument that behavior in one culture should not be judged by the standards of another culture * extreme cultural relativism would analyze Nazi Germany just as non-judgmentally as classical Athenian Greece * In anthropology, cultural relativism is not a moral position, but a methodological one. * Anthologists must follow moral ethics

Anthropology and ethics

* may study infanticides, cannibalism, and torture to record their existence and determine their causes * But many anthropologists feel they also have the moral obligation to interfere

6. Culture always interacts with nature

* takes the natural biological urges we share with other animals and teaches us how to express them in particular ways. * Example: Biological urge to eat. Culture teaches what, when, and how to eat. * Other examples: personal hygiene, illness, gender differences, sexuality and reproduction

Ethnocentrism

* the tendency to view ones own culture as superior and hence to apply ones own cultural values in judging the behavior and beliefs of people raised in other cultures * Is a cultural universal, because it strengthens group solidarity. Other cultures are routinely criticized

2. Culture is shared

* we learn our culture through social intersection: observing, listening, talking. * Culture is shared in groups: shared beliefs, values, memories, and expectations * That is why we are most likely to feel comfortable with people who are socially, economically, and culturally similar to ourselves

5. Culture can be adaptive or Mal-adaptive

* what goods for the individual isn't always good for the group. * Economy growth may favor some people while depleting key natural resources * Whats good for the group may not be so in the future * Cultural patterns like over-consumption and pollution are Mal- adaptive in the long run.

Central Features of Culture

1. learned 2. Share 3. symbolic 4. all-encompassing and integrated 5. adaptive or Mal-adaptive 6. contested, it mixes ideal and real

Globalization Definition

A series of processes, including diffusion and acculturation, working to promote change in a world where people are increasingly interlinked and mutually dependent

Edward Burnett Taylor

Holder of the first chair in anthropology at Oxford- learned and shared traditions and costumes that govern behavior and beliefs

what are the levels of culture

International culture national culture sub culture

National Culture

beliefs, values, and institutions shared by citizens of a nation

International culture

beliefs, values, and institutions shared by many nations. Examples: global sports( world cup), diplomacy and united nations

Subculture

beliefs, values, institutions shared by people of the same region, language, class, religion, or ethnicity

Diffusion

borrowing of traits between cultures. Direct: trade, intermarriage, war Indirect: A to C via group B. ( Mass media)

independent variation

different peoples find similar solutions to similar problem

Mechanisms of cultural change

diffusion acculturation independent variation

Globalization Causes

economic and political forces and technology: modern systems of transportation and communication Examples: trade, tourism, migration, media

1. culture is learned

enculturation: process by which child learns culture. Interactions, observation, imitation. * Our Cultural learning and symbols- computer programs for the governing of behavior

Cultural rights

ethnic group rights to preserve its culture, to raise its children in ancestral ways, to continue its language

Acculturation

exchange of cultural features by continuous direct context. However, each group remains distinct

Human rights

individual rights to speak freely, hold religious beliefs without persecution, and enjoy the rule of law, etc

Generalists:

regularities that appear in many times and cultures, but not in all. Example: nuclear family, farming.

Particularities

traits or features that is unique to a certain culture/society. Examples: food dishes, life cycle rituals

Universalities

universal traits that distinguish us from other species