Cultural Anthropology Lectures 3 & 4

Culture and Body image

- Cultural concepts about the body shape daily behaviors and domestic organization (Miner). - Cultural concepts about maintaining ideal body generate religious-like behaviors (Lelwika). - Cultural notions of beauty change over time and vary cross-culturally (proportions [body shape], skin tone).

agency and practice within culture

- Culture influences, but does not determine, the behaviors of individuals. We make choices that are influenced by our culture. - Culture is used actively and creatively by individuals. - Agency: The capacity of human beings to affect their own life chances and those of others and to play a role in the formation of the social realities in which they participate.

Geertz's Dichotomy (how dieting is like religion)

- He argued these two things cannot be analyzed in together). 1) sacred (religious fasting): ontological values (moral purity, spiritual insight) 2) Secular (dieting): world values (health, beauty and social acceptance).

The Distinction according to Douglas Blurs

- He argues these can be analyzed together 1) Dieting goals resembles moral salvation (an ontological value). 2) Dieting creates or reflects a worldview and an embodied sense of self-definition. 3) Religious function of dieting: a way to seek meaning and fulfillment in life.

Pierre Bourdieu's practice theory

- Individuals within every society have different motives and intentions and degrees of power and influence (agency). - Culture shapes and constrains the thoughts, actions, and behaviors of the individual. - The agency of individuals transforms culture in subtle yet cumulatively important ways.

anthropologists...

- Recognize the value of cultural beliefs and practices to a community, but this does not preclude taking a moral or political stance. - Examine power differences, ask questions about agency. - Understand that cultures are always changing and include conflicting values.

5) Traditions are passed down and protected

- Traditions are enduring and ritualized aspects of a culture. ex/ sense of loss with not celebrating via traditions - People are often very concerned with defending and protecting their traditions. - Traditions are often recent inventions that people assume are ancient. ex/ kilts were made by a factory owner as a uniform

3) Values conserve ideals

- Values: express intrinsically desirable principles or qualities ex/ "mom" and values of motherhood - ideal culture: what I expressed through values ex/ what the term "motherhood brings to mind" - real culture: what people actually do and say ex/ what being a mother actually means - there may be opposing/conflicting values within a given society

Summary

- culture influences how we perceive our bodies and natural abilities ex/ grooming rituals, skin color/body shape and perceptions of attractiveness - culture takes natural processes and teaches us how to express them in a particular way ex/ eating and death

4) Norms encourage conformity

- norms: typical patterns of behavior, often seen as the rules of how things should be - norms carry social pressure to conform - norms often depend on the social context ex/ no handshake = could lose job

"You Are How You Eat" by Eugene Cooper

1) "Food habits communicate symbolic messages" including Hierarchy and Inclusion/Exclusion (Commensality) (eating with someone conveys messages about your relationship with them) 2) How you eat conveys messages about your gender, age, social status, etc. 3) Symbolic Gestures: Indicate interest by accepting rice bowl with both hands, bring bowl to mouth while eating. ex/ other examples in chinese culture: everyone has own bowl of rice while the rest is shared in the middle of the table. Good manners indicates good upbringing and creates good luck. Chopsticks are seen as an extension of the fingers, so don't point. They bring the bowl to their mouths. 4) Express deference by allowing the elderly to eat first, offer to others before serving self, share common foods. 5) "...the degree to which a Chinese practices the rules of etiquette marks his class position ..." It's not just shameful to you, but also your family (parents and upbringing). Table manners also reflect social class

culture is integrated because...

1) All aspects of our daily experience are shaped by culture 2) If one part of the system changes, other parts change as well 3) technological changes have wide impacts

"The Religion of Thinness" by Lelwika

1) Sacred 2) Rituals 3) beliefs 4) moral teachings 5) salvation stories

"Enthnography and Culture" by Spradley Q: How to analyze another culture?

1) Step 1: Reject "Naïve Realism": the notion that all people throughout the world define the world of objects, events, and concepts the same way. 2) Step 2: Understand three fundamental aspects of human experience: - Cultural behaviour - Cultural artifacts - Cultural knowledge (explicit/implicit)

Symbols...

1) can be verbal or nonverbal 2) are arbitrary 3) develop meaning by convention 4) are learned through enculturation 5) understood through contact and a shared system of communication

The Interpretive Theory of Culture (Clifford Geertz)

1) culture is embodied and transmitted through symbols 2) people express culture in everything they do. All human action is symbolic and communicates value and meaning

Enculturation happens in two ways:

1) direct transmission 2) observation

Q: Why does culture feel static and stable

1) enculturation 2) symbols are warehouses of meaning 3) values conserve ideals 4) norms encourage conformity 5) traditions are passed down and protected

culture is shared because...

1) people make sense of the world through there participation in social groups 2) culture is not an individual attribute 3) psychological or biological explanations are not sufficient for understanding human experience

Culture is...

1) transmitted through learning 2) shared among members of the same cultural group 3) not static. 4) not something you "have" or "carry" with you. 5) A dynamic process that influences and is influenced by human action (activities/behaviors) 6) uses symbols

Q: What are the connections between skin tone, addictiveness, and success?

A: ex/ in America a darker skin is more attractive for those born with light skin. This is not a cultural universal. ex/ in India a lighter skin is more favorable to achieve fairer skin. This is also true for East Asia. Your skin tone is associated with your social class, etc.

cultural relativism

Behavior in one culture should not be judged by the standards of another culture. (Accepting differences and trying to understand on their own terms).

"Shakespeare in the Bush" by Bohannan

Core question: Is "human nature" the same everywhere? ex/ Bohannan tested this by telling the locals about Hamlet. Locals believed our "ghost" was actually a "zombie." "I was quite sure that Hamlet had only one possible interpretation, and that one universally obvious."

"Enthnography and Culture" by Spradley tacit cultural knowledge is...

Cultural knowledge that is implied, that people lack words for, or that lies outside our explicit awareness. ex/ how close do you stand to someone when you chat with them?

"Enthnography and Culture" by Spradley explicit cultural knowledge is...

Cultural knowledge that people can talk about or communicate with ease.

What is culture?

Culture is the taken-for-granted notions, rules, moralities, and behaviors within a social group that feel natural and the way things should be. (It feels natural = the way things should be done).

KEY POINT

Culture shape how we interpret experiences and events by providing context for interpretation.

Culture and Natural Processes

Culture takes natural biological urges we share with other animals and teaches us how to express them in particular ways. Examples: death (Everyone will die and every culture deals with death differently ex/ casket, and wearing a proper, dark suit to a funeral), moving about.

Culture and Food

Culture teaches us how to express a natural biological urge (e.g., hunger) in particular ways. What you should and shouldn't eat, when you should eat, where you should eat, with whom you should eat, how you should eat... is all influenced by culture. ex/ fried chicken vs fried roaches. (This is part of Tacit cultural knowledge). ex/ fruit loops are associated with kids that are not eaten as dinner.

2) rituals

Disciplined, routine, and repetitive behaviors designed to foster bodily transformation. ex/ weighing food, counting calories

5) salvation stories

Glimpses of human fulfillment that is associated with social approval from weight loss. ex/ biggest loser → weight loss competition programs where teams lose weight together. If you don't lose enough weight you're kicked off the team. Goals is to achieve social acceptance and self acceptance.

gender enculturation

How do boys and girls learn what constitutes proper behavior for their respective genders? ex/ birthday parties growing up. Girls dress-up birthday party = they learn that their value lies in their outward appearance. Boys in paintball party = they learn their value lies in violence, competitiveness, aggressive, physical prowess, etc. This also happens via 1) direct transmission and 2) observation

Lelwika's assessment

Is dieting a means for women to negotiate gender ideals by dissociating from food production, preparation, and serving? (is this a way to separate oneself from the domestic housewife role?) A means for women to assert a level of self-determination usually reserved for men? Or does dieting perpetuate women's subservience to the dominant social and religious order where her "salvation" depends on sacrifice and submission?

Video notes of Childhood Rivalry in Bali and New Guinea (1936-1938)

Mother borrows neighbor's baby to tease her own child. She starts to nurse the neighbors baby and her own child tries to pull the other away. This is very different process of enculturation than what we grew up with. The mother's child is learning that resources are shared, and his mother is a mother of the community rather than his and only his mother. He is given larger social awareness and therefore being transmitted broad societal values that his culture shares.

Are cultural concepts universal?

NO. - Cultural Belief: The Afterlife (not all cultures believe this) - Cultural Concept: Political Leadership Cultural norms and expectations of a European King? A Tiv Chief? Anthropology provides a cross-cultural perspective - Morals: Marry Dead Husband's Brother? Bohannan's Interpretation: Inappropriate to marry brother's widow. Inappropriate for widow to marry quickly. Tiv Elders' Interpretation: "He did well." Your father's brother can become your father. Where were the other wives of the dead chief?

Culture is a dynamic process

Our taken-for-granted notions, moralities, and behaviors are always shifting in relation to experiences, contacts (who you interact with), and connections (within and across societies).

Through culture...

People actively construct a way of life that seems natural, proper, true, and correct. The "natural" is artificial; it's a "social construction." ex/ is there anything natural about central park? No, it was constructed to be the way it is.

symbols

Signs that have no necessary or natural connection to the things they stand for or signify. They mean different things in different societies ex/ stop sign. Symbols provide order in our lives.

enculturation

The social process by which culture is learned and transmitted (within generations, across generations, or across societies). The norms of enculturation change ex/ direct transmission: parents more commonly spanked their kids 100 years ago, whereas now they have conversations. Enculturation across both within and across generations

ethnocentrism

The tendency to apply one's own cultural values in judging the behavior and beliefs of people raised in other cultures. This often implies viewing one's own culture as superior. ex/ family composed of mother father and children vs. father, mother, mother, mother, and children

"Gender, Power, and the 'Religion of Thinness'" by Lelwika

Thesis: Weight concerns and dieting are pervasive in US society. Dieting and pursuit of thinness have religious-like dimensions and functions.

4) Moral teachings

Thinness is evidence of restraint and self-control. Overweight signals lack of self-control. What to eat, how much to eat, has moral significance. ex/ thinness is a sign of self control

1) sacred images

Twentieth century transformation of feminine beauty ideal. Thin, young, white, rich image of feminine perfection becomes aspirational norm. This enculturation starts early: ideal body image associated with wealth, happiness, popularity in toys and movies.

3) beliefs

Unchallenged acceptance that thin people are happier, more successful, more beautiful, and healthier. We see this in so many parts of our culture. ex/ Jenny Craig weight loss program → claims she is happier now that she is thin. Sha also associates her changed body with happiness, better mothering, and more social opportunities.

society

a group of people who interact more with each other than with others

identity

a person's (or group's) sense of self and way of expressing affiliation and belonging

1) enculturation

constant sharing process = continuity and stable changes

culture

distinctive way of life of a group of people

Video on Chinese food customs:

ex/ ad from bank: in chinese culture you are not supposed to finish your food because it puts into question the host's generosity. In America it is impolite to leave a lot of food on the plate. ex/ how we organize ourselves while eating. In American culture there are kids tables, and older people are put at heads of the table at rectangular tables. In contrast, chinese culture uses circular tables. Table arrangements change cross-culturally.

culture is integrated (connected)

ex/ introduction of coffee as a cash crop by Australian officials in Papua New Guinea. What effects does this have on highland society? People were used to producing their own food. Australians then directed natives to divert resources to growing coffee for compensation, therefore restructuring the economy. Access to cash in an egalitarian society based on gift-giving (changing the values of the society). Young people with high social status were also a result.

Cultural Knowledge

look to image in phone

"Body Rituals of the Nacerima" by Miner

purpose: Document unusual magical beliefs and practices of poorly understood group with a highly developed market economy. Focus of ritual activity is the body. They believed: The body is ugly. Tendency to debilitate and decay. Ritual behavior to combat ugliness and decay. They would have shrine rooms: the private body rituals would happen here. They had a holy-mouth man (an oral fetish) that implied the connection between mouth and social relationships. He was describing americans.

Culture is NOT...

society or identity ex/ being a woman is not your culture

2) symbols are warehouses of meaning

they change slowly

enculturation through 2) observation

watching what people around us do, and then falling into line to reflect those behaviors.

enculturation through 1) direct transmission

when someone says "that's not how we do things."