2 Culture Anthropology Appreciating Human Diversity 14 th
- Slides: 43
2 Culture Anthropology: Appreciating Human Diversity 14 th Edition Conrad Phillip Kottak
2 Culture • • What Is Culture? Culture’s Evolutionary Basis Universality, Generality, and Particularity Culture and the Individual: Agency and Practice • Mechanisms of Cultural Change • Globalization © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
3 Culture • What is culture and why do we study it? • What is the relation between culture and the individual? • How does culture change? © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
4 • We have distinctive features because we are individuals, but we have other distinctive attributes because we belong to cultural groups. – Display of affection in different cultures. © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
5 © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
6 What Is Culture? • Tylor: Cultures–systems of human behavior and thought– obey natural laws, so they can be studied scientifically © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
7 • Tylor: “Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals, laws, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
8 • Not through biological inheritance but by growing up in a particular society. • Enculturation: the process by which a child learns his or her culture © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
9 Culture Is Learned • Human cultural learning depends on the uniquely developed human capacity to use symbols – Symbols: signs that have no necessary or natural connection to the things they signify or stand for © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
10 Culture is Learned • Clifford Geertz: Culture is ideas based on cultural learning and symbols. • Set of “control mechanisms” – plans, recipes, rules, instructions for governing behavior. • Cultural system (of meanings and symbols) used to define world, express feelings and make judgements. – Culture is learned through direct instruction and observation (experience, conscious and unconscious behavior modification) © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
11 • Anthropologists in the 19 th century argued for a “psychic unity of man” – Acknowledgment that individuals vary in emotional and intellectual tendencies and capacities, but still, all human populations have equivalent capacities for culture. © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
12 Culture is symbolic • White: Culture is dependent upon symbolling. Culture consists of tools, implements, utensils, clothing, ornaments, customs, institutions, beliefs, rituals, games, art, language… • Using symbols: bestowing meaning on things and events, and grasping and appreciating such meanings. © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
13 Culture Is Symbolic • Symbolic thought is unique and crucial to cultural learning – Verbal and nonverbal symbols • The association between symbols and what is symbolized is arbitrary and conventional • Other primates also demonstrate a rudimentary ability to use symbols • However, no other animal has elaborated cultural abilities to the extent of Homo sapiens (use of language) © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
14 • Nonverbal symbols – Flags – Logos – Religious symbols (holy water) © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
15 • A natural thing arbitrarily associated with a particular meaning for some people, who share common beliefs and experiences that are based on learning and transmitted across generations. • Human beings share the abilities to learn, think symbolically, manipulate language, use tools and other cultural products in organizing their lives and coping with their environments. © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
16 Culture Is Shared • Culture is located in and transmitted through groups – Shared beliefs, values, memories, and expectations link people who grow up in the same culture – Enculturation unifies people by providing common experiences © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
17 Culture and Nature • Culture takes natural biological urges and teaches us how to express them in particular ways – Our culture–and cultural changes–affect the ways in which we perceive nature, human nature, and the natural world (use of medicine) – How natural acts are converted into cultural habits (consider bathroom/toilet habits) © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
18 Culture Is All-Encompassing • Anthropologically, culture encompasses features sometimes regarded as trivial or unworthy of serious study (popular culture) – To understand North American culture, one must consider television, fast-food restaurants, sports, and games – Which people are “cultured”? © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
19 Culture Is Integrated • Cultures are integrated, patterned systems – If one part of the system (the economy) changes, other parts (family structure) change as well – Core values: key, basic, or central values that integrate a culture – Work ethic and individualism for American culture. Turkey? ? © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
20 Culture Can Be Both Adaptive and Maladaptive • Humans have biological and cultural ways of coping with environmental stress – What’s good for an individual isn’t necessarily good for the group – Adaptive behavior that offers short-term benefits to particular individuals may harm the environment and threaten the group’s long-term survival – Cultural traits, patterns and inventions can also be “maladaptive”, threatening the group’s continued existence (survival and reproduction). – Air conditioners, refrigerators, automobiles, pollution, global warming © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
21 Culture’s Evolutionary Basis • Similarities between humans and apes are evident in anatomy, brain structure, genetics, and biochemistry – Hominid: member of hominid family; any fossil or living human, chimp, or gorilla – Hominins: hominids excluding the African apes; all human species that ever existed © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
22 Culture’s Evolutionary Basis • Many human traits reflect that our primate ancestors lived in trees – Grasping ability and manual dexterity – Depth and color vision – Learning ability based on a large brain – Substantial parental investment in offspring – Tendencies toward sociality and cooperation © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
23 Culture’s Evolutionary Basis • What We Share with Other Primates – Substantial gap between primate society and fully developed human culture – Still, primates reveal many similarities with humans: • Ability to learn from experience and change behavior • Tools turn up among several nonhuman species • Other primates are habitual hunters © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
24 Culture’s Evolutionary Basis • How We Differ from Other Primates – Cooperation and sharing are much more developed among humans – Human females lack a visible estrus cycle and ovulation is concealed • Humans mate throughout the year • Human pair bonds for mating are more exclusive and durable than those of chimps • Humans have rules of exogamy and kinship © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
25 Culture’s Evolutionary Basis • Universality – Universal traits are the ones that more or less distinguish Homo sapiens from other species: • Biological: a long period of infant dependency, year-round sexuality, and a complex brain • Psychological: common ways in which humans think, feel, and process information • Social: life in groups, family, food sharing • Exogamy and incest taboo © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
26 Culture’s Evolutionary Basis • Generality – Regularities that occur in different times and places but not in all cultures • • Diffusion Colonization Invention Nuclear family © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
27 • Societies can share the same beliefs and customs because of borrowing or through (cultural) inheritance from a common cultural ancestor. • Speaking English (common ancestor and domination (colonialism)) © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
28 • Cultural generalities can also arise through independent invention of the same cultural trait or pattern in two or more different cultures. • Farming • Nuclear family (thought to be “natural” but not universal) © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
29 Culture’s Evolutionary Basis • Particularity: Patterns of Culture – Traits or features of culture not generalized or widespread – Cultural particularities are increasingly rare: • Diffusion • Independent invention • When cultural traits are borrowed, the traits are modified to fit the culture that adopts them. © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
30 • Cultures are integrated and patterned differently and display tremendous variation and diversity. • When cultural traits are borrowed, they are modified to fit the culture that adopts them. • Mc. Donald’s • MTV © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
31 • By focusing on and trying to explain the various and diverse cultures and alternative customs, anthropology forces us to reappraise our familiar ways of thinking. • Making strange familiar and familiar strange!! © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
32 • Ideal culture: what people say they should do and what they say they do • Real culture: their actual behavior as observed by anthropologists. © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
33 Culture and the Individual: Agency and Practice • Generations of anthropologists have theorized about the relationship between “system” and “individual”: – Culture is contested – Culture is public and individual – Contemporary anthropologists emphasize how day-to-day actions make and remake culture • Practice theory recognizes that individuals within a society have diverse motives © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
34 Practice theory • Individuals within a society or culture have diverse motives and intentions and different degrees of power and influence. • The system shapes the way individuals experience and respond to external events, but individuals also play an active role in the way society functions and changes. © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
35 • Practice theory recognizes both constraints on individuals and the flexibility and changeability of cultures and social systems. • subcultures © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
36 Levels of Culture • National culture: cultural features shared by citizens of the same nation • International culture: cultural traditions that extend beyond national boundaries • Borrowing, diffusion, migration, colonialism, multinational organizations, communication technology, media… • Religions, the World Cup, olympics • Subcultures: identifiable cultural patterns existing within a larger culture © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
37 Table 2. 1. Levels of Culture with Examples from Sports and Foods © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
38 Ethnocentrism, Cultural Relativism, and Human Rights • Ethnocentrism: a tendency to view one’s own culture as superior and to use one’s own standards and values in judging outsiders • Cultural relativism: inappropriate to use outside standards to judge behavior in a given society; such behavior should be evaluated in the context of the culture in which it occurs © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
39 Ethnocentrism, Cultural Relativism, and Human Rights • Human rights: rights based on justice and morality beyond and superior to particular countries, cultures, and religions • Cultural rights: rights vested in religious and ethnic minorities and indigenous societies • Intellectual Property Rights (IPR): an indigenous group’s collective knowledge and its applications © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
40 Culture Clash: Makah Seek Return to Whaling Past • Cultures are diverse but not isolated – Makah see themselves as whalers but stopped hunting whales in the early 1900 s – Gained permission to hunt whales again after 1994 • Animal rights groups protested but treaties seem to support this activity © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
41 Mechanisms of Cultural Change • Diffusion: borrowing of traits between cultures – Direct – Indirect – Forced © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
42 Mechanisms of Cultural Change • Acculturation: an exchange of features that results when groups come into consistent firsthand contact • Independent invention: the process by which humans innovate, creatively finding solutions to problems © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
43 Globalization • Globalization: a series of processes that work to make modern nations and people increasingly interlinked and mutually dependent – Economic and political forces – Long-distance communication – Local people must increasingly cope with forces generated by progressively larger systems © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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