Exam 3, Culture and Culture Change

Enculturation

The process of learning one’s culture; is a life long process

Socialization

The process through which an individual becomes integrated into a society or group

Socialization with Humans

We are not the only social species, but we are the only one that culture is the basic survival mechanism

Agents of enculturation

Family and kin group, neighborhood, peer group, school, religion/place of worship, government, science, technology, media, entertainment, sports, leisure activities, workplace

What we learn from agents of enculturation:

Social axioms, basic assumptions, facts and information, doctrines and dogmas, customs and traditions, values, attitudes, and beliefs, behaviors, actions and reactions, myths and other supernatural stories, untruths

What can we not be sure about?

What things in our culture are teaching us are true or not

Cultural messagry

That everyone in one cultural group knows things that people outside of it do not

• Culture is an intermediary between us and the world

Culture medium

The medium through which we view and interpret reality

What are some things that mediums can metaphorically be?

• Transparent pane of glass (true and pure)

• Translucent pane of glass (you think you are learning the truth, but you aren’t)

  • You never know what your culture is doing to our senses

• a solid wall (nothing from out there is getting through to you)

• a mirror (we just see our own culture in other cultures)

• a hallucination

• a dream

What living life forms have a medium?

Only humans, no non-human animals

Ethnocentrism

Judging other cultures, their behaviors and beliefs, from the perspective of one’s own culture (a lot of the time: religion)

Factors of ethnocentrism that prevent us from learning another society

• Viewing another culture to be irrational, stupid or unimportant

• Feeling apprehension, loneliness and lack of confidence when visiting another culture

• Describing another cultures differences to yours and not the similarities

• Differences seen as threatening and described negatively

Are you allowed to judge another cultures/ways of living?

Yes, you are allowed to, but from an anthropological point of view. Learn why another culture is the way they are to be understand why it is the way it is.

Basis for ethnocentrism and xenophobia

1. The universe exists and it exists independently of what humans think about it

2. It is human nature to try to figure out how and why the world works the way it does

3. Each human group believe they’re looking through a clear pane of glass all the time, and that the answers they come up with reflect reality as it really is

4. They’re not. All worldviews are cultural constructs.

5. What people believe to be true motivates their behavior and is real in its consequences.

Cultural Relativism

The idea that cultures should be analyzed with references to their own histories and values, in terms of the cultural whole, rather than according to the values of another

True or false: cultural relativism implies that you have to like everything about another culture in order to respect them.

False, you can respect and understand another culture, but that does not mean you must like it; you can disagree about it.

Society

an ethos, a people, often constituting a nation-state or occupying a large geographic area

People in a society…

1. Depend on one another for survival, well-being, or interaction

2. through obligations, privileges, rights, and customs

3. view themselves as being part of a particular group

4. have common territory, history, language and culture (usually)

Group

People who regularly interact with one another and usually share similar values, norms, and expectations

• Smaller than societies

Membership into society/group by

Birth and rearing, participation, petitioning for membership

What are ascribed characteristics and give examples of them.

They are things people are born with and cannot change: Sex, age, race, language, tribal or ethic group, ability/disability, sexual orientation

What are some traits that are changeable but very hard to do so?

• Nationality or citizenship

• Socio-economic status

  • Wealth

  • Income

  • Occupation

  • Opportunity

What are achieved characteristics and give some examples of it.

Traits that are achieved and can be changed (most likely do change throughout life)

• Education, religion, political orientation, gender, martial status, region of residence, social situations, hobbies, voluntary associations

What are the three main ways we in the US give meaning and significance to our lives?

1. Family

2. Occupation

3. Religion

In-group solidarity and out-group antagonism

Humans develop complex identities that connect to other people and separate them from others

All societies must determine how to

1. Feed, clothe and shelter themselves

2. Have laws and responsibilities

3. Give meaning to their life

4. Live peacefully with others

5. Relate to those who live different

Elements of culture

1. Material culture or artifacts

2. Values, attitudes, and beliefs

3. Patterned behaviors

What makes humans different than animals?

• Make, use, retain tools

• Have beliefs and share them through language

• Behaviors are learned, not instinctual

Norms

That which much people do, think, feel or say most of the time

• Shared widely by most members of a society

Ideal norms

Ideas people in a society share about the way things ought to be done

Real norms

what they actually do

Language allows what?

• Human experiences to be cumulative and shared/related to

• Shared perspectives or understandings of the past, present and future

• Complex, goal-directed behavior

Culture is learned in 3 steps:

1. Observation

2. Participation

3. Inquirt

Dominant culture

The culture shared by most members of a society and are usually more powerful than subcultures

Subcultures

A variant of a dominant culture usually occurring within societies with large populations

Counterculture

A variant culture, usually occurring within societies with large populations, that challenges society’s norms, especially its values (suffragettes, hippies, white supremacists)

Culture being adaptive how?

• We adapted to the physical environment

• Other societies

• Our own history

Social institutions

the means which a society meets its basic needs

Cultural lag

The rate of change of the basic needs

Race

A social category based on physical or cultural characteristics (not biologically based)

Tribal or Ethnic Group

Ethnos: “people” or “nation”. A social category based on distinguishing cultural characteristics and they identify with each other based on common ancestry and cultural heritage