ANTH1220 Week 2

Culture

The central marker of what it means to be human. The complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society

What are the characteristics of culture?

It is shared, learned, patterned, adaptive, symbolic

E. B. Tylor

The first to give a modern definition of culture. Considered an armchair anthropologist and was an evolutionist because early anthropology was influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution. Believed in psychic unity

Psychic Unity

The idea that people everywhere are engaged in the same narrative of progress, but not all at the same pace.

Bronislaw Malinowski

Championed participant-observation fieldwork. Believed culture satisfied individual, biological, social, and psychological needs

A. R. Radcliffe-Brown

Developed the organic analogy

Clifford Geertz

Tried to move anthropology away from “tribes and islands”. He avoided major theories because he thought that culture was highly variable.

What is the critique of anthropological use of culture?

Anthropological use of culture was at first progressive and opposed racist ideas. But now the culture concept has since been used to pigeonhole and oppress. People expect people to behave exactly like their culture and question their authenticity. For example, Makah whaling culture

19th Century Anthropology

The century of anthropology defined by racist conjectural history

20th Century Anthropology

The century of anthropology defined by rejection of history

Material Culture

Culture we make, things made and used by humans

Technology

Specialized knowledge and skills used for making material culture

Routine speech

Type of cultural practice that communicates meaning and values

Routine actions

Type of cultural practice that organizes social events

Cultural frames

Patterned, shared ways of making sense of situations. For example, we all know what a wedding is or a proposal, or what time it should take to propose

Cultural roles

Conventionalized position held by a person or person in a particular context or setting. For example, we know what a waiter is supposed to do

Values

It is peoples standards, what is good, what is bad, etc. For example, that education is good

Beliefs

Cultural conventions about what is true and false. For example, that grading is the best way to evaluate student achievement

Ideology

A set of symbols and beliefs supporting the interests of a specific group. It can produce cultural hegemony

Cultural Hegemony

Ideological control over values, beliefs and norms, usually by persuasion

Norms

Societies rules for right and wrong behavior, connected to values

Folkways

Taken for granted norms that shape everyday behavior. Somewhat flexible. For example, the way how people should dress here

Mores

Stronger norms, the violation of which is punished. For example, in Saudi Arabia, a women may be detained for violating the dress code

HRAF

A vast indexed database of ethnographic and cultural information on nearly 400 world cultures. Founded by George Murdock to study cross-cultural similarities.

Ruth Benedict

Was interested in how culture influenced personality. Founded the “Culture and Personality” school of though. She famously wrote “Culture is personality writ large”

What are some emotions that appear to be cross-cultural universals?

Sadness, anger, happiness, surprise, etc.

Piano Analogy

Used to describe how emotions may be experienced differently across cultures. Everyone has the same keyboard, but different people and different cultures strike some keys more than others

What are the limits of enculturation?

It plays an important role in making personalities but doesn’t do everything. People have individual tendencies which are innate. It is not a uniform process, people are not brainwashed and experience it differently. People have agency