Cultural Notes

What is Culture?

• Culture is defined as the material and immaterial ways of life of a particular group of people.
• It encompasses all behaviors, actions, beliefs, and objects that characterize a group.

Elements of Culture

• Cultural Traits:
  • Building blocks of culture, including visible and invisible attributes.
  • Artifacts: Tangible objects created by a culture.
  • Sociofacts: The ways in which a culture behaves and organizes institutions.
  • Mentifacts: The ideas, beliefs, values, and knowledge of a culture.

Cultural Taboos

• Cultural Norms:
  • Agreed upon cultural practices or standards that guide behavior within a culture.
• Cultural Taboo:
  • Behaviors heavily discouraged by a culture.
  • Examples:
  • Child abuse, murder, incest, and cannibalism (almost universally taboo).
  • Eating pork (taboo in Islam and Judaism).
  • Failing to tip at a restaurant (taboo in the US).

Artifact, Sociofact, or Mentifact?

• Examples:
  • Laws.
  • Factories.
  • Urban planning.
  • Sushi.
  • The Bible.
  • Judaism.
  • Irrigation.
  • Feminism.

Cultural Relativism and Ethnocentrism

• Ethnocentrism:
  • The belief that one’s own culture or ethnic group is superior to others.
  • Judging other groups through the lens of one’s own culture.
• Cultural Relativism:
  • The principle that an individual's beliefs and actions should be understood in terms of their own culture.

Where Does Culture Come From?

• Cultural Hearth:
  • An area where civilizations began.
  • Characterized by the radiation of customs, innovations, and ideologies that transform the world.

How is Culture Influenced or Changed?

• Culture is influenced by:
  • Tradition.
  • The environment.
  • Technological innovations.
  • Interactions with other cultures.

Environmental Determinism

• Environmental Determinism:
  • The belief that the physical environment, especially climate and terrain, actively shapes culture.
  • Examples:
  • Island nations having unique cultural traits due to isolation.
  • Communities in warmer climates being more relaxed due to easier survival conditions.

Possibilism

• Possibilism:
  • The belief that environmental conditions may impact culture in some ways, but people are the primary architects of culture.
  • Examples:
  • The Industrial Revolution occurring in areas with different environments, shaping modern culture.
  • Las Vegas thriving with a population and agricultural system despite being in the desert.

Cultural Realms

• Cultural Realm:
  • A large segment of the Earth with uniformity in cultural characteristics.