Culture we are embedded

Culture is the knowledge from which society grows “No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." Meditation XVII by John Donne Culture provides us with the skills and information to master at least enough of the material and non-material environment so that we can interact with the people and the artifacts that make life liveable. It is: Learned Shared Manipulated

Knowledge is organized into patterns. It is these patterns that make culture easy to learn as we live it The patterns can be simple or complex It is these patterns that make culture seem so natural to those of us who live the culture Knowledge is organized into institutions The institutions consist of normative routines and scripts that solve the problems of meeting our needs. And it is the illusion of naturalness that makes it so hard to unlearn or to see

Categorization: Getting a intellectual grip on culture Material Culture Non Material Culture Artifacts Any physical object we have transformed for use These respond to our five senses Or to the tools (also artifacts) that we create to extend our senses Intangibles These are manifested through artifacts but have no independent physical presence Ideas Norms Values Beliefs Symbols Language In practice we don’t separate material and non-material culture because the artifact is the carrier for the content we understand and react to or interact with.

Artifacts extend our ability to extract resources from the environment Tools extend physical strength and reach Extend our sensory awareness Stone Axe (South America) source

Artifacts extend our ability to extract resources from the environment Tools extend physical strength and reach Extend our sensory awareness

Artifacts extend our ability to extract resources from the environment TEAM 0.5, the world's most powerful transmission electron microscope — capable of producing images with half‑angstrom resolution (half a ten-billionth of a meter), less than the diameter of a single hydrogen atom — has been installed at the Department of Energy's National Center for Electron Microscopy (NCEM) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080122154357.htm Tools extend physical strength and reach Extend our sensory awareness “Seeing” Atoms where two gold crystals meet

Artifacts extend our ability to extract resources from the environment Tools extend physical strength and reach Extend our sensory awareness

Material Culture Artifacts have a huge influence on our lives. They provide the physical shape of our world The have a “conservative” effect because they are expensive to replace or to repurpose. They are difficult to change because they linked with language, belief, and symbolic systems

Material Culture Artifacts have a huge influence on our lives. They provide the physical shape of our world The have a “conservative” effect because they are expensive to replace or to repurpose. They are difficult to change because they linked with language, belief, and symbolic systems http://weburbanist.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/finland-abandoned-matchstick-factory-building.jpg

Material Culture Artifacts have a huge influence on our lives. They provide the physical shape of our world The have a “conservative” effect because they are expensive to replace or to repurpose. They are difficult to change because they linked with language, belief, and symbolic systems

Ideas Non - Material Culture All of non-material culture is in the realm of ideas which are simply thoughts formed by our mind. These thoughts should produce a coherent set of processes which enable us to operate (rationally, we hope) in the physical world by using reason, experience and other learned knowledge . Culture and society provided routes by which ideas can be learned, developed and shared.

Norms and Values A quick overview Expectations for action Often defined as rules and regulations, but that definition is excessively narrow Together with sanctions (punishment and rewards) norms produce reasonably predictable and organized behavior Often organized as scripts or routines Ideas of good and bad Usually expressed as statements relating good/bad right/wrong to specific acts and beliefs Values are abstract Based on belief systems History Ideology Values can cause conflict between the roles a person must fulfill (eg friend/customer)

Symbols and Belief Symbols Belief Symbols are ideas about meaning that are shared by members of the culture (at least two people) Symbols are learned in context and are specific and powerful in the culture in which they are learned. Anything can be a symbol Symbols can be long lasting or transitory Beliefs are ideas about what is real Some are persistent Some come and go Scientific beliefs require reliable replication and consistency Faith based beliefs (religious and other non-rational beliefs) do not require reliable replication and may or may not require internal consistency

In the absence of communication there is no development. Language In the absence of communication there is no development.

Tradition Notice how all the elements of culture come into play to separate the two communities, the men and women, children and adults, powerful and less powerful; and notice the play of words in the lyric.