Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Window on Humanity 6 th Edition Chapter Conrad Phillip Kottak Culture 2

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2-2 Overview What Is Culture? Culture’s Evolutionary Basis Universality, Generality, and Particularity Culture and the Individual: Agency and Practice Popular, Civic, and Public Culture Levels of Culture Ethnocentrism, Cultural Relativism, and Human Rights Mechanisms of Cultural Change Globalization Anthropology Today

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2-3 What Is Culture? “Culture…is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” (Tylor 1871/1958) –Enculturation: process by which child learns his or her culture

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2-4 What Is Culture? Culture is Learned –Unique human capacity to use symbols: signs that have no necessary or natural connection to the things they stand for –Conscious and unconscious learning

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2-5 What Is Culture? Culture Is Symbolic –Symbolic thought is unique and crucial to humans and to cultural learning –Language one of the distinctive possessions of Homo sapiens –Symbols often linguistic (“dog,” “chien,” “hund”) –All humans possess the abilities on which culture rests

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2-6

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2-7 What Is Culture? Culture is Shared –Culture shared by individuals as members of groups –Enculturation unifies people by providing common experiences

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2-8 What are some examples of shared culture in America? Individualism Finishing food to justify wealth Justice/fair play All people are created equal The law applies to everyone Hard work will bring success Wealthy have earned their success Poor people have earned their poverty

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2-9 What Is Culture? Culture and Nature –Culture takes natural biological urges we share with other animals and teaches us how to express them –Cultural habits, perceptions, and inventions mold “human nature” into many forms –Culture and cultural changes affect how we perceive nature, human nature, and “the natural”

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education What Is Culture? Culture Is All-Encompassing –Culture defined anthropologically, culture encompasses features that are sometimes regarded as trivial or unworthy of serious study Culture Is Integrated –Integrated by dominant economic activities and related social patterns and by sets of values, ideas, symbols, and judgments –Core values: key, basic, central values

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education What Is Culture? Culture Is Instrumental, Adaptive and Maladaptive –Humans adapt biologically and culturally People use culture instrumentally to fulfill basic biological needs Also use culture to fulfill psychological and emotional needs Many modern cultural patterns may be maladaptive in the long run

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Homework 1.Identify 2 features of the culture immediately around you. 2.How did you become enculturated? 3.Is it adaptive or maladaptive?

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Culture’s Evolutionary Basis Human capacity for culture has evolutionary basis that extends back at least 2.6 million years –Hominidae: zoological family that includes fossil and living humans as well as chimps and gorillas –Hominids: includes chimps and gorillas –Hominins: group that leads to humans but not to chimps and gorillas

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Culture’s Evolutionary Basis Many human traits reflect that primate ancestors lived in trees –Grasping ability –Manual dexterity –Depth and color vision –Learning ability based on large brain –Substantial parent investment –Tendencies toward sociality and cooperation

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Culture’s Evolutionary Basis What We Share with Other Primates –Substantial gap between primate society and fully developed human culture, but similarities exist Learn from experience and change behavior Tools Capacity to aim and throw Hunting

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Culture’s Evolutionary Basis How We Differ from Other Primates –Cooperation and sharing much more developed among humans –Humans maximize reproductive success by mating throughout the year –Humans have exogamy and kinship systems

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Table 2.1 Cultural Features of Chimpanzees (Rudimentary) and Humans (Fully Developed)

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Universality, Generality, and Particularity –“Psychic unity” of humankind All human populations have equivalent capacities for culture –Certain cultural features are universal: features found in every culture –Others are generalities: features common to several but not all human groups –Still others are particularities: features unique to certain cultural traditions

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Universals and Generalities –Biologically based universals Long period of infant dependency Year-round sexuality Complex brain Life in groups and in some kind of family Nuclear family: kinship group consisting of parents and children, present in many but not all societies Universality, Generality, and Particularity

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Particularity: patterns of culture –Cultural particularities becoming increasingly rare because of cultural borrowing Borrowed cultural traits modified to fit the culture that adopts them –Many cultures observe and celebrate such universal life-cycle events as birth, puberty, marriage, parenthood, and death Cultures vary in beliefs, practices, integration, and patterning Universality, Generality, and Particularity

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Cultures are dynamic and constantly changing –Culture is contested –Ideal culture: what people say they do and should do –Real culture: actual behavior Culture and the Individual: Agency and Practice

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Culture is public and individual –Agency: actions that individuals take, both alone and in groups, in forming and transforming cultural identities –Practice theory: recognizes that individuals within a society or culture have diverse motives and intentions and different degrees of power and influence Culture and the Individual: Agency and Practice

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Systems we participate in have national and international scope –Any contemporary nation has national culture traditions, its own media and popular culture, and its own civic culture consisting of laws, institutions, and associations –Today’s consumption patterns reflect and fuel popular culture Popular, Civic, and Public Culture

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education All of us consume and interpret popular culture products –Civic culture: includes citizens’ compliance with the legal system, participation in formal elections, and membership in associations –Public culture: represents generally accepted social behaviors, dress codes, speech, and expression that citizens enact in public spaces Popular, Civic, and Public Culture

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Levels of Culture National culture: beliefs, learned behavior patterns, values, and institutions shared by citizens of the same nation International culture: extends beyond and across national boundaries –Many cultural traits and patterns acquired international scope due to diffusion (borrowing), migration, colonialism, and globalization

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Subcultures: different symbol-based patterns and traditions associated with particular groups in the same complex society –“Sub” not meant to denote importance Levels of Culture

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Ethnocentrism: tendency to view one’s own culture as superior and to apply one’s own cultural values in judging the behavior and beliefs of people raised in other cultures –Trans-Fly region of Papua New Guinea Ethnocentrism, Cultural Relativism, and Human Rights

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Cultural relativism: behavior in one culture should not be judged by standards of another culture –Female genital modification –In anthropology, cultural relativism is a methodological one Ethnocentrism, Cultural Relativism, and Human Rights

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Human rights: justice and morality beyond and superior to the laws and customs of particular countries, cultures, and religions –Cultural rights: right of group to preserve its culture, language, and economic base –Indigenous intellectual property rights (IPR): conservation of each society’s core beliefs, knowledge, and practices Ethnocentrism, Cultural Relativism, and Human Rights

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Mechanisms of Cultural Change Diffusion: borrowing of traits between cultures –Direct diffusion: between two cultures that trade with, intermarry among, or wage war on one another –Forced diffusion: one group subjugates another and imposes its customs –Indirect diffusion: across one or more intervening cultures without first-hand contact

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Mechanisms of Cultural Change Acculturation: exchange of cultural features that results when groups come into continuous first-hand contact Independent invention: process by which humans innovate, creatively finding solutions to problems –Comparable inventions in different societies result in cultural generalities Independent invention of agriculture

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Globalization Globalization: series of processes that promote change in a world in which nations and people increasingly interlinked and mutually dependent –Forces of globalization include international commerce and finance, travel and tourism, transnational migration, and mass media – including the Internet and other high-tech information flows

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Globalization –Media play key role –Local people increasingly cope with larger regional, national, and international forces –Indigenous peoples and traditional societies devised strategies to protect their autonomy, identity, and livelihood –New forms of cultural expression and political mobilization emerging

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education Anthropology Today Experiencing Culture: Personal Space and Displays of Affection –World’s cultures have strikingly different notions about displays of affection and personal space –Brazil – touch and kiss one another more frequently than North Americans do –May be changing in U.S. to include more contact among teenagers