1. Aim: How much does culture define our lives?
Do Now: You are visiting a friend’s family in Thailand. During dinner, they offer you some sautéed sago worms. Would you eat them? Why or why not?
NY State Learning Standards 2
Common Core RS 2, 5 and LSS 1

2. Questions to Consider:
I What is culture?
Culture is the way of life of a group of people. It includes language, dress, beliefs & behavior.
Anthropologists study human culture.
Questions to Consider:
Can you belong to more than one culture?
Can you change your culture?

3. Consider this scenario:
II Cultural Terms
Ethnicity:
People with the same ethnicity share a common ancestry. They may also share a common culture, but not always.
Consider this scenario:
In 1825 your ancestors immigrated from Genoa, Italy to New York City. Today, no one in your family speaks Italian. On Sundays, you have a huge family dinner of Chinese take-out. What is your ethnicity? What is your culture?

4. Cultural Terms Continued…
B) Your identity is how YOU choose to identify yourself to others.
"The various media have portrayed me as an African-American, sometimes Asian," he said in the short statement. "In fact, I am both... . Truthfully, I feel very fortunate and equally proud to be both African-American and Asian.” – Tiger Woods, June 1995

5. Cultural Terms Continued…
C) Taboos are practices that are forbidden within a culture.
Questions to Consider:
Would you marry your brother or sister?
Is burping loudly on a first date ok if you do it on purpose?
What is normal? What is abnormal?
Incestuous marriage (between close relations such as siblings) was very common in many ancient societies such as Egypt to preserve the royal blood line.

6. Cultural Terms Continued…
D) Ethnocentrism is the belief that your culture is superior to another.
E) Cultural relativism is the viewing of a culture through their perspective, rather than your own.
In some cultures, stoning a woman to death for committing adultery (sex outside of marriage) is considered just. Is it ok to be culturally relativistic in this situation and say that this is wrong?
“[In Syria] an ISIS [Muslim extremist] cleric read the verdict before the truck came and dumped a large pile of stones near the municipal garden. Jihadi fighters brought in the woman, clad head to toe in black, and half buried her in the ground. Then they told residents who had gathered around the scene to carry out the sentence: Stoning to death for the alleged adulteress. None in the crowd stepped forward, said a witness... So the jihadi fighters, mostly foreign extremists, did it themselves, pelting Faddah Ahmad with rocks.” August 9, 2014 AP Press

7. Cultural Terms Continued…
F) Pluralism: Smaller groups within a society maintain their cultural identities.
G) Cultural Assimilation: Smaller groups within a society adapt to the larger culture.
Where in New York City do you find examples of pluralism?
Where in New York City do you find examples of cultural assimilation?

8. Chinatown in Flushing, New York City An Example of Cultural Pluralism

9. Protest in NYC Concerning Cuts to Immigrant English Classes, 2010 An Example of Cultural Assimilation

10. Cultural Terms Continued…
H) Cultural diffusion is the spread of culture from one place to another.
Can you think of other examples of cultural diffusion?

11. Key Vocabulary Anthropologist Cultural assimilation Cultural diffusion
Cultural pluralism
Cultural relativism
Culture
Ethnicity
Ethnocentrism
Identity
Incest
Taboo

12. How much does culture define your life?