1. Lesson # 7 Culture 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:
Mini-lesson
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:
Mini-lesson
Cultural Terms 1. 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. Mini-lesson
2. 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. Work Period
3. Taboos are practices that are forbidden within a culture.
Turn & Talk:
Would you marry your brother or sister?
Is burping loudly on a first date ok if you do it on purpose?
-Discuss what is acceptable? What is not acceptable in our culture?
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. Mini-lesson
4. Ethnocentrism is the belief that your culture is superior to another.
5. Cultural relativism is the viewing of a culture through their perspective, rather than your own.

7. Lesson # 7 Culture Day 2 Aim: How much does culture define our lives?
Do Now: Do you think businesses should have their signage in different languages?

8. Mini-lesson
7. Pluralism: Smaller groups within a society maintain their cultural identities.
8. 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?

9. Turn & Talk America should adopt a policy of assimilation.
Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why?

10. Work Period Activity
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?
Read the first hand account and decide if you should be culturally relativistic?
“[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

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

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

13. Can you think of other examples of cultural diffusion?
Mini-lesson
H) Cultural diffusion is the spread of culture from one place to another.
Can you think of other examples of cultural diffusion?

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

15. How much does culture define your life?