1. Basic Concept of
Human Culture
Akademi Bahasa Asing
Saint Mary
2008

2. 4.Symbolic thinking (systems)
I. Introduction: Nature or Culture?
1.Sleeping
3.Facial expressions
4.Symbolic thinking (systems)
2. Memory

3. Nature or Culture?
5.Singing
6. Forecasting
7. Social smiling

4. Clifford Geertz The Interpretation of Cultures
Terrence Deacon The Symbolic Species:
II. What is culture?
Everything that is not biology (breathing, hearing, voice-box)
Everything humans invented and individual humans learn (speaking, language, gestures)
Cultural Studies View of Culture
Egalitarian Cultural Theorists
Post-modern Cultural Theorists
Reception Theory
What is Culture?
Cultural Artifacts

5. A. Definition of Culture
1.Culture (from the Latin “cultura” stemming from “colere”, meaning "to cultivate") generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance.

6. Definition of Culture:
2. Edward Burnett Tylor (Camberwell, London: October 2, 1870 – January, 2, 1917)
Culture is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and many other capabilities and habits acquired by...[members] of society." (1871)
Culture means: shared values, beliefs, assumptions of who and what we are.
They manifest themselves in our behavior and language, the groups we belong to, the nature of our society.
They are externalized in our artefacts, our art and technology.
Our physical environment conditions our technology and art, our behavior and language,… and our identity

7. Basic Elements in the Tylor’s definition
Culture is:
Holistic
Social norms/rules
Acquired, learned
Shared norms from participating in a society
Symbolic behavior

8. Definition of Culture
3.Clifford Geertz in his book The Interpretation of Cultures (1973) p. 89: Culture is "a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which people communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life"

9. Definition of Culture:
4.Clyde Kluckhohn: a culture to be inclusive of every aspect of a human being's life. Therefore culture can be defined as follows:
1. "the total way of life of a people“
2."the social legacy the individual acquires from his group“
3."a way of thinking, feeling, and believing“
4."an abstraction from behavior“
5.a theory about the way in which a group of people in fact behave
6.a "storehouse of pooled learning“

10. Definition of Culture:
7. "a set of standardized orientations to recurrent problems“
8. "learned behavior“
9. a mechanism for the normative regulation of behavior
10."a set of techniques for adjusting both to the external environment and to other men“
11."a precipitate of history“
12. a human behavioral map.

11. Definition of CULTURE
5. Gary Ferraro (2004): “everything that people have, think, and do as members of a society.”
6. Culture is a system that enables individuals and groups to deal with each other and the outside world.

12. B. Characteristics of culture
Culture is not inherent, but learned
2. Culture is the basis for self-identity and community
3. Cultures are rooted in deep seated beliefs

13. B. Characteristics of culture
4. Culture is built on symbolic systems (language)

14. B. Characteristics of culture
5. Cultures are dynamic, changing, adaptive.

15. Basic characteristics of culture
6. Culture is a collective activity, local and global
7. Shared
8. Integrated

16. To be continued……..