The Concept of Culture
Think of 10 ways in which we use the
word culture or cultural.
Eg. Culture shock, Canadian culture,
multicultural
Culture or civilization, taken in its wide ethnographic
sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge,
belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other
capabilities and habits acquired my man as a member
of society. E. B. Tylor 1871
Edward
Burnett
Tylor
1832-1917
Ralph Linton (1940). `The sum total of knowledge, attitudes
and habitual behaviour patterns shared and transmitted by
the members of a particular society'
Ward Goodenough (1957): `The pattern of life within a
community, the regularly recurring activities and material
and social arrangements characteristic of a particular
group'.
Culture is a way of life
Material
Objects
Ideas
Attitudes
Values
“Everything that people have, think, and do as
members of a society” (Ferraro, 2003)
Culture is Relative
Behavior
Patterns
What is Canadian Culture?
I A M C A N A D I A N !!!
I am not a lumberjack or a fur trader,
And I don't live in an igloo or eat blubber or own a dogsled,
And I don't know Jimmy, Sally, or Susie from Canada,
Although I am certain they are really, really nice.
I have a Prime Minister, not a President.
I speak English and French, not American.
And I pronounce it "about" ... not "a-boot".
I can proudly sew my country's flag on my backpack.
I believe in peacekeeping not policing;
Diversity not assimilation;
And that the beaver is a truly proud and noble animal!
A tuque is hat; a chesterfield is a couch.
And it is pronounced ZED not ZEE, ZED!
Canada is the second largest landmass,
The first nation of hockey,
And the best part of North America!
“Culture is the framework of beliefs, expressive symbols,
and values in terms of which individuals define their
feelings and make their judgements” (Geertz 1957
American Anthropologist 59:32-54).
Geertz 1973: `an historically transmitted pattern of
meaning embodied in symbols, a system of inherited
conceptions expressed in symbolic form by means which
men communicate' (1973: 89).
Topical:Culture consists of everything on a list of topics, or categories,
such as social organization, religion, or economy
Historical Culture is social heritage, or tradition, that is passed on to
future generations
Behavioral Culture is shared, learned human behavior, a way of life the
total way of life of a people
Normative Culture is ideals, values, or rules for living a way of thinking,
feeling, and believing
Functional Culture is the way humans solve problems of adapting to the
environment or living together
Mental Culture is a complex of ideas, or learned habits, that inhibit
impulses and distinguish people from animals
Structural Culture consists of patterned and interrelated ideas, symbols,
or behaviors
Symbolic Culture is based on arbitrarily assigned meanings that are
shared by a society
Dimensions of Culture
 Values
 Norms
 Ideas/Beliefs
 Attitudes
 Symbols
 Traditions
 Artifacts
Characteristics of Culture
 Culture is learned
 Culture is unconscious
 Culture is shared
 Culture is integrated
 Culture is Symbolic
 Culture is a way of life
 Culture is Dynamic
 Culture is Relative
Culture is learned
How do we
learn our
culture?
Enculteration
Culture is unconscious
Culture is shared
Everyone should
use a deodorant
USA
89%
French Canada
81%
English Canada
77%
United Kingdom
71%
Italy
69%
France
59%
Australia
25%
Culture is Relative
Such findings signal that Canadian values, ideas, and attitudes
should not be relied upon when planning marketing forays into
foreign consumer markets
Culture is Integrated
Economics
Kinship
law
Religion
Medicine
Culture is Symbolic
A wink or a twitch
Culture is Dynamic
1896
1960
1918
1970
1924
1935
1986
1990
1955
2000
Why do humans have Culture?
What is its function?
To communicate
A tool
gives meaning to differences
Identity
Adaptive
Can culture be maladaptive?
Is Culture Public
or Private?
Ishi ?-1916
What is society?
Society
`A distinct and relatively autonomous community
whose members' mutual social relations are
embedded in and expressed through the medium of
culture'.
`Any portion of a community regarded as a unit
distinguishable by particular aims or standards of
living or conduct'. i.e. culture
`A group of people who occupy a specific locality and
who share the same cultural traditions or culture.'
FIELDWORK
Imagine you wanted to
understand how tourism
had affected Huli culture.
1. What would you do to
prepare yourself for the
fieldwork?
Young Huli girls of
Papua New Guinea
dressed for
traditional dance
2. What would you do when
you got there?
3. What would you do when
you got back?
What is the goal of Fieldwork?
“to grasp the native’s point of
view, his relation to life, to
realise his vision of his world”.
Malinowski 1922
Applied Anthropology
Participant Observation
Holistic Perspective
Regional Expertise
Emic Perspective
Cultural Relativism
Topical Expertise
Hot asset: Anthropology degrees
By Del Jones, USA TODAY
As companies go global and crave leaders for a diverse workforce, a new
hot degree is emerging for aspiring executives: anthropology.
Not satisfied with consumer surveys, Hallmark is sending
anthropologists into the homes of immigrants, attending holidays and
birthday parties to design cards they'll want.
No survey can tell engineers what women really want in a razor, so
marketing consultant Hauser Design sends anthropologists into
bathrooms to watch them shave their legs.
Unlike MBAs, anthropology degrees are rare: one undergraduate degree
for every 26 in business and one anthropology Ph.D. for every 235
MBAs.
My competitive edge came completely out of anthropology," says
Katherine Burr, CEO of The Hanseatic Group. "The world is so
unknown, changes so rapidly. Preconceptions can kill you."
Companies are starving to know how people use the Internet or why
some pickups, even though they are more powerful, are perceived by
consumers as less powerful, says Ken Erickson, of the Center for
Ethnographic Research.
It takes trained observation, Erickson says. Observation is what
anthropologists are trained to do.
Firms seek guidance from anthropology
Elizabeth Church
The Globe and Mail
Monday, July 26, 1999
As a consultant in Palo Alto, Calif. -- the heart of Silicon Valley -- Susan
Squire's uses her training in the study of human behaviour and culture to
develop new products such as pull-up diapers and yogurt-to-go.
This is the new world of the anthropologist, where the skills of former
academics such as Ms. Squire have become a hot commodity in the quest
for business innovation.
Anthropologists, with their expertise in painstakingly observing,
documenting and analyzing human behaviour, are winning a growing
following among companies eager to know what makes their customers,
and their workers, tick.
"What anthropology brings is a way of observing, not laboratory
observing, but observing in context," explains Ms. Squire, who is also
president-elect of the U.S. National Association for the Practice of
Anthropology, which represents anthropologists outside the academic
world. "If I want to know what kind of office products people need, I
don't pull them into a focus group. I go to their office and watch them
during the day."
When Motorola Inc. wanted to know how peasants in rural China might
use portable technology, it sent in an anthropologist with expertise in the
region. When General Mills Inc. of Minneapolis considered introducing
a new breakfast cereal, it put Ms. Squire in people's homes. She is
currently involved in understanding how people navigate the Internet and
helping develop better tools for doing that.
Ms. Canavan, who has a masters degree in anthropology, says the
discipline is valuable because it looks at issues in a holistic way. "We
don't only look at a situation. We look at what is going on around, as
well."
But perhaps the discipline's greatest attraction for business is its ability to
unearth truths that even the subjects don't know about. Mr. Underhill,
after 20 years of watching video tapes of shoppers, points out that
women don't like to go down narrow aisles and that customers will buy
more if there are shopping baskets placed throughout the store.
"People don't always do what they say," Ms. Squires says, adding that
anthropologists "really get at issues that people in focus groups don't
even think to talk about."