The Concept of Culture
Think of 10 ways in which we use the word culture
or cultural.
Eg. Culture shock, Canadian culture, multicultural
The Concept of Culture
C. Construction
C. Shock
Agriculture
Global C.
C. Exchange
Cross-C
C. Diversity
Multicultural
To be C.
High C.
Enculturation
C. Phenomenon
Intercultural
Counter C.
C. Genocide
C. Awareness
Underground C.
Pop C.
C. Identity
C. Perspective
Elite C.
C. Sustainability
Canadian C.
C. Imperialism
C. Hegemony
C. Evolution
uncultured
Consumer C
Safety C
Corporate C.
Deviant C.
Rural C.
Youth C.
gay/lesbian C
C. Assimilation
Dead C
Café C.
C. event
C. survival
drug C.
Subculture
World C.
Bacterial C.
Public C..
C. Relativism
Non-anthropological/sociological
Agriculture Bacterial C.
A continuum
Global C.
World C.
C. Evolution
A Way of Life
Rural C.
Corporate C.
Youth C.
Café C.
Public C.
Canadian C.
A set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices
To be C.
High C.
uncultured
C. event
Counter C. Safety C
Elite C
C. Phenomenon.
drug C.
Consumer C C. Perspective gay/lesbian C
A sense of identity and otherness
C. Identity Canadian C
A celebration of difference
C. Diversity C. Awareness Multicultural
Intercultural Cross-C
C. Exchange
C. Relativism
A disparagement of difference
C. Shock
Deviant C. Pop C. Underground C.
Subculture C. Assimilation
An object (of manipulation)
C. Sustainability
C. Genocide Dead C
C. Hegemony
C. Imperialism
A sense of agency
C. Construction
Enculturation
C. survival
Edward Burnett Tylor
1832-1917
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
`The sum total of knowledge,
attitudes and habitual behaviour
patterns shared and transmitted by
the members of a particular society'
Ralph Linton (1940).
The pattern of life within a
community, the regularly recurring
activities and material and social
arrangements characteristic of a
particular group'. Ward Goodenough (1957):
“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).
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 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
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
Culture reified
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?
Enculturation
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
Religion
Medicine
Law &
politics
Culture is Symbolic
A wink or a twitch
Culture is Dynamic
1896
1960
1918
1970
1924
1935
1986
1990
1955
2005
Why do humans have Culture?
What is its function?
 To communicate - makes the actions of individuals
intelligible to others
 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?
BEFORE YOU GO
1. Funding
2. Health Precautions
3. Language
4. Personal Affairs
5. Authorization/Permission
6. Research – Group and Topic
“Imagine yourself suddenly set
down surrounded by all your gear
on a tropical beach close to a native
village while the launch or dinghy
which has brought you sails away
out of sight….Imagine yourself then,
making your first entry into the
village….Some natives flock around
you, especially if they smell tobacco”
(Malinowski 1922)
kitchen in a local house
special dinner for a visitor
“I looked up and gasped
when I saw a dozen burley,
naked, sweaty, hideous men
staring at us down the shafts
of their drawn arrows! I am
not ashamed to admit that
had there been a diplomatic
way out, I would have ended
my fieldwork then and
there….I wondered why I
ever decided to switch from
physics and engineering in
the first place. “Chagnon
1983
Mt Hagen
The market
Local street
General store
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
CONDUCTING FIELDWORK
1. Establish Rapport
2. Find an “Informant”
3. Learn Language
4. Take notes, photograph, conduct census,
interview, analyze documents, case histories
5. Participate and Observe
Stages of Field Research
1. Selecting a Research Problem
2. Formulating a Research Design
3. Collecting the Data
4. Analyzing the Data
5. Interpreting the Data
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
ETHNOGRAPHY:
– the process of observing and
producing published descriptions of
societies, in whole or in part
METHOD:
– how the ethnographer selects and treats
the data of observation
THEORY:
– basic propositions about human nature and
motivation, and about the nature of society and
culture which guide the inquiry.
Deduction
Induction
1. I know Joe is a terrible cook, because I've
eaten at his house three times and each time
the food has been awful.
Induction or Deduction?
2. Francois was French, so like all
Frenchmen, we knew he would enjoy fine
dining.
Induction or Deduction?
Deductive Methodology
Theories
Logical
Deduction
Generalizations
Hypotheses
Hypotheses
Patterns
Observations
Inductive Methodology
Interpretations
Meaning and Interpretation
Manifest and latent Functions
Mandan Rain dance George Catlin
Intended versus unintended consequences
Martin Luther
The Ideal versus the Actual
Ego's cross cousins (in yellow) are distinguished from his parallel
cousins (in green) as the children of opposite and same sexed
parental siblings, respectively.
In many societies the ideal is to marry one’s cross cousin, as he/she
will belong to a different lineage (for alliance purposes), or parallel
cousin, as the cousin will be in the same lineage (for inheritance
purposes). Although the ideal, in actuality only 10% of marriages
will be of the ideal type.