Definitions & Discussion of Culture
“Culture is roughly anything we do and the monkeys don't.”Lord
Raglan.
The term culture can refer collectively to a society
and its way of life, for example we can talk about
“Chinese Culture.” The term “culture” can also
reference human culture as a whole.
Make a list of 3 different cultures
(societies):
__________________________
__________________________
__________________________
Make a list of 5 behaviors you
think all humans share:
________________________
_________________
________________________
_________________
_________________________
British anthropologist, Edward Tylor originally proposed a definition of
culture as “socially patterned human behavior and thought”. This
definition means that humans will predictably act in certain ways in certain
situations. For example, when humans come in contact they will greet
each other, or humans will always build a shelter to live in. This definition
actually works as an open-ended list of categories of behaviors humans
share. Some researchers have attempted to create lists of the content of
all cultures. Sometimes these lists of cultural categories are called “cultural
universals”. Others have listed and mapped all the culture traits of
particular geographic areas.
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The first inventory of cultural categories was undertaken in 1872. A committee of anthropologists prepared a manual
that listed seventy-six culture topics, in no particular order, including such diverse items as cannibalism and language.
The most exhaustive such list is the "Outline of Cultural Materials," first published in 1938 and still used as a guide for
cataloging worldwide cultural data for cross-cultural surveys. Like the table of contents of a giant encyclopedia, the
outline lists 79 major divisions and 637 subdivisions. For example, "Food Quest" is a major division with such subdivisions
as collecting, hunting, and fishing.
Think about our “American Culture” add two subdivisions of “Food Quest” that fit our society.
The problem with defining culture is that many anthropologists disagree on the exact definition. For
example, in 1952 Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn, American anthropologists, published a list of
160 different definitions of culture. A simplified list of their definitions is on the table below, their list
indicates the diversity of theories about culture. The definition of culture one uses is an important
matter because it may influence the research problems they investigate, how they think about
what they learned and the positions they take on issues.
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TABLE: Diverse Definitions of Culture:
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
Normative: Culture is ideals, values, or rules for living
Culture is the way humans solve problems of adapting to the environment or
Functional:
living together
Culture is a complex of ideas, or learned habits, that inhibit impulses and
Mental:
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
Topical:
Which statements best fit with the different definitions above.
A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without
roots.
Culture is roughly anything we do and the monkeys don’t.
Moral values, and a culture and a religion, maintaining these values are far better than laws
and regulations.
How can a society that exists on instant mashed potatoes, packaged cake mixes, frozen
dinners, and instant cameras teach patience to its young?
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Culture involves at least three components: 1) what people think or believe, 2) what
they do, and 3) the material products they produce.
Think about the game we played. What were the 3 beliefs the people had? Give an example how their
actions demonstrated their beliefs.
1._______________________________________ 2.______________________________
3. __________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Some anthropologists would define culture entirely as mental rules (what people think) guiding
behavior. Sometimes however, the rules people say they follow and how they actually act does
not always match. Consequently, some researchers pay most attention to human behavior and its
material products.
Think about school. List a belief we have in school. (For example school is for learning or gum
chewing is not allowed). Give an example of how our behaviors do not match our beliefs.
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Culture also has six properties: it is shared, learned, symbolic, transmitted from one generation to the
next, adaptive (how it changes over time and place), and integrated (how it is part of our daily
lives).
For something to be cultural it must be shared among many people. If it
is something that just one or two people believe then it is not cultural, it is
idiosyncratic. Culture is learned, not biologically inherited, and involves
arbitrarily assigned, symbolic meanings. For example, Americans are not
born knowing that the color white means purity, and indeed this is not a
universal cultural symbol. In some cultures white signifies death.
Ask Madame
Bowen if there are
symbols that mean
something different
in France than they
do in the U.S.
Remember that culture is beliefs, behaviors and things humans make and that they are
not idiosyncratic. Look at each of the properties below and give an example of each
one:
Shared
Learned
Adaptive
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Integrated
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Draw a cultural symbol
The human ability to assign arbitrary meaning to
any object, behavior or condition makes people
enormously creative and readily distinguishes
culture from animal behavior. People can teach
animals to respond to cultural symbols, but
animals do not create their own symbols.
Furthermore, animals have the capability of
limited tool manufacture and use, but human tool
use is extensive enough to rank as qualitatively
different and human tools often carry heavy
symbolic meanings.
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