CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
CULTURE
 What

cultures are you a part of?
What distinguishes them?
 Culture:
a set of learned beliefs,
behaviors, attitudes, values, and ideals
that are characteristic of a particular
society or population


Subculture: the commonly shared customs of a
group within a society
Society: a group of people who speak a common
language and occupy a particular territory
CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE
1.
2.
3.
Culture is learned
Culture is shared
Culture is everywhere
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE
Language (physical, written, and verbal)
 Beliefs and values



Values: shared beliefs about what is right and wrong
Norms: values in action

Folkways: norms with little social significance


“Man Laws”
Mores: norms with great social significance

Laws
Customs and rituals
 Time and space
 Dress and appearance
 Kinship relations
 Cultural Diffusion: the spreading of cultural
traits to other cultures

DIFFICULTIES IN STUDYING CULTURE

Ethnocentrism: judging other cultures in terms of
your own culture
DIFFICULTIES IN STUDYING CULTURE

Cultural Relativism: the attitude that different
cultures should be described objectively and
understood in the context of a particular society
Etic approach: Culturally neutral approach
 Problem: should the anthropologist be morally
relative as well?

RESEARCH METHODS
 Participant
Observation: studying a
culture by immersing one’s self into that
culture


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Fieldwork: first-hand experience with the
people being studied
Informants: individuals within the community
that help the anthropologist
Ethnography: a description or analysis of a
single society
STUDYING ETHNOGRAPHIES

1.
Ethnology: a cross-cultural comparison
Approaches to ethnography
Cultural Ecology: studies the relationship
between a culture and its environment as the
main shaping force of culture
APPROACHES TO ETHNOGRAPHY
2. Political Economy (or the “worldsystem” view): studies external political and
economic forces—generally from powerful,
imperialist states—as the main shaping force
of culture
APPROACHES TO ETHNOGRAPHY
3. Behavioral Ecology (or socio-biology):
studies culture and behavior as the result of
evolutionary development, with a focus on
individual behavior in a cultural context.