WHAT IS CULTURE?
CULTURE
is a key concept in anthropology.
The term is now widely adopted
by other social sciences and
humanities. Despite its common
usage in everyday reference the
term “culture” as employed in
anthropology does have a more
specific meaning.
CULTURE
has been defined in various
ways but most anthropologists
would agree on the following
definition:
CULTURE is the customary behavior,
beliefs, values and ideals that are
passed on through the generations
among members of a social group.
Culture can be thought of as the total
life way of a group encompassing its
symbolic beliefs.
The key ideas within the
concept of culture are:
1) that culture is shared
among a group.
2) that culture is learned by
members of a social group not
genetically inherited. The
process of learning one’s culture
is termed “enculturation”.
3) that culture is integrated,
i.e. change in one aspect of a
culture can bring change to
other parts.
4) that culture is adaptive, its
ways changing in response to
new circumstances and new
influences. Within any culture
there is more or less room for
diversity and dissention.
In anthropology we are interested
in studying cultural behavior and
beliefs, i.e. we are interested in
what people do and why they do
it; what people say and why they
say it.
What we are NOT interested in
doing is judging other people’s
culture by our own cultural
standards.
To judge others’ culture by our
own standards would be termed
“ethnocentric”.
We define ethnocentrism as the
tendency to view one’s own
culture as superior and apply
one’s own cultural values in
judging the behavior and beliefs
of people from other cultures.