What is Culture?
Principle of Holism
Assumptions of Culture
Cultural Relativism
Cultural Universals

Culture:
 Socially transmitted knowledge shared by some group
of people
▪ So, there is an American, a Japanese etc. culture
 Everything that people have, think, and do as members of
society
▪ So, it is both material and non-material (e.g. values)
 The non-biological means of human adaptation
 All cultures are made up of material objects, ideas, values
and attitudes and patterned ways of behaving

In 1873, Edward Tylor, sometimes called the “Father of
Anthropology" introduced the concept of culture as an explanation
of the differences among human societies

Tylor defined culture as:
That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law,
morals, custom, and any other capabilities acquired by man as a
member of society

He defined anthropology as the study of culture

Believed in a Unilineal Evolution of Culture
 Hunter-Gatherers -> Savagery -> Barbarism -> Civilization

19th Century Concept of Cultural Evolution
 The process by which new cultural forms emerge out of older ones
 Each Society is believed to PROGRESS through the same stages of
development, from SAVAGERY to BARBARISM to CIVILIZATION
▪ Only Europeans had reached civilization
 E.g. See Lewis Henry Morgan’s idea that
the “tribes of mankind can be classified,
according to the degree of their
Civilization
Barbarism
Savagery
relative PROGRESS”
5

Culture is based on symbols (Symbolic Interactionism)

Symbol = something verbal or nonverbal within a
culture that comes to stand for something else

Language is a system of symbols:
 the primary means by which culture is transmitted from
one generation to another
 language is a symbolic replacement for meanings
 E.g. wedding rings, crucifixes, Red Dragon, golden arches,
school books

Culture is learned

We learn what the symbols are for from our parents, surroundings, & friends
through enculturation.
 Enculturation is the process by which a society's culture is transmitted
from generation to another
 Everyone acquires the particular culture they are raised in
 Children learn about their culture through observation of their parents,
teachers, friends, TV
 We learn correct value systems and appropriate modes of behavior
 Culture can be seen as a plan or recipe

Humans are the learning animals beyond all others. We have more to learn, take
longer, and learn it in more complex ways.

E.g. How did you learn to speak your first/native language? What other things
have you learned without being aware of it?

Culture is Shared

In order to be part of a culture, we share the same meanings for symbols; it's a way
of thinking and interacting
 This results in a certain amount of regularity, predictability
 people can reasonably predict how others will behave
▪
E.g. They will feel/look awkward if you noisily slurp your noodles. In Japan, they will feel/look awkward if you do
not.
 BUT-culture does not determine behavior, does not imply we lack free will
▪

E.g. We get confused when someone doesn't act predictably-murder, violence, dressing differently.
There is variability in the sharing of culture:
 Age variation-generation gaps
 Sex variation-males and females are different
 Subcultures-a system of values and beliefs that are different from main stream. Their
success varies from society to society
▪
E.g. Amish-active isolation, other religious groups

Culture is Integrated

All aspects of culture function as an inter-related whole

If one part of a culture changes it tends to affect another part
 E.g. Most American women in the 1950s expected to have domestic
careers as homemakers and mothers; today college women expect to
get jobs when the graduate.
 As women enter the work force their attitudes toward marriage,
family, and children change. Changes include later marriages,
increased divorce rates, and daycares.
 Also related to economic changes and families not being able to make
it on one income.

Culture is Adaptive

Adaptation-the way living populations relate to their environment so they can survive and reproduce.



Humans are the only animals that mainly depend on their culture for survival

Exploitation of marginal environments like arctic or desert would not be possible without (material)
culture

Most other animals use anatomical or physiological mechanisms as a means to survive

Animals such as dogs, large cats get meat by using teeth, etc. while humans use weapons, specialization,
organization
Not all cultural behaviors are adaptive

Some are neutral & some are maladaptive

E.g. poaching endangered animals to support cultural material such as jewelry can be seen as
maladaptive, or automobiles are great but pollute environment
Avenues for Cultural Adaptation

Technological-material culture creates a buffer between humans and their environments-tools, clothes

Organizational Adaptation -ordering of groups-kinship, family, marriage

Ideological Adaptation -beliefs such as religion

Cultures are Dynamic

They are ever-changing, non-static; this is referred to as cultural evolution

Many cultures today are very different from what they were years ago
 some aspects of culture change little but can have larger effect
 E.g. relationship between people and the sun mediated by culture
▪

In early 20th century people stayed out of sun, then became "sun-worshippers", now with threat of
cancer…change again
Culture change can come from outside (domination of other culture) or inside
(women entering work force)
 American Indian cultures are very different from what they were 200-300 years ago-due
to outside forces

Culture Change by invention and diffusion
 Invention (internal)-new thing or idea
 Diffusion (external)-spreading of cultural elements from one culture to another

What are some of the common gestures in
our society?
 What do they mean? What do they symbolize?

Can you think of any gestures in a different
culture that mean something completely
different to our own?
Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Despite many differences, there are some underlying similarities
with cultures

Can you think of what they are?

Some Cultural Universals:
 Art
 Bodily Adornment
 Cooking
 Education
 Family
 Incest Taboos
 Language
 Music
Specific practices for each of these is
guided by a social convention: a
moral contract which encourages and
reinforces consensus on particular
practices and ideas held within a
community. Community members act in
accordance with expectations set for
them by the accepted convention.

So… what makes our world culture what it is
today? – HUMAN DIVERSITY!

Kluckhohn: “Every human is like all other
humans, some other humans, and no other
human.” - American Anthropologist

The major objective of cultural anthropology is
to investigate the validity of this statement.

So with Human Diversity in mind…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z3kNnRqqQg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oSVDiGVHk&index=3&list=PLWUA3UottU6n5mlEUMT5mCeu_jVx4P
_n8
http://list25.com/25-crazy-rites-of-passage/
Tattooing comb, The
plate of the comb is
made of bone and turtle
shell.
Samoan Islands, 19th
century
Portrait of
Tawhaiao
Potatau Whero,
a Maori chief,
New Zealand,
19th century
tattooed chief at
Taiohae, Nukuhiva
drawing, 19th
century
http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/exhibits/online_
exhibits/body_modification/bodmodintro.shtml
Male with pierced ear,
Iraq, 9th century B.C
A woman with
pierced ears and
stretched lobes,
Borneo, 1988
http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/exhibits/online_exhibits/bo
dy_modification/bodmodintro.shtml
Male with multiple ear
piercings,
suburban Philadelphia,
1998
woman with face
painting Papua,
New Guinea, 1982
Decorated for an
annual festival
Need I say more?
http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/exhibits/online_ex
hibits/body_modification/bodmodintro.shtml
The Pa Dong Village of Nai
Soi, Thailand
Ndebele woman, S. Africa

Living in social groups that
transmit culture is the
adaptive strategy of humans.

All humans have learned
transmitted skills for acquiring
food called subsistence
techniques.