COMPARATIVE CULTURE
WHAT IS CULTURE?
307 Najd
WHAT IS CULTURE?

Culture, in anthropology, is the patterns
of behaviour and thinking that people
living in social groups learn, create, and
share.

Culture distinguishes one human group
from another. It also distinguishes humans
from animals.
WHAT IS CULTURE?
A
people’s culture includes their
beliefs, rules of behaviour,
language, rituals, art, technology,
styles of dress, ways of producing
and cooking food, religion, and
political and economic systems.
Culture is Symbolic
 People
have culture primarily
because they can communicate
with and understand symbols.
Symbols allow people to develop
complex thoughts and to
exchange those thoughts with
others.
Culture is Symbolic
 People
have the capacity at
birth to construct, understand,
and communicate through
symbols, primarily by using
language.
Culture is Symbolic

Research has shown, for
example, that infants have a basic
structure of language—a sort of
Universal Grammar—built into
their minds. Infants, who later
become adults, are predisposed
to learn the languages spoken by
the people around them.
Culture is Symbolic

0-10/11 months: Pre Verbal Stage


Cooing 3-5 months Vowel-like sounds
Babbling 6-10 months Repetitive CV patterns

All infants produce the same sounds at this
stage. After this they start to produce
recognizable words – words that are acquired by
living in a particular society
Culture is Symbolic

Thus, language is considered as one of the
most important distinguishing
characteristics that differentiate one
culture from another.

Take, for example, human and animal
languages. When comparing them, we find
that human language vastly exceeds the
capabilities of animals. For instance:
(1) Vocabulary: Chimpanzees,
the closest genetic relatives of
humans, use a few dozen calls and
a variety of gestures to
communicate in the wild. People
have taught some chimps to
communicate using American Sign
Language, and some have
developed vocabularies of a few
hundred words. But any animal's
lexicon will never come close to
that of any typical human.
(2) Grammar:
Chimpanzees have
also not clearly
demonstrated the
ability to use
grammar, which is
crucial for
communicating
complex thoughts.
(3) Production of sounds: In addition, the human vocal tract, unlike that of
chimpanzees and other animals, can create and articulate a wide enough variety
of sounds to create millions of distinct words. In fact, each human language
uses only a fraction of the sounds humans can make.
(4) Interpretation of language: The human brain also
contains highly advanced areas dedicated to the
production and interpretation of speech, which other
animals lack.
Culture is Learned


People are not born with culture; they have
to learn it by being a member of their
society.
For instance, people must learn to speak and
understand a language and to abide by the
rules of a society. In many societies, all
people must learn to produce and prepare
food and to construct shelters. In other
societies, people must learn a skill to earn
money, which they then use to provide for
themselves.
Culture is Learned
 In
all human societies, children
learn culture from adults.
Anthropologists call this
process enculturation, or
cultural transmission.
Culture is Learned
 Enculturation
is a long process.
Just learning the intricacies of a
human language, a major part of
enculturation, takes many years.
Families commonly protect and
enculturate children in the
households of their birth for 15
years or more.
Culture is Learned
Only
at this point can
children leave and establish
their own households.
People also continue to
learn throughout their
lifetimes.
Culture is Shared

People living together in a society share
culture. For example, almost all people
living in the United States share the
English language, dress in similar styles, eat
many of the same foods, and celebrate
many of the same holidays.
Culture is Shared
All
the people of a society
collectively create and
maintain culture. Societies
preserve culture for much
longer than the life of any
one person.
Culture is Shared

They preserve it in the
form of: (a)
knowledge, such as
scientific discoveries;
(b) objects, such as
works of art; and (c)
traditions, such as
the observance of
holidays.
Culture is Shared
 Self-identity
usually depends on
culture to such a great extent
that immersion in a very different
culture—with which a person
does not share common ways of
life or beliefs—can cause a feeling
of confusion and disorientation.
Culture is Shared
 Anthropologists
refer to this
phenomenon as culture shock.
Culture is Shared
Just
as you will bring with
you overseas clothes and
other personal items, you
will also carry invisible
"cultural baggage" when
you travel.
Culture is Shared
Cultural
baggage
contains the values that are
important to you and the
patterns of behavior that
are customary in your
culture.
Ethnocentrism

Members of a
society who share
culture often also
share some
feelings of
ethnocentrism,
the notion that
one’s culture is
more sensible than
or superior to that
of other societies.
Ethnocentrism
 Ethnocentrism
contributes to
the reality of culture because it
affirms people’s shared beliefs
and values in the face of other,
often contradictory, beliefs and
values held by people of other
cultural backgrounds.
Cultural Relativism

Anthropologists, knowing the power of
ethnocentrism, advocate cross-cultural
understanding through a concept known
as cultural relativism.
Cultural Relativism

Someone observing cultural relativism
tries to respect all cultures equally.
Although only someone living within a
group that shares culture can fully
understand that culture, cultural relativists
believe that outsiders can learn to respect
beliefs and practices that they do not
share.
Interaction Between Cultures

Since no human society exists in compete
isolation, different societies also exchange
and share culture. In fact, all societies have
some interactions with others, both out
of (a) curiosity and because (b) even
highly self-sufficient societies
sometimes need assistance from
their neighbors.
Interaction Between Cultures

Today, for instance, many
people: (a) share
similar kinds of
technology, such as
cars, telephones, and
televisions (b) share
commercial trade
and communication
technologies, such as
computer networks,
have created a form of
global culture (c)
exchange ideas (d)
exchange people.
Diffusion
Cross-cultural exchange often results
from: 1. Diffusion
Diffusion is used to describe the spread of
cultural items — such as ideas, styles,
religions, technologies, languages etc. —
between individuals, whether within a single
culture or from one culture to another. For
example, corn, sweet potatoes, and tobacco
all originated in America, but people in many
places now use them.

Types of Diffusion

(A) Direct diffusion was
very common in ancient
times, when small groups, or
bands, of humans lived in
adjoining settlements,
resulting in trade. An example
of direct diffusion is between
the United States (that got
hockey from Canada) and
Canada (that got baseball
from America.
Types of Diffusion

B) Indirect diffusion is very
common in today's world
because of the mass media and
the invention of the Internet. It
happens when traits are passed
from one culture through a
middleman to another culture,
without the first and final
cultures ever being in direct
contact. An example could be
the presence of Mexican food
in Canada, since they have a
huge country in between them.
Acculturation

Acculturation is a process which mostly
results from conquest whereby both
cultures borrow from each other. For
example, the Romans conquered Greece
in the 100's B.C. During the centuries
that followed, the Romans adopted many
features of Greek culture, including Greek
art, literature, and religion. The Greeks, in
turn, were influenced by Roman
architecture.
Acculturation
For example, many
cultures adopted dog
sleds, fur parkas, and
snowshoes from the
Eskimos. In turn,
Eskimos adopted
motorboats, rifles, and
snowmobiles from
other cultures.
Assimilation
Assimilation Involves
borrowing that is more
one-sided. Assimilation
takes place when
immigrants or other
newcomers adopt the
culture of the society in
which they have settled.
For example, Westerners
who have lived for some
time in Saudi Arabia.
Subculture

Some groups of people share a distinct
set of cultural traits within a larger
society. Such groups are often referred to
as subcultures. For instance, the
members of a subculture may share a
distinct language or dialect (variation
based on the dominant language), unique
rituals, and a particular style of dress.
Subculture
 In
the United
States and
Canada, many
strongly
integrated
religious groups,
such as rural
Amish
communities, have
the characteristics
of subcultures.
Culture is Adaptive

Culture helps human societies survive in
changing natural environments. For
example, the end of the last Ice Age,
beginning about 15,000 years ago, posed
an enormous challenge to which humans
had to adapt. Before this time, large
portions of the northern hemisphere
were covered in great sheets of ice that
contained much of the earth’s water.
Culture is Adaptive

In North America, large game animals that
roamed the vast lands provided people with
food and materials for clothing and simple
shelters. When the earth warmed, large Ice
Age game animals disappeared, and many
land areas were submerged by rising sea
levels from melting ice. But people survived.
They developed new technologies and
learned how to survive on new plant and
animal species. Eventually some people
settled into villages of permanent, durable
houses and farms.
Culture is Adaptive

Through history, major developments in
(a) technology, (b) medicine, and (c)
nutrition have allowed people to
reproduce, adapt, and survive in everincreasing numbers. The global population
has risen from 8 million during the Ice
Age to almost 6 billion today.
Cultural Lag

Every culture changes continually. The rate
of change may be slow or rapid. Social
scientists believe that many social
problems come about because some
parts of a culture change more slowly
than others. The term cultural lag refers
to this tendency of certain parts of a
culture to fall behind other related parts
Cultural Lag

For example, the development of
power-driven machinery during
the 1700's and 1800's led to the
establishment of factories. The
working conditions in the early
factories were bad. Not until the
1900's did social changes catch up
with the technological changes
that had built the factories. These
social changes included safety
regulations, a shorter workday, and
the abolition of child labor.
Cultural Lag

In other societies and at other
times, however, changes in ideas
have come before changes in the
material culture. For example,
physicians had the knowledge to
perform some operations for
thousands of years. But little
surgery was possible until the
discovery of antiseptics and
painkillers in the 1800's.
CATEGORIES OF CULTURE

Anthropologists have
described a number of
different categories of
culture: Material
culture includes
products of human
manufacture, such as
technology.
CATEGORIES OF CULTURE
 Social
culture
pertains to
people’s forms
of social
organizationhow people
interact and
organize
themselves.
CATEGORIES OF CULTURE
 Ideological
culture
relates to
what people
think, value,
believe, and
hold as ideals.
CATEGORIES OF CULTURE
 The
arts include
such activities and
areas of interest as
music, sculpture,
painting, pottery,
theater, cooking,
writing, and fashion.
Example:_________
CATEGORIES OF CULTURE

Anthropologists often
study how these
categories of culture
differ across different
types of societies that
vary in scale (size and
complexity).
Anthropologists have
identified several
distinct types of
societies by scale such
as bands (e.g., circus
bands and gypsy
bands),
CATEGORIES OF CULTURE

tribes (e.g., AlQahtani), civilizations
(e.g., Western
civilization), and some
anthropologists
characterize the world
today as a single
global-scale culture,
in which people are
linked together by
industrial technology
and markets of
commercial exchange.