CULTURE
Distinctively Human Adaptation
Culture
What is this thing called culture, anyway?
Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art,
morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a
member of society" (E.B. Tylor 1871).
Culture
However, a more modern source, the American Heritage English
Dictionary, gives a primary definition of culture which is
substantially different than earlier primary definitions:
"The totality of socially transmitted
behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and
all other products of human work and thought."
Culture
Word of many uses…”high”culture, “low” culture,
agriculture, cultivate, cult…”way of life”
CULTURE/culture
CULTURE -
way of life of human beings - ethnology
culture -
way of life of a specific group of human beings ethnography
MAINLY learned
Symbolic
S-R
Imprinting
conditioning
(Prägung)
Culture
Initially learning was considered to
occur on a tabula rasa or “blank slate.”
Today, the term “palimpsest” seems more
accurate.
Culture
We acquire culture as a process of maturation growing up….the various processes
involved in the transmission of culture are
called enculturation.
Similar to socialization, but does not start until
we are capable of symbolic learning.
Enculturation is a major factor in the
development of personality...our identity.
Identification with one’s culture is known as
ethnocentrism.
Culture
Ethnocentrism is a major challenge to understand
another culture.
Cultural relativism is a method that
anthropologists have developed to try to
take account of their own ethnocentrism.
Cultural relativism is simply an attempt to
understand another culture from the
point of view of the people in that culture.
How Cultures Are Studied
Participant Observation
Important
Dichotomies
Culture Shock
Emic/Etic Method
Comparative
Inside/Outside
Overt/Covert
Real/Ideal
How Cultures Are Studied
Culture Change
acculturation
functional prerequisites
culture loss
cultural evolution
cultural diffusion
subculture
The Trobriand Islands:
Two Aspects of Culture Change
First Aspect: Branislaw Malinowski
Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922)
The initial study of the Trobrianders. One of the classic studies
in anthropology…describes ethnographic fieldwork and
establishes a functionalist approach in ethnology…his analysis
of the “Kula Ring” remains one of the most assigned topics in
anthropology. He:
-----compelled anthropology out of the armchair
-----advocated modern methods of ethnography such as
participant observation and learning the language
-----societies are integrated wholes; one must study
interrelationships
-----stressed need to document the native's perspective (emic)
The Trobriand Islands:
Two Aspects of Culture Change
Second Aspect: Annette Weiner
Initiating her fieldwork about 50 years after
Malinowski, Weiner revised his conclusions, taking
into account women’s value in Trobriand
economics….A major contribution to the field of
cultural anthropology was her in-depth study of the
value and circulation of goods among the
Trobrianders of Papua, New Guinea. Her
publications include Women of Value, Men of
Renown: New Perspectives in Trobriand Exchange
(1976).
Culture
Lithic (stone) Tool Technology
Core Tool Technology
Flake Tool Technology
Blade Tool Technology
Culture
Hunting and Gathering (Food Foraging) Societies
All societies without domestication for food.
Domain
Endogamy/Exogamy
Dialectal culture
Basic division of labor Men hunt
Women gather