GINS 1020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Participant Observation, Antioch College, World-Systems Theory
10 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
Review of classic definitions and their contemporary implications for understanding culture. Culture involves the active production of symbols, icons, learned behaviours, language, values, and customs that shape the way that people understand their social world. It also reflects the cultural capacity to classify, codify and communicate meaning. Sometimes referred to as a fixed and static but it is actually dynamic and processual. Culture involves social rules that are often deeply regulated. Perceived notion - recognition of who someone is. The consequences of misreading can have serious implications. Certain rules, norms, rites, rituals and cultural practices. Proper behaviour is shaped by rules and regulations. Context matters in order to answer appropriately. One way to understand culture or cultural formations is to study social change. Conducting global ethnographies are good ways to study social change. Anthropology is the study of human beings, which seeks to find the generalities about human life while also explaining the differences.
