ANTHROP 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Cultural Relativism, Culture Shock, Ethnocentrism

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTHROP 1AA3
• Professor: Karen Mc Garry

Document Summary

Human culture: learned behaviors and beliefs that shape our human experience. We tend to think about many of our behaviors and identities as natural/biological but many are not. You don"t do something because it"s in my blood to be american" but americans are taught what it is to be american. Anthropologists fight against ethnocentrism - idea that one"s culture and its values are somehow superior to others. Many people then judge another culture according to the standards of their own. Cultural relativism : approach the anthropologists use to try to study another culture using their own terms. Holistic: looking at it through a critical understanding. Collaborative efforts of researchers: understanding how different aspects and societies are interrelated.