ANTHR101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Primitive Culture, Cultural Relativism, Termite
8 Dec 2015
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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. Enculturation: process through which individuals learn the ideas and behaviors that constitute their culture. E. g. babies are born as blank slate they will speak and dress and have same taste of. E. g. bees and ant have innate culture because they know their role. Our ability to speak gives us a benefit to our culture so human did not have to reinvent things. Since culture is learned, it follows that it must also be shared by groups. We organize shared aspects of culture using schemas: Schemas are frameworks for what constitutes of something, the way we organize cultural information. Symbol: something that stands for something else with no necessary link between the symbol and what it represents. Meaning is arbitrary, contextual, and culturally relative. Culture gives meaning to actions and words like love, friendship, and mothers.
