ANTH 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Cultural Universal, Cultural Appropriation, Interracial Marriage
Concept of Culture
Easiest and broadest definition
culture refers to people's learned and shared behaviors and beliefs
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"the taken-for-granted notions, rules, moralities, and behaviours
within a social group"
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Culture consists of the collective processes that make the artificial
seem natural
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General and the particular
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Elements of Culture
Culture is: (S.L.I.D.E.S. - acronym)
Learned
In each new cultural context
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Enculturation
The process of learning the cultural rules and logic of a
society, which begins at birth
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Informal learning
From birth
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Observations, practice, advice from those around us
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Formally
School
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Uses symbols
Ingrained
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A symbol is an object, word, or action with a culturally defined
meaning that stands for something else with which it has no
necessary or natural relationship
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It's dynamic , Always adapting and changing
Reasons culture change:
Trade
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Telecommunications
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Education
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Migration
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Tourism
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Globalization - process of intense global interconnectedness
and movement of goods, information, and people
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Examples:
Sexuality□
Interracial marriage □
Food□
Smoking □
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Even though always changing - also adapts
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Some cultural universals
examples include having kinship terms, rituals,
ceremonies
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It's integrated with daily experience
Culture is integrated with daily experience - shaped by
elements of daily life
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A cross-cultural perspective demonstrates the incredible
flexibility and plasticity of the human species -human belief
and practices come in all shapes and forms
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Culture is not the same as nature
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Culture shapes many parts of life we may think are "natural"
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Eating - what we eat, how we eat, when we eat, meaning of
food and foods that are acceptable and unacceptable
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Drinking - what beverages are served and who consumes it
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Sleeping - culture shapes who sleeps where, how much sleep
one should have
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Eliminating - culture shapes where it happens, when it
happens, and how we clean afterwards
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So humans all meet the same biological needs, but differ
culturally in how these needs are met
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Everyone has culture
Like accents, we tend to notice cultures more when they differ
from those we are familiar with
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Tendency to view minorities, immigrants, and other who differ
from white middle-class norms as "people with culture"
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By differing from mainstream patterns, a group's culture
becomes more visible to everyone
The more "culture" in this sense of the term one appears
to have, the less power one wields
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It's shared by groups of people and passed along from generation to
generation
Participating in social groups
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Cultural constructions
The meanings, concepts, and practices that people build
out of their shared and collective experiences
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Transmitted face to face or virtually using a variety of
technological innovations
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If culture is emergent and dynamic, why does it feel so stable?
Societies function most smoothly when cultural processes feel natural and
stable
"people need cultural stability"
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Enculturation occurs every day
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Our experience of culture is repeatedly stabilized by symbols, values,
norms, and traditions.
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Symbols
A symbol is something that conventionally, and arbitrarily, stands for
something else
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Symbols do change (sometimes dramatically), but:
Symbols are particularly stable
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Symbols are easily remembered
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Symbols preserve a culture's conventional meanings
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Values
Are symbolic expressions of intrinsically desirable principles or qualities
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Tend to conserve a society's dominant ideas about morality and social
issues
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Can change but more slowly than other aspects of culture
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Norms
Are typical patterns of behavior, viewed by participants as the unwritten
rules of everyday life
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Remain stable b/c people learn them from an early age and b/c society
encourages conformity
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Are usually unnoticed by people until they're violated
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Breaking can result in social sanctions
Scowling when someone cuts in line or crosses the street against the
light
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Customs
Long established norms
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Traditions
Are the most enduring and ritualized aspects of a culture
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Are usually assumed to be timeless (or, at least, very old)
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The power notion that things have always been a certain way makes
challenging traditions difficult, even it they justify actions that make no
logical sense in modern times.
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How is culture expressed through social institutions?
Culture feels so stable b/c it's expressed and reinforced by social
institutions:
the organized sets of social relationships that link individuals to each
other in a structured way in a particular society
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These institutions include:
Patterns of kinship and marriage
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Economic activities
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Religious institutions
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Political forms
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Can anybody own culture?
Nobody can own "the collective processes that make the artificial seem
natural"
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But conflicts do arise over claims to the exclusive right to use symbols that
give culture power and meaning
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Cultural appropriation
the unilateral decision of one social group to take control over the
symbols, practices, or objects of another
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Defining
Culture
Week 1, Lecture 2 (pg. 1-20)
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
2:21 PM
Document Summary
Easiest and broadest definition culture refers to people"s learned and shared behaviors and beliefs. "the taken-for-granted notions, rules, moralities, and behaviours within a social group" Culture consists of the collective processes that make the artificial seem natural. The process of learning the cultural rules and logic of a society, which begins at birth. A symbol is an object, word, or action with a culturally defined meaning that stands for something else with which it has no necessary or natural relationship. Globalization - process of intense global interconnectedness and movement of goods, information, and people. Some cultural universals examples include having kinship terms, rituals, ceremonies. Culture is integrated with daily experience - shaped by elements of daily life. A cross-cultural perspective demonstrates the incredible flexibility and plasticity of the human species -human belief and practices come in all shapes and forms. Culture shapes many parts of life we may think are "natural"
