ATH 175 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Formal Learning, Class Discrimination, Intersectionality
17 Sep 2016
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Humans act from ideas: which they learn from others, which are embedded in material environments and social networks, which they tend to reproduce, habitualize, and pass on, unless circumstances encourage change. What is culture: fundamental human trait. Culture is about the human need for meaning. All animals produce offspring, only humans have families. All humans live in worlds and have lives filled with meaning. These meanings orient us in the world and tell us how to act. Specific meanings vary from culture to culture: something people have, something generated through encounters. What are the characteristics of culture: symbolic. Something that stands for something else to someone in some respect. Communicative (everything we do has a practical function) Our actions mean something to ourselves and others. Every action no matter how mundane has meaning. Arbitrary (the meanings of the symbols are particular to those who use them) There is nothing natural or essential about any system of meaning: ex.
