ANTH 2 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Penicillin, Cultural Ecology, Ethnocentrism
Document Summary
Without the constraints, assumptions, and patterns imposed by culture, it is difficult to express human qualities and abilities. Culture: the learned, symbolic, adaptive, and changing patterns of behavior and meaning shared by members of a group. Cultures are made up of learned behaviors. People are not born knowing their culture learned through enculturation. Symbol: something that stands for something else. People use cultural symbols to create meaning. Symbolic anthropologists: theoretical position that focuses on understanding cultures by discovering and analyzing the symbols that are most important to their members. Interpretive anthropology: theoretical position that focuses on analyzing literature to analyze cultures. Found in public events, celebrations and rituals. Changes in one aspect of culture affect other aspects. Although there may be disagreement about aspects of a culture, there is considerable consensus. Cultures are adaptive and include information about how to survive in the world.
