ANTH 1010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Bet Her, Westernization, Cultural Relativism
1 Sep 2016
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Cultural anthropology lecture #1 8/31/2016: definition of cultural anthropology: Devoted to studying human culture worldwide, both their similarities and differences. Teaches us to look at others without judgement: key ideas. Structurism; cultural materialism: simple definition of culture. Learned and shared ways of behaving and thinking: characteristics of culture. Culture is not the same as nurture: nature. I. e. in india, widows wear white clothing to mark their status. I. e. in china, amongst the achang ethnic group, married women wear long skirts while un- married women wear trousers: learned. Much cultural learning is absorbed unconsciously, through observation and practice. Some is learned formally in school: integrated. Simply studying one aspect of culture might be misleading. I. e. highland papua new guinea; pigs + wives = political power. One might think if you have a lot of land then have many pigs then you have political power.
