ANTH 103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Cultural Relativism, Animism, Ethnocentrism
Document Summary
Culture: knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, laws, customs, everything we do that defines us as people. Enculturation: the process by which a child learns his or her culture. Symbols: signs that have no necessary or natural connection with the things for which they stand(arbitrarily given)- crucial for enculturation. Human cultural learning depends on uniquely developed human capacity to use symbols. Human culture is learned through direct instruction not observation. 19th century anthropologists argued for a psychic unity of man . Individuals can vary in emotional and intellectual capacity. Populations share capacity to learn the same cultures. Culture is located and transmitted through groups. Shared beliefs, values, mems, expectations, link people who grew up in the same culture. Eating everyone has to but how/when you eat depends on your culture. American culture = television, fast food, restaurants, sports, and games (trivial) Culture affects the ways in which we perceive nature, human nature, and the natural world.
