SA 150 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Noble Savage, Sociolinguistics, Linguistic Determinism

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Sociology and Anthropology
• Course: SA 150
• Professor: Suzanna Crage

Document Summary

Introduction: what we mean by culture and why it"s contested (page 63) Culture: a social system (sometimes contested), comprising behaviour, beliefs, knowledge, practices, values, and material such as buildings, tools, and sacred items. In this sense, everyone has a culture in fact, many people can lay claim to more than one. Contested: describing a practice whose moral goodness or badness, normalcy or deviance, or general predominance is disputed by some members of society. In more serious cases, aspects of a culture may be contested when they become instruments of oppression. Culture often becomes contested over the question of authenticity. Authenticity: the quality of being true to the traditions of a people. Authenticity is often contested by the modern representatives of the people themselves and experts from outside the community: becomes a problem when a colonial society studies a colonized culture and claims to know the secret of its authenticity.