ANTHRCUL 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Holy Water, Enculturation, Ethnocentrism

• School: U of M
• Department: Anthropology, Cultural
• Course: ANTHRCUL 101
• Professor: Holly Peters- Golden

Document Summary

Enculturation: the process by which a child learns his or her culture. Symbol: signs that have no necessary or natural connection to the things they signify or for which they stand. Cultures have been characterized as sets of control mechanisms plans, recipes, rules, instructions, programs for the governing of behavior . Anthropologists agree that cultural learning is uniquely elaborated among humans and that all humans have culture. Individuals differ in their emotional and intellectual tendencies and capacities; all human populations have equivalent capacities for culture. Subculture: different cultural traditions associated with subgroups in the same nation; canada is made with different religious background but they all share a common national culture. Ethnocentrism: tendency to view one"s own culture as superior and to use one"s own standards and values in judging outsiders. Cultural relativism: idea that behavior should be evaluated not by outside standards but in the context of the culture in which it occurs.