Study Guide 3-1 PDF

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Study Guide 3-1 – Kottak, Chapter 2 Chapter 2: Culture 1. Describe the defining dimensions of culture. The concept of culture is an important and fundamental aspect of anthropology. It is complex, and it includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. The defining dimensions of culture include: a. Culture is Learned: the ease with which children absorb any cultural tradition rests on the uniquely elaborated human capacity to learn; cultural learning depends on the uniquely developed human capacity to use symbols; through cultural learning, people can create, remember, and deal with ideas; acquire culture through observation; many aspects of culture are absorbed unconsciously; although individuals differ in their emotional and intellectual tendencies and capacities, all human populations have equivalent capacities for culture b. Culture is Symbolic: for many years, humans have possessed the abilities on which culture rests; these abilities are to learn, to think symbolically, to manipulate language, and to use tools and other cultural products in organizing their lives and coping with their environments; every contemporary human population has the ability to use symbols and thus to create and maintain culture c. Culture is Shared: culture is transmitted in society; we learn our culture by observing, listening, talking, and interacting with many other people; shared beliefs, values, memories, and expectations link people who grow up in the same culture; enculturation unifies us by providing us with common experiences; we are most likely to agree with and feel comfortable with people who are socially, economically, and culturally similar to ourselves d. Culture and Nature: culture takes the natural biological urges we share with other animals and teaches us how to express them in particular ways; people have to eat, but culture teaches us what, when, and how; culture molds “human nature” in many directions; our culture (and cultural changes) affect the ways in which we perceive nature, human nature, and “the natural”; through science, invention, and discovery, cultural advances have overcome many “natural” limitations e. Culture is All-Encompassing: for anthropologists, culture includes much more than refinement, taste, sophistication, education, and appreciation of the fine arts; the most interesting and significant cultural forces are those that affect people every day of their lives, particularly those that influence children during enculturation; culture, as defined by anthropologists, encompasses features that sometimes are considered trivial or unworthy of serious study f. Culture is Integrated: cultures and not haphazard collections of customs and beliefs; cultures are integrated not simply by their dominant economic activities and related social patterns, but also by sets of values, ideas, symbols, and

judgments; cultures train their individual members to share certain personality traits i. Economic changes have social repercussions ii. Attitudes and behavior about marriage, family, and children have changed iii. Late marriage, “living together”, and divorce have become common place iv. Work competes with marriage and family responsibilities and reduces the time available to invest in child care g. Culture is Instrumental, Adaptive, and Maladaptive: culture is the main reason for human adaptability and success; people have cultural ways of adapting ; people use culture instrumentally, that is, to fulfill their basic biological needs for food, drink, shelter, comfort, and reproduction; people also use culture to fulfill psychological and emotional needs; individuals cultivate ties with others based on common experiences, political interests, aesthetic sensibilities, and personal attraction; many modern cultural patterns can be maladaptive in the long run (ex: policies that encourage overpopulation, overconsumption, and environmental degradation)

2. Discuss the evolutionary basis of culture and the similarities and differences between humans and primates. The human capacity for culture has an evolutionary basis that extends back perhaps 3 million years ago; similarities between humans and apes are evident in anatomy, brain structure, genetics, and biochemistry; many human traits reflect that our primate ancestors lived in the trees; substantial gap between primate society and fully developed human culture; a. Similar traits: grasping ability, manual dexterity, depth and color vision, learning ability based on a large brain, substantial parental investment in a limited amount of offspring, tendencies toward sociality and cooperation; can modify learned behavior and social patterns b. Different traits: cooperation and sharing is much more characteristic of humans; the amount of information shared in a human band is far greater than that in any other primate group; human pair bonds for mating are more exclusive and more durable than are of those chimps; all human societies have some form of marriage; ties of affection and mutual support between members of different local groups tend to be absent among primates other than Homo; humans maintain lifelong ties with sons and daughters 3. Define and identify examples of cultural universalities, generalities, and particularities. Certain biological, psychological, social, and cultural features are universal, found in every culture; others are merely generalities, common to several but not all human groups; other traits are particularities, unique to certain cultural traditions a. Universals and Generalities: among the social universals is life in groups and in some kind of family; one cultural generality is the nuclear family, a kinship

group consisting of parents and children; societies can share the same beliefs and customs because of borrowing or through (cultural) inheritance from a common cultural ancestor; another reason for generalities is domination (ex: colonial rule) b. Particularities: at the level of the individual cultural trait or element, particularities may be getting rarer; different cultures emphasize different things; cultures and integrated and patterned differently and display tremendous variation and diversity 4. Explain how people may avoid, subvert, and manipulate cultural “rules” and expectations, and how today’s anthropologists view and analyze those practices. Generations of anthropologists have theorized about the relationship between the “system” on one hand and the “person” or “individual” on the other; within that system, humans are also constrained by its rules and by the actions of other individuals; cultural rules provide guidance about what to do and how to do it; some anthropologists find it helpful to distinguish between ideal culture (what people say they should do and what they say they do) and real culture (actual behavior as observed by anthropologists); anthropologists are interested in how people think, feel, and act; people influence culture by converting their private understandings into public expressions; contemporary anthropologists now emphasize how day-to-day action, practice, or resistance can make and remake culture; approach to culture known as practice theory recognizes that individuals within a society or culture have diverse motives and intentions and degrees of power and influence; the system shapes the way individuals experience and respond to external events, but individuals also play an active role in the way society changes and function a. people don’t always do what the rules say should be done; people use their culture actively and creatively, rather than blindly following its dictates b. people learn, interpret, and manipulate the same rule in different ways, or emphasize certain rules that better suit their interests c. different groups in society struggle with one another over whose ideas, values, goals, and beliefs will prevail d. common symbols may have radically different meanings to different individuals and groups e. even when they agree about what should and should not be done, people don’t always do as their culture directs or as other people expect; many rules are violated, some very often 5. Recall the three levels of culture and why it is important to differentiate among them. We can distinguish between levels of culture, which vary in their membership and geographic extent; because culture is transmitted through learning rather than genetically, cultural traits can spread through diffusion from one group to another; various groups may strive to promote the correctness and value of their own practices, values, and beliefs in comparison with those of other groups or of the nation as a whole

a. National culture: encompasses those beliefs, learned behavior patterns, values, and institutions shared by citizens of the same nation; all nations contain diversity; examples are monster truck rallies and apple pie b. International culture: the term for cultural traditions that extend beyond and across national borders; many cultural traits and patterns have become international in scope (ex: The World Cup); examples are soccer, basketball, and pizza c. Subculture: different symbol-based patterns and traditions associated with particular groups in the same complex society; originate in region, ethnicity, language, class, and religion; diverse branches of religion create subcultures; examples are bocci, and Big Joe Pork Barbecue in South Carolina 6. Distinguish between ethnocentrism and cultural relativism, including how both relate to human rights. Fundamental to anthropology as the study of human diversity is the fact that what is alien to us may be normal, proper, and prized elsewhere; the idea of human rights invokes a realm of justice and morality beyond and superior to particular countries, cultures, and religions; human rights include the right to speak freely, to hold religious beliefs without persecution, and not be be murdered, injured, enslaved, or imprisoned without charge; cultural rights are vested not in individuals but in groups, and they include a group’s ability to raise its children in the ways of its forebears, to continue its language, and not be be deprived of its economic base by the nation in which it is located; cultural rights vs. human rights is a popular debate a. Ethnocentrism: the tendency to view one’s own culture as superior and to use one’s own standards and values in judging outsiders; cultural diversity calls ethnocentrism into question; some customs of certain cultures, while traditional in the societies in which they occur, are opposed by human rights advocates; some customs infringe on a basic human right b. Cultural Relativism: according to this, it is inappropriate to use outside standards to judge behavior in a given society; anthropologists employ this as a methodological position; in order to understand another culture fully, we must try to understand how people in that culture see things, and such an approach does not preclude making moral judgements; different people and groups within the same society can have very different opinions about what is proper, necessary, and moral 7. Describe the mechanisms of cultural change. a. Diffusion: the borrowing of traits between cultures; such exchange of information and products has gone on throughout human history because cultures have never been truly isolated; in today’s world, much transnational diffusion is due to the spread of the mass media and advanced information technology i. diffusion is direct when two cultures trade, intermarry, or wage war on one another

ii. diffusion is forced when one culture subjugates another and imposes its customs on the dominated group iii. diffusion is indirect when items move from group A to group C via group B without any firsthand contact between group A and C b. Acculturation: the exchange of cultural features that results when groups have continuous firsthand contact; this contact may change the cultures of either groups or both groups; in situations of continuous contact, cultures may exchange and blend foods, recipes, music, dances, clothing, tools, technologies, and languages i. Ex: Pidgin- a mixed language that develops to ease communication between members of different societies in contact, and usually happens in situations of trade or colonialism ; Pidgin is a simplified form of English that blends English grammar with the grammar of a native language c. Independent Invention: the process by which humans innovate, creatively finding solutions to problems; faced with similar problems and challenges, people in different societies have innovated and changed in similar ways, which is one reason cultural generalities exist 8. Summarize how globalization affects culture, including how people may affect and be affected by the interrelated forces of globalization. Globalization encompasses a series of processes that work transitionally to promote change in a world in which nations and people are increasingly interlinked and mutually dependent; people increasingly live their lives across borders, maintaining connections with more than one nation-state; the media help fuel a transnational culture of consumption by spreading information about products, events, lifestyles, and the perceived benefits (and sometimes costs) of globalization; the internet and cell phones have made possible the very rapid global transmission of money, resources, and information a. Two different meanings of globalization: i. Worldwide connectedness- primary meaning of globalization; modern systems of production, distribution, consumption, finance, transportation, and communication are global in scope ii. Political- had to do with ideology, policy, and free trade b. The forces of globalization include international commerce and finance, travel and tourism, transnational migration, and the media (including the internet and other high-tech information flows) 9. Define the following terms (and provide any examples from the text and lecture): a. Acculturation- an exchange of cultural features between groups in firsthand contact; mechanism of cultural change b. Core values- key, basic, or central values that integrate a culture; integrates each culture and helps distinguish it from others c. Cultural relativism- the idea that behavior should be evaluated not by outside standards, but in the context of the culture in which it occurs

d. Cultural rights- rights vested in religious and ethnic minorities and indigenous societies e. Diffusion- borrowing of cultural traits between societies; a mechanism of cultural change f. Enculturation- the process by which culture is learned and transmitted across the generations; process by which a child learns his or her culture g. Ethnocentrism- judging other cultures using one’s own cultural standards h. Generality- culture pattern or trait that exists in some but not all societies; common to several but not all human groups i. Globalization- the accelerating interdependence of nations in the world system today; encompasses a series of processes that work transitionally to promote change in a world in which nations and people are increasingly interlinked and mutually dependent j. Human rights- rights based on justice and morality beyond and superior to particular countries, cultures, and religions k. Independent invention- the independent development of a cultural feature in different societies; process by which humans innovate, creatively finding solutions to problems l. International culture- cultural traditions that extend beyond and across national boundaries m. Particularity- distinctive or unique culture trait, pattern, or integration; unique to certain cultural traditions n. Subcultures- different cultural traditions associated with subgroups in the same complex society o. Symbol- something, verbal or nonverbal, that stands for something else; have no necessary or natural connection to the things they signify or for which they stand p. Universal- something that exists in every culture...