Transcript What Culture Is - Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis

What Culture Is
ANTH A-103, Human Origins and Prehistory
Larry J. Zimmerman, Ph.D., RPA
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
"Culture or civilization, taken in its wide,
ethnographic sense, is that complex
whole which includes knowledge, belief,
morals, law, custom and any other habits
and capabilities acquired by man as a
member of society."
E. B. Tylor, 1871 from Primitive Culture
Four traditional views of culture:
1. Culture is the difference between humans and
animals.
2. Culture is learned behavior.
3. Society carries culture.
4. Culture is patterned behavior
As outlined by Kroeber and Kluckhohn in
Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts
and Definitions
Culture is the difference
between humans and animals.
•An anthropocentric definition
•Tools using versus tool making
•Jane Goodall's chimpanzee studies
•Algebraic mentality
•Opposable thumb
•Power Grip vs. Precision Grip
Crucial to tool-making and using
Opposable thumb
Power Grip vs. Precision Grip
Power
Precision
A revised definition?
Humans are the only animals to make and
use tools as their primary means of adapting
to the environment
Culture is learned behavior.
How do humans learn?
Imitative learning
Language-based learning
Wolf or wild children
Remus and Romulus
Helen Keller & Anne Sullivan
Signs vs symbols
Foundations of language
Signs carry their own meaning
Symbols are intermediaries and
carry meaning for something else
It’s raining!
Il pleut!
Symbols are an abstraction from reality,
thus an artificial creation by people.
If language is a human creation based on symbols,
and language is the foundation for culture, then
Culture is an artificially created reality
Society carries culture.
•Society—an interacting group of organisms of the same
species
•Society is the repository for culture—language is crucial
•Society's members participate in it
•Society & Culture outlast the individual
•Society and Culture are the dominant determinant of social
behavior
a. Stereotypes
b. Modal personalities
c. National character
Culture is patterned behavior
a. Culture with an upper case C; culture with a lower case c
b. Culture is hierarchical
c. Culture is a system
Kaibola School, Trobriand
Islands, Papua New Guinea, on
National Day, when traditional
dress is worn
Functional prerequisites of culture
Territory/technology
People
Language
Social organization (kinship and network of agreements)
Ideology (belief systems/world view)
What is anthropology?
The study of culture
Tasks of anthropology:
Description (ethnography)
Comparison (ethnology)
Explanation
The same as the tasks of any science, but because
anthropology deals with people, it crosses over into
the social sciences and humanities.
Four subfields of anthropology
Anthropological Linguistics
Language as a foundation for culture
What you can tell about a culture by use of language
Variations of symbolic communication-body language
Cultural Anthropology
Examines living cultures and all their variety
Physical or biological anthropology
Looks at the biological underpinnings of
culture
Archaeology
Studies the evolution/change/development of
human culture through time
Problems of time
Problems of preservation
Problems of ethnographic analogy
Why study
Anthropology?
1. Humans are just plain interesting.
Dangers: using the practices of another
culture to justify your own cultural
practices-Ethnocentrism and cultural
relativism introduced as key concepts
2. Humanistic reasons
If we know what others do and why, we will
be less likely to rush to judgment about
them.
3. Scientific reasons
If you can predict how culture works, then
you can change it to make the world better.