Transcript On the Concept of Culture

On the Concept of Culture
and the Nature of Cultural
Systems
Definitions of Culture
“Culture, or civilization. . . is that
complex whole which includes
knowledge, belief, art, law, morals,
custom, and any other capabilities
and habits acquired by man as a
member of society.”
---Sir Edward Tylor, 1871
• Man
• Civilization
• Complex whole
Other Definitions of Culture
“A culture is the total socially acquired
life-way or life-style of a group of
people. It consists of the patterned,
repetitive ways of thinking, feeling,
and acting that are characteristic of
the members of a particular society or
segment of society” (Harris 1975,
144).
For our purposes, culture is
shared and learned behavior and
beliefs.
Characteristics of Culture
Culture is not the same as nature
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Universal
human
functions to
survive:
Eating
Drinking
Sleeping
Eliminating
Culture is not the same as nature
Culture is not the same as nature
Culture is based on symbols
• A symbol is an object,
word, or action with a
culturally defined
meaning that stands
for something else
with which it has no
necessary or natural
relationship.
Culture is learned:
through direct instruction,
participating, observation
Cultures are Integrated
Cultural Interaction and Change
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Clash of civilizations
McDonaldization
Hybridization
Localization
Multiple Cultural Worlds
• Class
• “Race”
• Ethnicity and
indigeneity
• Gender and sexuality
• Age
• Institutions
Guiding Goals and Concepts of
Cultural Anthropology
• Ethnography and
ethnology
• Cultural relativism
• Valuing and
sustaining diversity
Biological determinism vs. cultural
constructionism
• Are the disturbances
that vex adolescents
in the US due to the
nature of adolescence
itself or to our
culture?
• Under different
cultural conditions,
does adolescence
vary?
Interpretive anthropology vs.
cultural materialism
Individual agency vs. social
structure