Chapter 2

Characteristics of Culture

Chapter Preview

• What Is Culture?• Why Do Cultures Exist?• Ethnocentrism: Are Some Cultures Better

Than Others?

What Is Culture?

• Culture consists of abstract ideas, values, and perceptions of the world that inform and are reflected in people’s behavior.

• Culture is shared by members of a society and produces behavior that is intelligible to other members of that society.

• Cultures are learned rather than inherited and the different parts of a culture function as an integrated whole.

Why Do Cultures Exist?

• Cultures provide a design for thought and action that help people survive the challenges of existence.

• A culture must satisfy the basic needs of those who live by its rules, and provide an orderly existence for the members of a society.

Ethnocentrism: Are Some Cultures Better Than Others?

• The human perspective is typically “ethnocentric”—believing that the ways of one’s own culture are the only proper ones.

• Crossing cultural boundaries, we discover that people in our own society are not unique in being ethnocentric.

• Anthropologists strive to understand each culture in its own right.

Culture

• The values, beliefs, and perceptions of the world shared by members of a society, that they use to interpret experience and generate behavior, and that are reflected in their behavior.

Characteristics Of Culture

• Culture is shared.• Culture is learned.• Culture is based on symbols.• Culture is integrated.• Culture is dynamic.

Culture Is Learned

• All culture is learned rather than biologically inherited.

• The process of transmitting culture from one generation to the next is called enculturation.

• Through enculturation individuals learn the socially appropriate way to satisfy biologically determined needs.

Visual Counterpoint

• Here a North American mother introduces her child to the computer, and a Maya Indian mother in Guatemala shows her daughter how to handle a machete.

Culture Is Shared

• Culture cannot exist without society.• There are no known human societies that do

not exhibit culture.• All is not uniform within a culture; There is

some difference between men’s and women’s roles in any human society.

Culture and Gender

• Significant numbers of infants are born each year whose genitalia do not conform to cultural expectations.

• Because only two genders are recognized, the usual reaction is gender assignment surgery to construct male or female genitalia.

Society

• A group of interdependent people who share a common culture.

Subculture

• A distinctive set of standards and behavior patterns by which a group within a larger society operates.

Subculture: Amish

• By maintaining schools to instill Amish values in their children, prohibiting mechanized vehicles and equipment, and dressing in plain clothing, the Amish proclaim their own special identity.

Ethnic Groups of the Russian Federation

Ethnic Group

• People who collectively and publicly identify themselves as a distinct group based on various cultural features such as shared ancestry and common origin, language, customs, and traditional beliefs.

Question

• The Amish may be used as an example of a/an

A. pluralistic society.

B. subculture.

C. integrated culture.

D. world culture.

E. complex society.

Answer: B

• The Amish may be used as an example of a subculture.

Culture Is Based on Symbols

• Symbols are signs, emblems, and other things that represent something else in a meaningful way.

• Culture is transmitted through ideas, emotions, and desires expressed in language.

• Through language, humans transmit culture from one generation to another.

Monday September 16, 2013• Objective: SWBAT understand the

characteristics of Culture/• Drill: Why do people think their culture is

better than other peoples?• Homework: Read the article and write a

response, is Rodman doing the right thing by befriending Kim Jong Un

Culture Is Integrated

• All aspects of a culture function as an integrated whole.

• A change in one part of a culture usually will affect other parts.

• A degree of harmony is necessary in any properly functioning culture, but complete harmony is not required.

The Barrel Model of Culture

• Every culture is an integrated system.

• There are functional relationships among the economic base (infrastructure), the social organization (social structure), and the ideology (superstructure).

Social Structure

• The rule-governed relationships of individuals and groups within a society that hold it together.

Infrastructure

• The economic foundation of a society, including its subsistence practices, and the tools and other material equipment used to make a living.

Superstructure

• A society’s shared sense of identity and worldview.

• The collective body of ideas, beliefs, and values by which a group of people makes sense of the world—its shape, challenges, and opportunities—and their place in it.

• This includes religion and national ideology.

Culture is Dynamic

• Cultures are dynamic systems that respond to motions and actions within and around them.

• When one element within the system shifts or changes, the entire system strives to adjust, just as it does when an outside force applies pressure.

• A culture must be flexible enough to allow such adjustments in the face of unstable or changing circumstances.

Culture and Adaptation

• In the United States, the principal source of fruits, vegetables, and fiber is the Central Valley of California, where irrigation works have made the desert bloom.

• As in Mesopotamia, evaporation concentrates salts in the water, but here pollution is made worse by fertilizers that accumulate in the soil and threaten to make the valley a wasteland.

Question

• Which of the following statements about society and culture is not correct?

A. Culture can exist without a society.

B. A society can exist without culture.

C. Ants and bees have societies but no culture.

D. A culture is shared by the members of a society.

E. Although members of a society may share a culture, their behavior is not uniform.

Answer: A

• The following statements about society and culture is not correct: – Culture can exist without a society.

Describing a Culture Without Bias

Anthropologists must:

1. Examine people’s notion of the way their society ought to function.

2. Determine how people think they behave.

3. Compare these with how people actually do behave.

Functions of Culture

• Provide for the production and distribution of goods and services necessary for life.

• Provide for biological continuity through the reproduction of its members.

• Enculturate new members so that they can become functioning adults.

Functions of Culture

• Maintain order among members, as well as between them and outsiders.

• Motivate members to survive and engage in those activities necessary for survival.

• Be able to change to remain adaptive under changed conditions.

Why Cultures Change

• Environment they must cope with has changed.

• Intrusion of outsiders.• Values have changed.

Culture and Change

• Pastoralists herd grazing animals, moving across vast territories in search of food often crossing unmarked international borders.

• No longer able to range through their traditional territories due to government restrictions on land use, these African herders and their cattle are hit hard when droughts occur.

Scapegoating

• Some people whose needs are not readily met by society direct their frustrations against scapegoats, usually minorities.

• In Australia, Europe, and North America, such resentment fueled the rise of “skinheads” who express their hatred with Nazi symbols such as swastikas.

Ethnocentrism

• The belief that the ways of one’s own culture are the only proper ones.

Ethnocentrism

• Japanese traditionally referred to their own people as a “divine nation,” governed by the emperor who was revered as a god.

• A revival of Japanese nationalism is expressed by the restoration of controversial symbols in public places.

Wednesday September 18, 2013

• Objective: SWBAT understand the role that culture plays in crime.

• Drill: What breeds crime in a culture? Why do some cultures have more crime than others?

• Homework: Finish reflection if not done in class. Quiz on first two chapters Friday

Cultural Relativism

• The thesis that one must suspend judgment on other peoples’ practices in order to understand them in their own cultural terms.

Ethnocentrism

• Watch Inside North Korea and answer the questions.

Question

• _____________ is the notion that one's culture better and more proper than other cultures.

A. Ethnocentrism

B. Cultural relativism

C. Cultural materialism

D. Adaptation

E. Pluralism

Answer: A

• Ethnocentrism is the notion that one's culture better and more proper than other cultures.

Evaluating a Culture

Cultures can be evaluated according to: • Nutritional status• Physical and mental health of population• Incidence of violence, crime and delinquency• Demographic structure• Stability and tranquility of domestic life

Culture and Crime

• A sign that a culture is not satisfying a people’s needs and expectations is a high incidence of crime and delinquency.

• 25% of all imprisoned people in the world are incarcerated in the U.S.

• In the past ten years the country’s jail and prison population jumped from 1.6 to 2.2 million.

Deviance vs. Criminal• What is the difference between deviant

behavior and criminal behavior?• Deviance: An act that departs from

established norms. Examples of deviance range from littering, being loud and disruptive on the streets to rape, robbery and murder.

• Crime: An act punishable by law. A crime can be defined as the omission of a duty (ex. Not paying taxes) or the commission of an act (ex. Perjury) forbidden by a public law and punishable upon conviction by imprisonment, fine and or removal of office. In capital offenses, death may be a penalty. A crime may also involve violation of a public trust.

Youth and Crime• Read the article and answer the following in

journal response form:– What does the author attribute the rise in

juvenile crime to? Do you agree or disagree? Explain.

– Do you think juvenile crime is more of a problem in the US or in the UK (where the article is about)? Why?

– Do you feel there is anyway to reverse the course of action we are on, or is crime going to continue to get worse? How?