The Nature of Culture

Chapter 2 Cultural Anthropology

Concept of Culture The idea of culture was first

introduced near the end of the 19th century “That complex whole which

includes knowledge, beliefs, art, law, morals, custom and any other capabilities, and habits acquired by man as a member of society” Burnett-Taylor – 1871

Culture is shared ideals, values and beliefs that people use to interpret experience and generate behaviour and that are reflected by that behaviour

Characteristics of Culture Culture is shared Shared ideals, values and beliefs and

standards of behaviour The common denominator that makes actions

intelligible to others and allows people to predict behaviour in situations and react accordingly

Characteristics of Culture (cont)

Culture is shared (cont) Culture Shock: happens when

one moves to a different culture and cannot predict and respond accordingly This results in confusion and

insecurity E.g.: anthropologists in the field, or

newcomers to Canada (women’s role in Canadian society)

Characteristics of Culture (cont)Culture is shared (cont) Culture is different from society

Society is a group of people who live in the same geographical region, speak the same language and are, to an extent, interdependent

Society can have more than one cultural group

E.g.: First Nations in Canada

Characteristics of Culture (cont)Culture is shared (cont) Social structure holds

society together Dependency on economic and

family systems and common identity

Despite culture being shared, it is not uniform E.g.: Roles of men and women

differ Gender roles are a culture’s

interpretation of biological differences

Characteristics of Culture (cont)Culture is shared (cont) A subculture is a group of people within a larger society

who have distinctive standards and patterns of behaviour E.g.: Hutterites

Despite distraction they share Canadian values Some subcultures operate outside mainstream

E.g.: punk

Characteristics of Culture (cont)

Culture is shared (cont) Canada is a pluralistic

society Contains several distinct

cultures and subcultures (ethnic subcultures)

Canada is a cultural mosaic of these ethnic subcultures as most

societies today

Characteristics of Culture (cont)Culture is learned Culture is not biologically inherited but

learned “social heredity” as stated by Ralph Linton The process by which people learn their culture

through the transmission between generations is called enculturation

Characteristics of Culture (cont)Culture is learned (cont) Through enculturation we learn socially

acceptable ways to satisfy our biological needs E.g.: An animal eats, drinks or sleeps

whenever the need arises whereas humans do most of this at certain culturally prescribed times and feel hungry as those times near.

Characteristics of Culture (cont)Culture is learned (cont) Enculturation also teaches us how to “fit in” and

be accepted by other members of our cultural group Enculturation forces include school, family, peers,

religion and the media Enculturation process in never complete as old

patterns of behaviour are changed to need the needs of a changing society

Characteristics of Culture (cont)Culture is based on Symbols Aspects of culture is based on

symbols E.g.: Language, art, money,

religion Language is the most important

symbolic aspect of culture Through language, humans are

able to transmit culture from one generation to another

Language makes it possible to learn from cumulative shared experiences

Characteristics of Culture (cont)Culture is integrated The tendency for all of aspects of a culture

to function as an interrelated whole is called integration

Characteristics of Culture (cont)

Culture is integrated (cont) E.g.: Kapauku Papuans, mountain

people of New Guinea studied by Leopold Pospisil in 1955

Economy relies on plant cultivation, along with pig breeding, hunting and fishing

Men achieve political power through business of pig breeding and pig breeding relies on sweet potatoes grown in garden plots

Women are responsible for gardening activities and caring for pigs

So to raise many pigs a man must have many women in the household and this is accomplished through polygyny

Characteristics of Culture (cont)

Culture is integrated (cont) But for each wife a man has to pay a bride price and

wives have to be compensated for their care of pigs So it takes pigs to get wives which are need to raise

pigs So it is the trait of entrepreneurship that produces

leaders in the Kapauku Kapauku emphasize patrilineality and this is stressed

by the wives living in the husbands’ villages and not the other way around

Characteristics of Culture (cont)

Another factor conducive to polygyny is a surplus of women

This is reflected in one of their rules of warfare, which is prevalent among the Kapauku: men get killed but women to not

This provides for the imbalance of sexes that provides favourable conditions for polygyny

Kapauku emphasize patrilineality and this is stressed by the wives living in the husbands’ villages and not the other way around

Characteristics of Culture (cont)

Both endemic warfare and patrilineality promote male dominance and thus it is not surprising that positions of power in Kapauku society is held by men

This type of male dominance arises under the particular circumstances of the Kapauku and the relationship between men and women would be different if the circumstances would have been different

A change in one part of a culture usually will affect other parts but given the various experiences in the enculturation process some potential for change exists in the culture