THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE

THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE

Culture• Set of learned behaviours and ideas that are

characteristic of a particular society or other social group

• 1873 - Edward Tylor introduced the concept of culture as an explanation of the differences among human societies– “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art,

law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities acquired by man as a member of society."

Material Culture

• Products of customary behaviour

Society

• Group of people who occupy a particular territory and speak a common language not understood by neighbouring people

• Societies do not always correspond with country borders

Subculture

• Commonly shared customs of a smaller group within a society

Defining Features of Culture

• Culture is commonly shared• Culture is socially learned

Language

• Spoken, symbolic communication • Symbol - something verbal or nonverbal that

comes to stand for something else• Makes it very easy to transmit information

Ethnocentrism

• Belief that your culture’s own behaviours and attitudes are the correct ones and that people who do not share them are immoral or inferior

• Judgement of other cultures by the standards of your own culture

• Has both positive and negative consequences– Positive side: it creates social solidarity within the group– Negative: can lead to harmful discrimination against

people whose ways differ from ours

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down:A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors,

and the Collision of Two CulturesBy Anne Fadiman

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down:A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors,

and the Collision of Two CulturesBy Anne Fadiman

• Clash between Hmong refugee family from Laos and American doctors at small California hospital

• Six year old Lia’s diagnosis:– Family and Tvix neeb: Quag dab peg “The Spirit

catches you and you fall down”– American Doctors: Epilepsy

Cultural Relativism

• A society’s customs and beliefs should be described objectively and understood in the context of that society’s problems and opportunities

Dancing with a Ghost:Exploring Indian Reality

By Rupert Ross

“We are not seeing, despite what we

seem to be seeing….”

Dancing with a Ghost:Exploring Indian Reality

By Rupert Ross

• Rupert Ross - Canadian lawyer who works with the Cree and Ojibway people in Canadian court system

• Rather than assume their behavior stems from principles similar to our own and judging it poorly for not conforming, we must realize its different because it stems from different principles.

Dancing with a Ghost:Exploring Indian Reality

By Rupert Ross

• Example: Non-interference – will not interfere in any way with the rights, privileges and activities of another person

• Includes confrontation or criticism about behavior• Described by anthropologist Rosalie Wax in 1952• Might explain reluctance of witnesses to

participate in confronting accused in court

Cultural Relativism & Human Rights• Idea of universal human rights challenges

cultural relativism• Is there a moral/ethical code that is superior

to any country, culture, or religion?• Cultural relativism does not preclude an

anthropologist from respecting human rights

Describing a Culture:Individual Variation with a Culture

• In any culture exists a range of permissible behaviour patterns

• Anthropologists identify socially acceptable limits of variation

Describing a Culture:Cultural Constraints

• Norms: standards or rules about acceptable behaviour

• Cultural constraints– Direct– Indirect

Describing Culture:Ideal vs Actual Cultural Patterns

• Culture’s ideals about how people in a particular situation should feel and behave

• Enforced by cultural constraints • But sometimes people act outside ideals • Ideal may reflect the way society used to be,

or may simply represent what people would like to see

Describing Culture:Discovering Cultural Patterns

• Direct observation and interviews• Random samples

Assumptions about Culture:Culture is general adaptive (nonbiological means of adaptation)

• Certain behaviors may increase chances of survival in a particular society

• Adaptive means it enhances survival and therefore reproductive success- so are likely to persist

• Specific to a given society’s particular environment

• Different societies might develop different adaptations to the same kind of environment

Assumptions about Culture:Culture is mostly integrated

• Culture as a system: changes in one aspect will likely generate changes in other aspects

• Elements of culture are not random assortment, but are mostly adjusted or consistent with one another

Assumptions about Culture:Culture is always changing

• Changes over time• Internal causes include change of social or

natural environment• External causes include influence of other

cultures (diffusion)

Assumptions about Culture:Culture is always changing