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Culture is LearnedCulture is LearnedCultural learning is unique to humans.Cultural learning is the accumulation of knowledge
about experiences and information not perceived directly by the organism, but transmitted to it through symbols. Symbols are signs that have no necessary or natural
connection with the things for which they stand. Geertz defines culture as ideas based on cultural learning and
Culture is SymbolicCulture is SymbolicThe human ability to use symbols is the basis of culture
(a symbol is something verbal or nonverbal within a particular language or culture that comes to stand for something else).
While human symbol use is overwhelmingly linguistic, a symbol is anything that is used to represent any other thing, when the relationship between the two is arbitrary (e.g. a flag).
Other primates have demonstrated rudimentary ability to use symbols, but only humans have elaborated cultural abilities—to learn, to communicate, to store, to process, and to use symbols.
Culture is Adaptive and MaladaptiveCulture is Adaptive and MaladaptiveCulture is an adaptive strategy employed by hominids.Because cultural behavior is motivated by cultural
factors, and not by environmental constraints, cultural behavior can be maladaptive.
Determining whether a cultural practice is adaptive or maladaptive frequently requires viewing the results of that practice from several perspectives (from the point of view of a different culture, species, or time frame, for example).
Ethnocentrism & Cultural RelativismEthnocentrism & Cultural RelativismEthnocentrism is the use of values, ideals, and mores
from one’s own culture to judge the behavior of someone from another culture. Ethnocentrism is a cultural universal. Ethnocentrism contributes to social solidarity.
Cultural Relativism asserts that cultural values are arbitrary, and therefore the values of one culture should not be used as standards to evaluate the behavior of persons from outside that culture.
Human RightsHuman RightsThe idea of universal, unalienable, individual human
rights challenges cultural relativism by invoking a moral and ethical code that is superior to any country, culture, or religion.
Cultural rights are vested in groups and include a group’s ability to preserve its cultural tradition.
Manny Anthropologists argue that cultural relativism does not preclude an anthropologist from respecting “international standards of justice and morality.”
This is an example of the study of ethnomedicine in Papua New Guinea. The notion of Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights has emerged to help preserve each societies cultural base, which may have commercial value.
AcculturationAcculturationAcculturation is the exchange of features that results
when groups come into continuous, firsthand contact.Acculturation may occur in any or all groups engaged in
such contact.A pidgin is an example of acculturation, because it is a
language form that develops by borrowing language elements from two linguistically different populations in order to facilitate communication between the two.
GlobalizationGlobalization Globalization encompasses a series of processes that work to make
modern nations and people increasingly interlinked and mutually dependent.
Economic and political forces take advantage of modern systems of communication and transportation to promote globalization.
Globalization allows for the domination of local peoples by larger economic and political systems (these may be based regionally, nationally, and worldwide).
Recognizing the breadth and nature of changes wrought through globalization carries the concomitant need to recognize practices of resistance, accommodation, and survival that occur in response to same.
EthnographyEthnographyEthnography is the firsthand personal study of a local
cultural setting.Ethnographers try to understand the whole of a particular
culture, not just fragments (e.g. the economy).In pursuit of this holistic goal, ethnographers usually spend
an extended period of time living with the group they are studying and employ a series of techniques to gather information.
The early ethnographers conducted research almost exclusively among small-scale, relatively isolated societies, with simple technologies and economics.
Ethnographic TechniquesEthnographic TechniquesKey Cultural Consultants are particularly well-informed
members of the culture being studied that can provide the ethnographer with some of the most useful or complete information.
Life histories are intimate and personal collections of a lifetime of experiences from certain members of the community being studied. Life histories reveal how specific people perceive, react to, and
contribute to changes that affect their lives. Since life histories are focused on how different people
interpret and deal with similar issues, they can be used to illustrate the diversity within a given community.
Emic vs. EticEmic vs. EticAn emic (native-oriented) approach investigates how
natives think, categorize the world, express thoughts, and interpret stimuli. Emic means the “native viewpoint” Key cultural consultants are essential for understanding the
emic perspective.An etic (science-oriented) approach emphasizes the
categories, interpretations, and features that the anthropologist considers important.
Ethnographic PresentEthnographic PresentThe early ethnographies were often written in the
ethnographic present, a romanticized timelessness before westernization, that gave the ethnographies an eternal, unchanging quality.
Today, anthropologists understand that this is an unrealistic construct that inaccurately portrayed the natives as isolated and cut off from the rest of the world.
Ethnographers today recognize that cultures constantly change and that this quality must be represented in the ethnography.
The Special Problems of Ethnography: The Special Problems of Ethnography:
Relativism (Everyone has their own perspective) Important Points:
All observers are biased Our biases should be made clear The objectivity of a discipline is cumulative, it does not exist in
the minds of the individual observers but in the consensus of the community of observers.
Human events are always historically contingent Social conditions change There are a lot of conditions to consider Some social conditions are historically unique The patterns of human societies can change very quickly and
Show Me The MoneyShow Me The MoneyAnthropologists need funding to support their research in
the field.There are a series of agencies that support anthropological
research. National Science Foundation (NSF) National Institutes of Health (NIH) Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research
Show Me The MoneyShow Me The MoneyIn order to receive funding from any of these institutions,
anthropologists must write grant proposals that summarize what questions are going to be addressed, where the research will be conducted, and how it will be done.
Why this topic/problem? The grant writer must present the topic or problem that they
will address during the proposed research. More importantly, the writer needs to convince the agency that
the topic is important and worthy of being funded.
Ethics: TeachingEthics: Teaching Anthropologists should conduct their programs in ways that preclude
discrimination on the basis of sex, marital status, “race”, social class, political convictions, disability, religion, ethnic background, national origin, sexual orientation, and age.
Anthropologists should strive to improve their teaching and training techniques.
Teachers should impress a concern with ethics on their students. Teachers should properly acknowledge student assistance in their
research and in the preparation of their work. Teachers must avoid sexual liaisons with those for whose education and
professional training they are in any way responsible.
is usually based on firsthand fieldwork during which information is collected after a good, friendly working relationship, based on personal contact, is established between researcher and informants
is often conducted with little to no personal contact between study subjects and researchers as interviews are frequently conducted by assistants over the phone or in printed form
is generally interested in studying all aspects of a the informants’ lives (holistic)
usually focused on a small number of variables, such as ones that influence voting, rather than on the totality of people’s lives
Comparison between Ethnography and Survey Research
Comparison between Ethnography and Survey Research (continued)
ETHNOGRAPHY SURVEY RESEARCH
tends to be conducted outside the First (industrial) World, among communities that do not read or write
is normally carried out in modern nations , where most people are literate, permitting respondents to fill in their own questionnaire
makes little use of statistics since the societies being investigated tend to be smaller and less diverse
is heavily dependent upon statistical analyses in order to make inferences regarding a large and diverse study community, based on data collected from a small subset of that community
Anthropology in Complex SocietiesAnthropology in Complex SocietiesAnthropologists rely increasingly on a variety of different
field methodologies to accommodate a demand for greater breadth of applicability of results.
Kottak argues that the core contribution of ethnology remains the qualitative data that result from close, long-term, in-depth contact between ethnographer and subjects.