Defining Culture
Chapter 4 Analysis: The Idea of Culture
Defining Cultureâ' "complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities acquired by a man as a member of societyâ â" Taylor
6 characteristics all cultures share
1. learned behaviors â' enculturation (continuous process)
2. symbols (something that stands for something else)â' creates meaning
3. patterned and integrated
4. shared by members of a group
5. adaptive
6. subject to changeâ'dynamic
Culture Is Made Up of Learned Behaviors
Depend on social interaction in order to survive
Each culture has its own standard of maturation levels
Level of Human development culturally varies
Recognition of human status is the introduction in human development
Child-rearing â" raising children holistically varies depending on culture
Ex. Inuit- teach children to deal with a world that is dangerously problematic, whereby wrong decisions may result in death â'constant state of alertness/experimental way of living
culture and personality theorists â" anthropologists who examine the theoretical perspective that focuses on culture as the principle force in shaping the typical personality of a society as well as on the role of personality in the maintenance of cultural institutions
Culture Is The Way Humans Use Symbols To Organize and give Meaning to the World
How they should act in the world/Who they are
Ethnoscience â" theoretical approach that focuses on the ways in which members of a culture classify their world and holds that anthropology should be the study of cultural systems of classification
Cognitive anthropology â" theoretical approach that defines culture in terms of the rules and meanings underlying human behavior, rather than behavior itself
Ethnobotany â" an anthropological discipline devoted to describing the ways in which different cultures classify plants
Ethnomedicine â"anthropological discipline devoted to describing the medial...
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