Culture and Cultural Anthropology

Culture and Cultural Anthropology

A. IntroductionAnthropology study of the origins, evolution, and development of human beings and their various cultures and societies.

The Fields of General AnthropologyArchaeology (or prehistory)Physical Anthropology (or biological anthropology)Linguistic AnthropologyCultural Anthropology (Social Anthropology)

ArchaeologyThis field is devoted to studying the lifeways of past cultures by examining material remains. Data include stone and bone tools, skeletal material, remains of buildings, and refuse such as pot shards and coprolites.

Physical or Biological AnthropologyIn seeking to understand human variation, adaptation, and change, physical anthropologists study many forms of life, human and nonhuman, past and present. This field deals with topics ranging from evolutionary theory to the human fossil record and the identification of human skeletal remains from crime scenes and accidents. Physical or Biological AnthropologyGenetics, anatomy, animal and human behavior, ecology, nutrition, and forensics are subject areas included in this field. Many physical anthropologists do research on animals other than humans in order to understand human origins or to use them as models for understanding contemporary human behavior.

Linguistic AnthropologyLinguistic anthropology is the study of how language influences social life. It originated from the endeavor to document endangered languages, and has grown over the past 100 years to encompass almost any aspect of language structure and use. It explores how language shapes communication, forms social identity and group membership, organizes large-scale cultural beliefs and ideologies, and develops a common cultural representation of natural and social worlds.B. What is Cultural Anthropology? It is devoted to studying how cultures differ from or resemble one another, and why, and how different cultures influence each other.Cultural Anthropology encompasses all aspects of human behavior and beliefs. Its subject matter includes making a living and distributing goods and services, reproduction and group formation, political patterns, religious systems, forms of communication, and expressive aspect of culture such as art, dance, and music.B1. Distinctive Features of Cultural AnthropologyEthnography and EthnologyEthnography studies people, ethnic groups and other ethnic formations, their ethnogenesis, composition, resettlement, social welfare characteristics, as well as their material and spiritual culture. Ethnographic studies are usually holistic. Ethnography has connections to genres as diverse as travel writing, colonial office reports, the play and the novel.Michael Fischer learns to use a Gandhian spinning wheel of self-reliance. Ahmedabad, Gujurat, India, 1984.

Ethnology is the study of a particular topic in more than one culture using ethnographic material. Ethnologists have compared such topics marriage forms, economic practices, religious beliefs, and childrearing practices in order to discover patterns of similarity and variation and possible causes for them.

Cultural RelativismCultural relativism is the idea that each culture must be understood in terms of its own values and beliefs and not by the standards of another culture. Cultural relativism assumes that no culture is better than any other.

Ethnocentrism is judging other cultures by the standards of ones own culture rather than by the standards of that particular culture. Ethnocentric views have fueled centuries of efforts at changing other people in the world, sometimes in the guise of religious missionizing and sometimes in the form of colonial domination.Cultural imperialism happens when one dominant group claims supremacy over minority cultures and proceeds to change the situation in its own interests and at the expense of the other cultures.

Absolute cultural relativism states that whatever goes on in a particular culture must not be questioned or changed because no one has the right to question any behavior or idea anywhere.

Valuing and Sustaining DiversityCultural anthropologists regret the decline and extinction of different cultures. Anthropologists contribute to the preservation of cultural diversity by describing cultures as they have existed, as they now exist, and as they change.Contemporary DebatesBiological Determinism versus Cultural Constructionism

Biological determinism gives priority to such biological features as peoples genes and hormones in explaining human behavior and ideas.

Cultural constructionism says that human behavior and ideas are best explained as products of culturally shaped learning.

Ideationism versus Cultural Materialism

Ideationism is a perspective that focuses on understanding culture by studying what people think about, their interpretation of their lives, and the meanings that are important to them.Cultural materialism attempts to learn about culture by first examining the material aspects of life: the natural environment and how people make a living within particular environments.Infrastructure(natural resources, the economy, and population)Structure(social organization, kinship, and political organization)Superstructure(ideas, values, and beliefs)

Individual Agency versus Structurism

In individual agency, the individual is supposed to be able to choose how to behave and think.

Structurism emphasizes that free choice is an illusion since choices are structured by larger forces such as the economy, social and political organization, and ideological systems.

C. The Concept of CultureDefinitions of Culture:Culture, or civilization, taken in its broad, ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.

Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (2 October 1832 2 January 1917)

A culture is the total socially acquired life-way or life-style of a group of people. It consists of the patterned repetitive ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that are characteristic of the members of a particular society or segment of society.

Marvin Harris (August 18, 1927 October 25, 2001)

Microculture refers to distinct patterns of learned and shared behavior and ideas found in localized regions and particular groups.

Macroculture refers to shared and learned ways of behaving and thinking that cross local boundaries, such as a sense of national culture that some government seek to promote to enhance unity, or the global consumer culture that pervades upper-middle and upper-class groups transnationally. C1. Characteristics of CultureCulture Is Adaptive

Culture Is Not the Same as NatureEatingDrinkingSleepingElimination

Culture Is Based on Symbols

Culture Is LearnedCultures Are IntegratedCultures Interact and Change

C2. Multiple Cultural WorldsClass refers to a category based on peoples economic position in society usually measured in terms of income or wealth and exhibited in terms of lifestyle.Race refers to bounded groups of people distinguished by selected biological traits.Ethnicity refers to a sense of group affiliation based on a distinct heritage or worldview as a people.