Unit TwelveThe Science of Custom —— Ruth Fulton Benedict

Ⅰ. Before Reading . Global ReadingⅡ Ⅲ. Detailed Reading Ⅳ. After Reading

Ⅰ. Before Reading

About the Author

“The trouble with life isn't that there is no answer, it's that there are so many answers."  -- Ruth Fulton Benedict

Ruth Fulton Benedict was an American cultural anthropologist, with a love for writing, and penned poetry under the name of Anne Singeton. Major Works: Patterns of Culture (1934)

an American Classic

bringing together anthropological, poetic,

and personal insights of the past ten years.

Biographies of three feminists

Margaret Fuller

Mary Wollstonecraft

Olive Schreiner

Experiences:

Taking

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At New

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Doing field work among Serrano Indians,

Zuni Pueblo, Apache, and Blackfoot

IndiansAt Colum

bia University

Editing the Journal of American Folk-Lore

And teaching at Columbia University

Writing Patterns of Culture

In the meanwhile

Ⅱ. Global Reading

Culture

Custom

Anthropology & Cultural Anthropology

CultureEssential Feature: People LEARN culture.

An infant’s desire for food, like

many other qualities of human

life, is a genetic response.

An adult’s specific desire for coffee

in the morning is a learned (cultural)

response to morning hunger.

V.S.

Culture, as a body of learned behaviors

common to a given human society,

acts rather like a template

(i.e. it has predictable form and content),

shaping behavior and consciousness

within a human society

from generation to generation.

A shaping template and body of learned behaviors might be further broken down into the following important elements of cultural system:

system of meaning, of which language is primary

ways of organizing society, from kinship groups

to states and multi-national corporations

the distinctive techniques of a group

and their characteristic products

Several important principles follow from

this definition of culture:

If the process of learning is an essential characteristic

of culture, then teaching also is a crucial characteristic.

Since some of what is taught is lost, while new discoveries are

constantly being made, culture exists in a constant state of change.

Meaning systems consist of negotiated agreements.

Different human societies inevitably agree

upon different relationships and meanings,

which is a relativistic way of describing culture.

Custom

Custom is a common practice among people, especially depending on country, culture, time and religion.

(n.) Frequent repetition of the same act;

way of acting common to many

(n.) Habitual buying of goods; practice of frequenting

(n.) Long-established practice, considered as unwritten law,

and resting for authority on long consent;

(n.) Familiar acquaintance; familiarity; and so on.

Generally, custom emphasizes on practices while culture focuses on ideas.

Biological Anthropology

Anthropological Prehistoric

Linguistics Archaeology

Cultural Anthropology

Anthropology & Cultural Anthropology

Anthropological

Linguistics

Prehistoric

Archaeology

Biological Anthropology

Cultural Anthropology

Focus: Cultural Anthropology

Goal

to discover and explain the similarities and differences that are associated with the behavioral patterns of human

social groups of various sorts

Questions: Range of variation ?

Conditions of formation ?

Processes of change or stabilization ?

Methods

to investigate small communities, particularly

those inhabited by minority ethnic groups

that are remote from urban centers

and that have a relatively high degree of political autonomy

to investigate social sectors that are parts of

modern urban communities, or have even

looked into specific social problems

Ⅲ. Detailed Reading

Teaching Points

Organization and Development

Teaching Points

1. Creatures of society: creature means the same as creation or product, meaning that human beings are greatly influenced and even shaped by society. Society is important in the growth of any human beings.

2. It fastens its attention upon those physical characteristics and industrial techniques, those conventions and values which distinguishes one community from all others … This is another definition of anthropology. A tentative question here is the purpose of elaborating on anthropology and the relation between anthropology and custom that this article sets about to discuss. Usage: fasten attention on = attach (pay) attention to

3. The distinguishing mark of anthropology among the social sciences is that it includes for serious study other societies than our own. distinguishing means distinctive or defining other … than: besides, as well as

4. For its purpose any social regulation is as significant as our own.

For its purpose means in anthropological studies.

5. To the anthropologists, our customs and those of a New Guinea tribe are two possible social schemes for dealing with a common problem.A New Guinea tribe may be primitive, totally different from the USA. Social schemes means arrangements or solutions.

6. Avoid any weighting of one in favor of the other means to treat them equally, not biased against any customs.

7. a subject of any great moment: an important subject for study.

8. The inner workings of our own brains we feel to be uniquely

worthy of investigation. The inner workings of our brains means the physical mechanism of brains, how the brains work by themselves. Uniquely worthy of investigation means that the workings are the only subject that deserves our study.

9. Traditional custom, taken the world over, is a mass of detailed behavior more astonishing than what any one person can ever evolve in individual actions, no matter how aberrant. Taken the world over means if all customs across the world are considered as a whole. The sentence means that there are more details in customs across the world than any one individual can develop, and that the diversity of customs across the world is more surprising than individual actions, no matter how strange they are.

10. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking. People tend to look at the world from a perspective modified by the culture of his own community.

11. Even in his philosophical probings he cannot go behind these stereotypes. Philosophical probings means philosophical studies that require serious subjective thinking. Stereotypes means an old-fashioned set of thinkings and rigid mentality.

12. The part played by custom in shaping the behavior of the individuals as over against any way he can affect traditional custom, is as the proportion of the total vocabulary of his mother tongue over against those words of his own baby talk that are taken up into the vernacular of his family. This sentence means that the impact of custom on individual behavior far outweighs the impact of individual behavior on custom, just like one’s baby talk is insignificant in the total vocabulary of the mother tongue. Over against means in contrast against.

13. When on studies the social orders that have had the opportunity to develop autonomously, the figure becomes no more than an exact and matter-of-fact observation. This sentence means that the analogy above applies especially well to societies without external influences. No more than an exact and matter-of-fact observation means “exactly right”.

14. The life history of the individual is first and foremost an accommodation to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community. This sentence illustrates the behavior of individuals and the customs of society. Individuals are engaged, from the date of birth through his death, in adaptation to the customs in his own community. Accommodation to means adaptation / adjustment to. Patterns and standards means the customs.

15. its habits his habits, its beliefs his beliefs, and its impossibilities his impossibilities. People tend to inherit features of the culture he is brought up in, including the beliefs and values. Impossibilities means restrictions and taboos.

16. Until we are intelligent as to its laws and varieties, the main

complicating facts of human life must remain unintelligible.

We need to understand the laws and varieties of customs in order to

understand human life in general.

17. The study of custom can be profitable only after certain preliminary

propositions have been accepted.

The study of custom, which is so important for the understanding of

human life, should go on a clearly defined basis and under certain principles.

18. In all the less controversial fields like the study of cacti or termites,

the necessary method of study is to group the relevant materials,

and to take note of all possible variant forms and conditions.

Even in natural studies, all varieties should be studied on an equal footing

to attain a comprehensive understanding.

This principle should apply to social studies.

19. It is only in the study of man himself that the major social sciences have

substituted the study of on local variation, that of the Western civilization. This sentence points out the problem with current social studies: such studies tend to be euro-centric.

20. It was necessary first to arrive at that degree of sophistication where we

no longer set our own belief over against our neighbor’s substitution.

We should accept the equality between our beliefs and the beliefs of

other countries or regions, not that their customs are substitutions.

21. Let us say the supernatural must be considered together.

The supernatural means social other than natural factors.

Supernatural also means something miraculous or unearthly.

Organization and Development1. The first two paragraphs give a definition of Anthropology and explains the distinguishing mark of anthropology among other social sciences. A principle of anthropological study is that no preferential weighting should be placed on one custom in favor of another.

2. Paragraphs 3 – 4 elaborate the important of customs. This section starts with a misconception that only the physical mechanisms of our brains are worthy of investigation, and concludes that every individual is the creature of the culture of his own community.

3. The last two paragraphs get back to the principle that, in the study of human beings, no weighting is desirable. In order to attain an overall insight of the human race, a precondition should be accepted that all customs should be considered equally.

Ⅳ. After Reading

one group to raise counter arguments

against the author’s and the other group to defend

the author’s proposition.