Week 3: Anthropology 11--Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Lecture Notes for Chapter 2:

The Nature of Culture (32-53)

basketweave line

 

Professor John Wolford
Department of Anthropology
University of Missouri-St. Louis

Email: wolfordj@msx.umsl.edu


 
Definitions for Chapter 2 Outline for Chapter 2 Anthro 11 homepage GO TO BOTTOM OF THE PAGE

Links to outside web pages: [Wolford's A11 Web Page] [My Gateway Page] [Reserves Page]


The important questions Haviland cites for you to consider while reading this chapter:
 

What is culture?
How is culture studied?
Why do cultures exist?

Notes for William A. Haviland, 

Cultural Anthropology, 10th edition: 

Chapter 2: The Nature of Culture (32-53)

 
page 6 anthropology the study of humankind, in all times and places


 

The Concept of Culture (34)

The concept of culture has been talked about for centuries

• but its meaning has typically been assumed rather than explained or understood


Systematically defined in the 19th century by a British anthropologist (EB Tylor):
 
 
Tylor's 1871 definition of culture culture that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society

Defined in 1871 by E B Tylor
• excellent definition and still usable

• problem is: it describes what culture is rather than explains what it is

• notice: it describes it as having certain elements (knowledge, belief, art. law, etc.)
• which it does, without question
• BUT: it does not explain why those elements comprise culture, or why other elements are not included, or what those elements do,


By the 1950s over 100 definitions had been coined by anthropologists alone

• most definers confused or opposed behavior with ideas


Now, an acceptable definition focuses on the values and beliefs that people use to interpret experience and guide behavior

• i.e., more the underlying rules and ideas inherent in the expressions of culture
Return to Top
 
page 34 culture the ideals, values, and beliefs shared by members of a society, that they use to interpret experience and generate behavior and that are reflected in their behavior


 

Characteristics of Culture (34-46)

Haviland's chart detailing the Nature of culture

 

1) Culture is shared (34-40)
• the common denominator that makes actions and behavior discernible

• always developed within a society

 
page 34 society a group of interdependent people who share a common culture


• a society: people who share a locale, common traditions, and depend on one another (this "depend...." is in the text but not the def.)
 

• Is the "depend on one another for survival" phrase in the definition absolute?  
• Haviland seems to think so: that is, he does not think that casual groups can form societies  
• subject to debate (queues, emergency or catastrophe situations, chat rooms, etc.)
page 34 social structure the rule-governed relationships of individuals and groups within a society that hold it together


While culture is fundamentally shared within a society, all is not conformity or uniformity

 
• lots of differences within any society


Major example: Gender roles (Sex = biological; gender = cultural)

 
• all societies differentiate appropriate roles for each sex, each age group
 
page 35 gender  the elaborations and meanings assigned by cultures to the biological differentiation of the sexes


The differences are also reflected in age groups, occupational groups, ethnic groups, class groups, all of which differences reflect-- subcultural variation

 
page 35 subculture a distinctive set of standards and behavior patterns by which a group within a larger society operates 

 
page 37 pluralistic societies societies in which there exist a diversity of cultural patterns


**Think of examples within your lives/experiences

 
• Subcultural variations automatically occur in pluralistic societies (i.e., multicultural societies)

• EXs of components of American pluralistic society:

  
OBVIOUS EXAMPLES
 
Amish Gays
WASPs Heterosexuals
Religious groups Ethnic groups

LESS OBVIOUS EXAMPLES
 
Women (Gender groups) Children (Age groups)
Midwesterners (Regional) Nurses (Occupational groups)
The Wealthy (Socioeconomic groups) Criminals  (antisocial groups)

• Basically, any cultural group whatsoever

  
EX of subcultural differences:

• the Tongan-American horse-buyer, who bought the horse for his son's birthday

 
• however, he bought the horse to eat, which shocked the American-born seller


HOWEVER--and this is VERY important--although subcultural differences may exist within a larger society, the fundamental cultural similarities between the different subcultural groups are what differentiate the larger group from other large groups

 
• i.e., black Americans are more similar to white Americans than to black Africans

• white Americans are closer to black Americans than to Europeans

• cultural makeup is more fundamental to identity and character than physical makeup
   
ANTHROPOLOGY APPLIED:  (on p.. 38) NEW HOUSES FOR APACHE INDIANS
LEARN THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS STUDY IN ANTHROPOLOGY

UNDERSTAND WHY THIS STUDY IS PLACED UNDER THIS SECTION

• George Esber, an anthropologist, was hired to study the Apache Indians' use of space to assist Anglo architects who were building new housing for their community

• the architects did not know how to get the information from the Indians

• the Indians did not consciously "know" how to describe how they use their space

• the anthropologist was the go-between

 He determined that: • large open spaces were needed within the household so all human interaction can be assessed and acted upon appropriately

• dining, kitchen, and living area should be integrated, reflecting Apache etiquette of serving food to all guests

• kitchen needed to have large preparation areas and sinks, to accommodate large pots, etc., for the large quantities of food that were always served

 the space was designed for Apaches and their needs , using their participation
  Return to Top  

2) Culture is learned (40-41)
  All culture is learned, not biologically transmitted
  • Ralph Linton called it humanity's "social heredity"


Culture is learned through a process called enculturation
 
 
page 40 enculturation the process by which a society's culture is passed from one generation to the next and individuals become members of their society

 
• the individual learns the socially appropriate standards for behavior and expression  
• appropriate times to eat, sleep, go to church; even when to laugh


NB: Not all learned behavior is cultural: reflex learning would be physiological

: the result of conditioning (dogs barking for food, e.g.)

 Return to Top  

3) Culture is based on symbols (41)
  Symbol: something that stands for something else
  • a coding device, where meaning is compressed

• FOR EXAMPLE: a flag is a symbol of its country

 
• the flag is not the country itself

• but upon seeing it, a citizen will have learned that the flag represents, or stands for, the country


Types of human symbols:

  
religious economic political
personal ethnic linguistic
material trivial meaningful
IMPORTANT SCHOLAR:  (on p. 42) Leslie A. White (1900-1975) 
LEARN HIS IMPORTANCE IN ANTHROPOLOGY

UNDERSTAND WHY HIS BIO BLURB IS PLACED UNDER THIS SECTION

• major North American theoretician

• culture consists of three essential components

1. the techno-economic  
• the way the society deals with the environment

• this aspect determines the character of the other two components


2. the social

3. the ideological

 • basic premise: culture develops in direct response to technological progress

• his ideas are limited by his  assumptions

• equates progress with evolution, which is a Western idea

• reflects the culture-bound character of his theory

 • his work is significant for pointing out the extreme importance of the technological aspect on the cultural development of any society  
 


Return to Top

 

4) Culture is integrated (41-42)
   
integration the tendency for all aspects of culture to function as an interrelated whole
• it is the recognition among anthropologists that a society is made up of many different parts and that, on the whole, they must work together
  • anthropologists break parts down to analyze

• this does not mean the parts are separate and discrete

• all it means is that parts are easiest to study when separated

• that's what analysis is: breaking apart and putting back to derive a fuller understanding


• however, all societies are at all times to some degree dysfunctional
 

• even in dysfunction, most of the parts seem to work together


What are the parts?
 

• the institutions of the society (religion, economics, politics, kinship, etc.)

• the people themselves

• the belief system, codes, rules, behavior, aesthetics: i.e., culture


What other concept that we have covered (from Chapter 1) is integration related to?
 
IMPORTANT SCHOLAR:  (on p. 43) A. R. RADCLIFFE-BROWN  (1881-1955) 
LEARN HIS IMPORTANCE IN ANTHROPOLOGY

UNDERSTAND WHY HIS BIO BLURB IS PLACED UNDER THIS SECTION

• major British anthropologist

• originator of the structural-functionalist school of thought in anthropology

basic premise: "each custom and belief of a society has a specific function that serves to perpetuate the structure of that society--its ordered arrangements of parts--so that the society's continued existence is possible"

• the anthropologist's job is to discover the functions of customs and beliefs

• once those are discovered, then universal laws of human behavior should emerge

 his work established standard practices among anthropologists: • analyze societies as interconnected systems, thereby emphasizing the holistic model

• conduct cross-cultural comparisons between societies in order to compare their similar or dissimilar structural-functionalist elements

 however, universal laws never did emerge • so the questions of why people through time and space have developed similar and dissimilar customs and patterns of behavior still has to be answered
Examine what Haviland says about the Kapauku society and be able to relate the various parts of the society as an integrated system:  
• polygyny

• warfare

• pig-raising

• patrilocality

• patrilineality

 Return to Top

 

Studying Culture in the Field (43-46)

Three main ways to abstract cultural data from field observation:

• what the people say their rules and their ways of life are (emic, ideal)

• the extent to which people believe they follow the rules (emic)

• by directly observing behavior and relations (etic) (real?)

 
 
IMPORTANT SCHOLAR:  (on p. 47) Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942) 
LEARN HIS IMPORTANCE IN ANTHROPOLOGY

UNDERSTAND WHY THEIR BIO BLURBS ARE PLACED UNDER THIS SECTION

• major British (but Polish-born) fieldworker

• posited that people universally share basic biological and psychological needs

basic premise: the nature of the social institution is determined by its function

• he is the father of functionalism in anthropology

• three fundamental levels of needs all societies must resolve

 
1. biological needs (food, clothing, shelter, etc.)

2. instrumental needs (law, education, etc.)

3. integrative needs (religion, art, transcendent needs)


• equates progress with evolution, which is a Western idea

• reflects the culture-bound character of his theory

 • his work set a standard for fieldwork collecting that has been in place ever since he conducted his fieldwork on the Trobriand Islands from 1915-1918 • seen as a primary figure in fieldwork studies  
• PRIMARY IN ESTABLISHING STANDARDS FOR FIELDWORK METHODOLOGY
 

ORIGINAL STUDY:  The Importance of Trobriand Women (44-46)

• Ethnographers will document different features of society

• according to what they have been exposed to

• according to what they expect
• You should know what the details of this study are
What anthropologist is highlighted?

What two anthropologists and their studies are compared and contrasted?

Why are there differences and what is the significance of the differences?


Return to Top


 

Culture and Adaptation (47-49)
 

[Cultural Adaptation] (47-48)
 
page 50 adaptation a process by which organisms achieve a beneficial adjustment to an available environment and the results of that process; the characteristics of organisms that fit them to the particular set of conditions of the environment in which they are generally found 


Humans rely on culture to adapt to the environment
 

• whereas other organisms rely on biology


Not all adaptive behavior is adaptive to all environments, or to all time in the same environment
 

• sanitation habits of hunters and gatherers may be adaptive to their lifestyle and environment--but would be disastrous to an urban population

• agricultural habits practiced in the Plains are not sustainable and will prove to be maladaptive, although they have been highly adaptive up till now


Return to Top

 

Functions of Culture (48)

• provide for production & distribution of necessary goods/services

• provide for biological continuity of members of society

• enculturate new members positively

• maintain order, internally and externally

• motivate members to survive and thrive

• must be able to change and to remain adaptive in changed conditions
 


Return to Top

 

Culture and Change (48-49)

• Change is always both inevitable and necessary

 
• part of the twin laws of tradition


• Change can be positive (growth) or negative (decline)

 

Culture, Society and the Individual (50)
• Society is ultimately a grouping of individuals

• The needs of the individuals must be balanced with the needs of the society

• If the individual's needs are not met, then the individual takes on too much stress

• and the society will suffer--through loss of the individual, through revolution, etc.


Return to Top


 

Evaluation of Culture (50-52)
 
Question typically arises: Which society is the best kind?
Answer: the members of any society that is functioning well thinks its society is the best

Most societies differentiate between two kinds of people:
 

• the members of its society, for which they usually have a word in their language which means, We Humans

• members of any other society, for which they typically have a word that means, They, the subhuman
 
page 51 ethnocentrism the belief that the ways of one's own culture are the only proper ones
 
page 51 cultural relativism the thesis that one must suspend judgement on other peoples' practices in order to understand them in their own cultural terms


Ethnocentrism has both good and bad traits
 

• good: allows a people to perceive themselves in a very positive light

• bad: predisposes a people to perceive all other people in a negative light


Cultural relativism also can have both good and bad applications
 

• good: allows a people to perceive others in a more positive light

• bad: predisposes a people to perceive all other people as never wrong


Walter Goldschmidt, in the 1950s, said there is a way to reconcile these tendencies and evaluate another culture sensibly
 

• A culture can be said to be working if it is meeting the physical and the psychological needs of its people; a positive, working culture would address such issues as:  
• maintaining a healthy standard for the nutritional status of the people

• maintaining a healthy standard for the mental state of the people

• keeping the incidence of crime and delinquency to a low level

• ensuring the stability and tranquility of domestic life

• ensuring that the group's relation to its resource base is sustainable

 
Return to A11 Page Go to Readings and Class Schedule Go to mygateway.umsl.edu Return to Professor Wolford's Homepage Return to Top
created: January 26, 2001
previously revised: January 28, 2002
last revised: January 31, 2002