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Cultural Anthropology

Cultural Anthropology. Culture. What cultures are you a part of? What distinguishes them? Culture : a set of learned beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, values, and ideals that are characteristic of a particular society or population

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Cultural Anthropology

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  1. Cultural Anthropology

  2. Culture • What cultures are you a part of? • What distinguishes them? • Culture: a set of learned beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, values, and ideals that are characteristic of a particular society or population • Subculture: the commonly shared customs of a group within a society • Society: a group of people who speak a common language and occupy a particular territory

  3. Characteristics of Culture • Culture is learned • Culture is shared • Culture is everywhere

  4. Elements of Culture • Language (physical, written, and verbal) • Beliefs and values • Values: shared beliefs about what is right and wrong • Norms: values in action • Folkways: norms with little social significance • “Man Laws” • Mores: norms with great social significance • Laws • Customs and rituals • Time and space • Dress and appearance • Kinship relations • Cultural Diffusion: the spreading of cultural traits to other cultures

  5. Difficulties in Studying Culture • Ethnocentrism: judging other cultures in terms of your own culture

  6. Difficulties in Studying Culture • Cultural Relativism: the attitude that different cultures should be described objectively and understood in the context of a particular society • Etic approach: Culturally neutral approach • Problem: should the anthropologist be morally relative as well?

  7. Research Methods • Participant Observation: studying a culture by immersing one’s self into that culture • Fieldwork: first-hand experience with the people being studied • Informants: individuals within the community that help the anthropologist • Ethnography: a description or analysis of a single society

  8. Studying Ethnographies • Ethnology: a cross-cultural comparison Approaches to ethnography • Cultural Ecology: studies the relationship between a culture and its environment as the main shaping force of culture

  9. Approaches to ethnography 2. Political Economy (or the “world-system” view): studies external political and economic forces—generally from powerful, imperialist states—as the main shaping force of culture

  10. Approaches to ethnography 3. Behavioral Ecology (or socio-biology): studies culture and behavior as the result of evolutionary development, with a focus on individual behavior in a cultural context.

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