CULTURE AND BELIEFS

1. What is culture, and what are its components? What external factors influence culture? How? Are cultures permanent? Why are human beings gregarious? How do we know how we’re supposed to behave? How do we acquire our culture? CULTURE AND BELIEFS

2. CULTURE AND BELIEFS Culture is a way of life shared between a group of people. It’s components include: • Religion / beliefs • Behaviour • Values • Attitudes • Traditions • Customs • Language • Appearance • Aesthetics • Morality • Roles

3. WHAT IS CULTURE? Appearance Aesthetics: art / design / literature Beliefs and religion A person’s culture Roles Morals Traditions / customs Values Language Attitudes

4. AQA Humanities GCSE Power and Democracy Global Inequality Environmental Issues Culture Morals Aesthetics Values Appearance People and Work Attitudes Language Roles Traditions / customs Conflict and Cooperation Prejudice and Persecution Patterns of Family Life

5. CULTURE AND BELIEFS • External influences that help to shape culture include: • The environment • Wealth • Technology

6. CULTURE AND BELIEFS Cultures are not usually permanent. If they are not able to adapt to changing circumstances they may well die out. Think of British culture’s adaptation over the centuries.

7. CULTURE AND BELIEFS • Human beings are, as individuals, weak. Early in our evolution we learned the advantages of: • Working together (co-operation) • Understanding what is expected of us (norms) • Communication • Trust • Also, as children we conform to our parents’ expectations in exchange for the love and protection we need to survive. This stays with us as we mature.

8. CULTURE AND BELIEFS We know what to do to fit into our culture because we learn its NORMS. One who fits in with their culture is, therefore, called NORMAL. Most norms are not written down (except for rules and laws). We never stop learning norms in our lifetime. We are encouraged to stick to the norms of our culture through positive sanctions. If we break norms we may suffer negative sanctions. Sanctions vary according to a culture’s values.

9. CULTURE AND BELIEFS Socialisation is the lifelong process, often unconscious, through which we learn our culture. Our primary socialisers are our parents, particularly our mothers in this culture. What is learned in the first five years of life is thought to have more longlasting effect on us than anything we learn in the rest of it.

10. HOW DO WE ACQUIRE OUR CULTURE? Education Family Religious group Leaders e.g. government Workplace A person’s culture • Also through: • Peer pressure • Role models • Laws • Observation Mass media

11. CULTURE AND BELIEFS • Secondary socialisers include: • Our other relatives • Our peer groups • Education • Work • Religious organisations • The mass media

12. CULTURE AND BELIEFSNature or Nurture? When studying culture we want to be scientific in our reasoning, but it is difficult to set up experiments like in science! It is not practical and it is immoral. We have to look for case studies to provide evidence to back up explanations. Look at the following three groups of case studies which provide conflicting evidence in answer to the question: • How do we acquire our culture? • cases that suggest we are born with our cultural behaviour • children who grew up with little or no mixing with others • children who grew up with unusual socialisers

14. The available evidence • Sets of twins who were brought up separately • Research into brain activity • children who grew up with little or no socialisation • children who grew up with unusual socialisation How convincing do you find this evidence?

15. CULTURE AND BELIEFS The Case for Nature The Uncanny Twins The Brain

16. Some evidence for “Nature” http://cmgm.stanford.edu/biochem118/Projects/2003/Redden.pdf

17. Some evidence for “Nature”

18. Some evidence for “Nature”

19. Corpus Callosum Large band of neural fibers that connects the two brain hemispheres The two sides of our brains serve different functions (lateralized or specialization of tasks): Left hemisphere: Language, math, logic Right hemisphere: spatial abilities, face recognition, visual imagery, musical and artistic abilities, emotional tasks. This is the case for almost all righthanders (about 95%) and about half of lefthanders Brain Lateralisation Play the split brain experiments game at: http://nobelprize.org/medicine/educational/split-brain/index.html and read the explanation. What do we learn about nature and behaviour ?

20. http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/jugg.html for juggling and the brain http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/femcon.html for male female differences

21. CULTURE AND BELIEFS Cases for nurture http://www.feralchildren.com See also booklet stories of Anna, Isabel, Patrick, the Gazelle boy and others. See also our video for modern accounts So, do we acquire culture through nature or nurture?

22. WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE? Russian girl 1983. Parents alcoholic. Oxana lived in kennel with dogs. affected her speech and behaviour Boy found in the wild in SW France in 19th century. When found he was described as “savage” and “snarling”. Not human? Doctor attempted to re-socialise Victor as a human. Gave him lots of love and affection. Made him feel he belonged. Established 2 key tests for becoming human: Empathy. He passed  .Evidence: Language. Tried but  failed. Evidence FERAL CHILDREN VIDEO

23. The Indian Wolf-Girls In a modern version of the Romulus and Remus story, two young girls were discovered under the care of a she-wolf in 1920, in Godamuri, India. The girls were taken to an orphanage in Midnapore (now part of Orissa). The children, Kamala, aged eight and Amala, aged 18 months, behaved exactly like small wild animals. They slept during the day and woke by night. They remained on all-fours, enjoyed raw meat, and were given to biting and attacking other children if provoked. They could smell raw meat from a distance, and they had an acute sense of sight and hearing. The youngest child, Amala, died one year later, but Kamala lived for nine years in the orphanage until she died of illness at the age of 17. Kamala did acquire a small vocabulary, but she remained very different to other children until the time of her death. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A269840/ FERAL CHILDREN VIDEO

24. Chimpanzee experiment in USA Evidence that early isolation damaged them for life. American urban feral child (Jeanie) For 13 years kept in dark at night and strapped to a potty during day. Mother and brother forbidden to talk to her. How she was when found: Progress made Limitations CONCLUSIONS RE EVIDENCE IN ANSWER TO QUESTION POSED…. FERAL CHILDREN VIDEO

25. CULTURE AND BELIEFS Glossary. What do these terms mean? • Culture • Subculture • Multicultural • Monocultural • Cultural diversity • Ethnocentrism • Xenophobia • Cultural relativism • Organic solidarity • Socio - economic • Mechanical solidarity • Insider • Outsider • Adaptation • Interaction • Conflict • Co-operation • Norm • Socialisation • Anthropology

26. Amish Culture Culture in Britain CASE STUDIES

27. AMISH CULTURE http://members.aol.com/KermesArt/

28. The Amish today http://www.amishphoto.com/galleryindex2.htm

30. http://www.amish-heartland.com/?topic=-Amish+Culture

31. Introduction What would it be like if you had never watched television? If you didn't own a CD player? What would your home be like if you didn't own a telephone? How would your parents go to work if they didn't have a car? Welcome to the world of the Amish - a people rich in history and culture! THE AMISH CULTURE http://www.berksiu.k12.pa.us/webquest/Wandell/

32. AMISH HISTORY • 16TH AND 17TH CENTURY EUROPE: REFORMATION • RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION • THE “NEW WORLD” • QUAKERS • WILLIAM PENN

33. http://www.ainglkiss.com/sermon/ http://www.east-buc.k12.ia.us/00_01/Ami/ami_intro.htm http://www.holycrosslivonia.org/amish/amishfaq.htm#how What makes the Amish culture work?

34. The movie, Witness, portrayed Amish lifestyle fairly accurately in what was shown, but it portrayed a very limited segment of Amish lifestyle. The Amish people have had a lot of reservations about Witness. The plot seemed to be inconsistent with the lifestyle and culture of the Amish. It was filmed in the geographical area of the Amish, but not on an Amish farm. The actors and actresses in the movie were not Amish How true was the portrayal of the Amish in the movie Witness?

35. Amish as a tourist attraction http://www.padutchcountry.com/my_pa_dutch/map_visitors_guide.asp http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/amish.html What is the effect of contact between the Amish and other cultures?

36. England? Britain? British Isles? We are all immigrants? Study the sources about culture in Britain since the Celts arrived. Answer the questions. Before you do, here is some guidance to help you do well. Working with sources: Language Analysis Interpretation Evaluation What are we looking for in a good answer. Some examples. CULTURE IN BRITAIN

37. FIND OUT ABOUT CULTURE IN BRITAIN HERE www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/

38. England is represented by the flag of St. George. England first acquired this in 1194. England had already defeated and “absorbed” Wales by the time England was united with Scotland in 1707, so its own flag with a dragon on it was not included! England, Britain, United Kingdom, British Isles? Some confusion here? Over the past 2000 years many ethnic groups have occupied what is loosely known as The British Isles. Great Britain = England + Wales + Scotland. A “British” identity was only created in 1707 with the Union of England, Wales and Scotland.

39. Scotland is represented by the flag of St. Andrew The union flag of 1707. The United Kingdom today, however, is Great Britain + Northern Ireland. The whole of Ireland was “incorporated” in 1801, when the flag of St. Patrick was included. Today it is only 6 of the counties in Northern Ireland which are represented in the modern union flag, by the flag of St. Patrick.

40. AN ENGLISH CULTURE?