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The Concept of Culture

Think of 10 ways in which we use the word culture or cultural.

Eg. Culture shock, Canadian culture, multicultural

C. Construction C. Awareness Deviant C.C. Shock Underground C. Rural C.Agriculture Pop C. Youth C.Global C. C. Identity gay/lesbian CC. Exchange C. Perspective C. AssimilationCross-C Elite C. Dead CC. Diversity C. Sustainability Café C.Multicultural Canadian C. C. eventTo be C. C. Imperialism C. survivalHigh C. C. Hegemony drug C.Enculturation C. Evolution SubcultureC. Phenomenon uncultured World C.Intercultural Consumer C Bacterial C.Counter C. Safety C Public C..C. Genocide Corporate C. C. Relativism

The Concept of Culture

A Way of LifeRural C. Corporate C. Canadian C. Youth C. Café C.

Non-anthropological/sociologicalAgriculture Bacterial C.

A continuumGlobal C. World C. C. Evolution Public C.

A set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practicesTo be C. High C. uncultured C. event Counter C. Safety C Elite C C. Phenomenon.drug C. Consumer C C. Perspective gay/lesbian C

A sense of identity and othernessC. Identity Canadian C

An object (of manipulation)C. Sustainability C. Genocide Dead C C. survivalC. Hegemony C. Imperialism

A disparagement of differenceC. Shock Deviant C. Pop C.Underground C. Subculture C. Assimilation

A sense of agencyC. Construction Enculturation

A celebration of differenceC. Diversity C. Awareness Multicultural C. RelativismIntercultural Cross-C C. Exchange

Edward Burnett Tylor

1832-1917

Culture or civilization, taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that complex wholewhich includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired my man as a member of society. E. B. Tylor 1871

`The sum total of knowledge, attitudes and habitual behaviour patterns shared and transmitted by the members of a particular society' Ralph Linton (1940).

The pattern of life within a community, the regularly recurring activities and material and social arrangements characteristic of a particular group'. Ward Goodenough (1957):

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“Culture is the framework of beliefs, expressive symbols, and values in terms of which individuals define their feelings and make their judgements” (Geertz 1957 American Anthropologist 59:32-54).

Geertz 1973: `an historically transmitted pattern of meaning embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic form by means which men communicate' (1973: 89).

What is Canadian Culture?I A M C A N A D I A N !!!

I am not a lumberjack or a fur trader,And I don't live in an igloo or eat blubber or own a dogsled,And I don't know Jimmy, Sally, or Susie from Canada,Although I am certain they are really, really nice.I have a Prime Minister, not a President.I speak English and French, not American.And I pronounce it "about" ... not "a-boot".I can proudly sew my country's flag on my backpack.I believe in peacekeeping not policing;Diversity not assimilation;And that the beaver is a truly proud and noble animal!A tuque is hat; a chesterfield is a couch.And it is pronounced ZED not ZEE, ZED!Canada is the second largest landmass,The first nation of hockey,And the best part of North America!

Culture is Relative

Culture is a way of life

Material

Objects

Ideas

Attitudes

Values

Behavior

Patterns

“Everything that people have, think, and do as members of a society” (Ferraro, 2003)

Topical:Culture consists of everything on a list of topics, or categories, such as social organization, religion, or economyHistorical Culture is social heritage, or tradition, that is passed on to future generationsBehavioral Culture is shared, learned human behavior, a way of life the total way of life of a peopleNormative Culture is ideals, values, or rules for living a way of thinking, feeling, and believingFunctional Culture is the way humans solve problems of adapting to the environment or living togetherMental Culture is a complex of ideas, or learned habits, that inhibit impulses and distinguish people from animalsStructural Culture consists of patterned and interrelated ideas, symbols, or behaviorsSymbolic Culture is based on arbitrarily assigned meanings that are shared by a society

Culture reified� Values

� Norms

� Ideas/Beliefs

� Attitudes

� Symbols

� Traditions

� Artifacts

Dimensions of Culture

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Characteristics of Culture

� Culture is learned

� Culture is unconscious

� Culture is shared

� Culture is integrated

� Culture is Symbolic

� Culture is a way of life

� Culture is Dynamic

� Culture is Relative

Culture is learnedHow do we learn our culture?

Enculturation

Culture is unconscious Culture is shared

USA 89%

French Canada 81%

English Canada 77%

United Kingdom 71%

Italy 69%

France 59%

Australia 25%

Such findings signal that Canadian values, ideas, and attitudesshould not be relied upon when planning marketing forays into foreign consumer markets

Everyone should use a deodorant

Culture is Relative Culture is Integrated

Kinship

Medicine

Law & politics

Economics

Religion

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Culture is Symbolic

A wink or a twitch

1896 1918 1924 1935 1955

1960 1970 1986 1990 2005

Culture is Dynamic

� To communicate - makes the actions of individuals intelligible to others � A tool

� gives meaning to differences

�Identity

�Adaptive

Why do humans have Culture?What is its function?

Can culture be maladaptive?

Is Culture Public or Private?

Ishi ?-1916

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What is society?`A distinct and relatively autonomous community whose members' mutual social relations are embedded in and expressed through the medium of culture'.

`Any portion of a community regarded as a unit distinguishable by particular aims or standards of living or conduct'. i.e. culture

`A group of people who occupy a specific locality and who share the same cultural traditions or culture.'

Society

Young Huli girls of Papua New Guinea dressed for traditional dance

Imagine you wanted to understand how tourism had affected Huli culture.

1. What would you do to prepare yourself for the fieldwork?

2. What would you do when you got there?

3. What would you do when you got back?

FIELDWORK BEFORE YOU GO1. Funding

2. Health Precautions

3. Language

4. Personal Affairs

5. Authorization/Permission

6. Research – Group and Topic

“Imagine yourself suddenly set down surrounded by all your gear on a tropical beach close to a native village while the launch or dinghy which has brought you sails away out of sight….Imagine yourself then, making your first entry into the village….Some natives flock around you, especially if they smell tobacco” (Malinowski 1922)

kitchen in a local house

special dinner for a visitor

“I looked up and gasped when I saw a dozen burley, naked, sweaty, hideous men staring at us down the shafts of their drawn arrows! I am not ashamed to admit that had there been a diplomatic way out, I would have ended my fieldwork then and there….I wondered why I ever decided to switch from physics and engineering in the first place. “Chagnon1983

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Mt Hagen

Local street

General store

The market

“to grasp the native’s point of view, his relation to life, to realise his vision of his world”. Malinowski 1922

What is the goal of Fieldwork?

CONDUCTING FIELDWORK

1. Establish Rapport

2. Find an “Informant”

3. Learn Language

4. Take notes, photograph, conduct census, interview, analyze documents, case histories

5. Participate and Observe

Stages of Field Research

1. Selecting a Research Problem

2. Formulating a Research Design

3. Collecting the Data

4. Analyzing the Data

5. Interpreting the Data

– basic propositions about human nature and motivation, and about the nature of society and culture which guide the inquiry.

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– the process of observing and producing published descriptions of societies, in whole or in part

ETHNOGRAPHY:

METHOD:– how the ethnographer selects and treats the data of observation

THEORY:

Deduction

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Deductive Methodology

Theories

Observations

Inductive Methodology

LogicalDeduction

Hypotheses

InterpretationsPatterns

Hypotheses

Generalizations

Meaning and Interpretation

Mandan Rain dance George Catlin

Manifest and latent Functions Intended versus unintended consequences

Martin Luther

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Ego's cross cousins (in yellow) are distinguished from his parallel cousins (in green) as the children of opposite and same sexed parental siblings, respectively.

In many societies the ideal is to marry one’s cross cousin, as he/she will belong to a different lineage (for alliance purposes), or parallel cousin, as the cousin will be in the same lineage (for inheritance purposes). Although the ideal, in actuality only 10% of marriages will be of the ideal type.

The Ideal versus the Actual