Nature of Culture

1
Nature of Culture

• Robert Rhoades
• Dept. of Anthropology
• University of Georgia, Athens

2
Definitions (Various)

• That complex whole which includes knowledge,
  belief, art, morals, law, customs, and any other
  capabilities acquired by man as member of
  society (E. B. Taylor, 1871)
• A storehouse of ways of believing and behaving
  learned through contact with other human beings
  rather than inherited genetically.

3
Areas of Culture

• Nonmaterial ideas, customs, beliefs, and habits
  of a people
• Material manufactured objects such as tools,
  furniture, bridges, cultivated farms, etc.

4
Culture and Society

• Concept of High Culture

5
Attributes of Culture

• Learned
• Shared
• Based on symbols and is cumulative
• Integrated
• Adaptive and functional
• Dynamic
• Variable

6
Examples of Cultural Variability

• Sexual mores
• Pugnacity
• Food preferences
• Beauty
• Success
• Moral codes

7
Cultural Universals

• All cultures have different answers to the same
  question presented by human biology and human
  situation

8
Functions of Culture

• Biological needs
• Reproduction
• Socialize young
• Produce and distribute goods and services
• Maintain order and social control
• Provides meaning in life
• Promotes social solidarity

9
Ethnocentrism

• Defined the view of things in which ones own
  group is the center of everything and all others
  are scaled and rated with reference to it
• Ethnocentrism is the tendency for each group to
  take for granted the superiority of its culture

10
Functions of Ethnocentrism

• Promotes group unity, loyalty, and morale
• Protection against change
• Evaluation of ethnocentrism

11
Cultural Relativism

• The function and meaning of a trait are relative
  to its cultural setting or a culture can only be
  understood in terms of itself

12
Nacirema

• North American Group (between Cree and Yaqui)
• NOTGNIHSAW Culture Hero

13
Nacirema Culture

• Human body is central to ethos (tends to disease)
• Ritual and ceremony
• Shrines (wealthy have several)
• Ritual focuses on shrine and charm box
• Medicine men
• Strong believe between oral and moral character
• Ritual abolution for children
• Bundle of hog hairs in mouth with power
• Holy mouth man
• Male rituals
• Female rituals
• Other rituals
• Temple of medicine man
• Listener

14
Campus Culture Folklore

• Folklore myths, tales, proverbs, riddles, verse,
  and music
• Faculty versus student folklore