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Mikmaw Studies 10

• Introduction to Culture Unit

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Anthropology

• the study of human society, culture and behavior,
  and also the starting point of human beings and
  their physical characteristics and way of life.

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Ethnographer

• A person who submerses their self into another
  groups way of life to learn about their culture.
  They collect data through observations,
  interviews, etc.

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Culture

• is a shared, learned, symbolic system of values,
  beliefs and attitudes that shapes and influences
  perception and behavior.

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Culture

• Culture is complex and interconnected
• It consists of all the knowledge, belief, art,
  law, morals, customs, skills and habits learned
  from parents and others in society.
• Culture is the primary adaptive mechanism for
  humans.

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Culture

• culture has three important features
• Symbols
• Language
• and values
• There are three aspects of culture
• Mental what people think
• Behavior what people do
• Material what people make

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Symbol

• anything with a culturally defined meaning.

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Language

• A set of symbols that expresses ideas and allows
  people to think and communicate with each other.
  It is an important way to transmit culture.

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Society

• an interacting group of people sharing a common
  culture.

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Nation

• A people who share common origins, history,
  customs, and government, and often share a common
  territory of land and language.

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Ethnocentricism

• The tendency to look at the world primarily from
  the perspective of your own culture.
• Ethnocentrism often contains the belief that your
  own race or ethnic group is the most important
  and/or that some or all aspects of its culture
  are superior to those of other groups.
• Individuals will judge other groups in relation
  to their own particular culture, especially with
  language, behaviour, customs and religion.

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Cultural Relativism

• Understanding other cultures by their own
  categories. These cultures are assumed to be
  valid and worthy of respect.
• The Europeans did not practice cultural
  relativism because they arrived and judged the
  way of life of the Mikmaq people to be
  uncivilized. They felt that the Mikmaq people
  did not have a culture. They were comparing their
  culture to the Mikmaq. They were ethnocentric.

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Assimilation

• the loss of distinctive cultural traits as a
  population surrenders its independence and is
  absorbed into a dominant society and culture.