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Chapter 2
Culture Counts
Chapter Outline
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Culture and Autism
Culture Is Made Up Of Learned Behaviors
Culture Is The Way Humans Use
Symbols To Organize And Give Meaning
To The World
Culture Is An Integrated System—Or Is
It?
Chapter Outline
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Culture Is A Shared System Of Norms
And Values—Or Is It?
Culture Is The Way Human Beings Adapt
To The World
Culture Is Constantly Changing
Culture Counts
Bringing It Back Home: Yes, But Is It
Science?
Autism and Culture
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Autism is a developmental disorder
characterized by difficulties in verbal and
nonverbal communication, impairment of
social interaction, and other symptoms.
Some with autism have exceptional
intellectual skills, such as Dr. Temple
Grandin, an associate professor of animal
science at Colorado State University.
Autism and Culture
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Dr. Grandin is known for her work in the
humane slaughter of cattle and has written
extensively on her experience with autism.
According to Grandin, autistics think in concrete
terms and have profound difficulty
understanding social conventions.
Through observation and analysis she has
learned many of the rules of cultural behavior.
Characteristics of Culture
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Cultures are made up of learned
behaviors.
All cultures involve the use of language
and symbols.
Cultures are patterned and integrated.
Characteristics of Culture
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Cultures are shared by members of a
group.
Cultures are in some way adaptive.
Cultures are subject to change.
Enculturation
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The process of learning to be a member
of a particular cultural group
Childrearing and the Inuit
• The Inuit, a hunting people of
the Arctic, teach their children
to deal with a dangerous
world in which making wrong
decisions might mean death.
The shaded area shows
the location of the Inuit.
Childrearing and the Inuit
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Developing skills for solving problems
quickly is central to Inuit child rearing.
Children are brought up to constantly test
their physical skills, in order to extend
them and learn their capacity for pain and
endurance.
Culture and Personality
Theory
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A theoretical approach that holds that
cultures could best be understood by
examining the patterns of child rearing
and considering their effect on adult lives
and social institutions
Ethnoscience
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A theoretical approach that focuses on
the ways in which members of a culture
use language to classify their world and
that holds that anthropology should be the
study of cultural systems of classification
Ethnoscience
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Idea that culture is a mental template that
determines how members of a society
understand their world.
Ethnoscience is one position or technique
within cognitive anthropology which
focuses on the relationship between the
mind and society.
Ethnobotany
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Describes the ways in which different
cultures classify plants
Focuses on the relationship between
humans and plants in different cultures
Ethnomedicine
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An anthropological discipline devoted to
describing the medical systems of
different cultures
Examines the ways in which people in
different cultures understand health and
sicknesses as well as the ways they
attempt to cure disease
Symbolic Anthropology
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Symbolic anthropologists try to
understand a culture by discovering and
analyzing the symbols that are most
important to its members.
These often reflect the deep concerns of
the culture’s members in ways that may
be difficult to articulate.
Interpretive Anthropology
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Focuses on using humanistic methods,
such as those found in the analysis of
literature, to analyze culture and discover
the meaning of culture to its participants
Culture is and “ensemble of texts . . .
which the anthropologist strains to read
over the shoulders of those to whom they
properly belong.” (Clifford Geertz)
Functionalism
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Specific cultural institutions function to
support the structure of society or serve
the needs of individuals in society.
Ecological Functionalism
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Theoretical approach that holds that the
ways in which cultural institutions work
can best be understood by examining
their effects on the environment.
Norms and Values
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Norm
An ideal cultural pattern that influences
behavior in a particular society
Value
A culturally defined idea of what is true,
right, and beautiful
Subculture
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A group within a society that shares
norms and values that are significantly
different from those of a larger, dominant
culture within the same society.
Dominant Culture
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The culture with the greatest wealth and
power in a society that contains many
subcultures
Norms and Values in Subcultures
What norms and values do you see exhibited in this
subculture?
How are they different from the norms and values of the
dominant culture?
Historical Particularism
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Focused on culture as a shared set of
norms and values
Interested in presenting objective
descriptions of cultures within their
historical and environmental context
Postmodernism
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Focuses on issues of power and violence
Culture is a context in which norms and
values are contested and negotiated.
Sees culture and society as battlegrounds
of fights for power and the right to
determine what is accepted as true
Culture and Adaptation
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Populations adapt to the environment so
they can survive and reproduce.
Plasticity is the ability of humans to
change their behavior with relative ease in
response to environmental demands.
Cultural Ecology
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Focused on the adaptive aspect of culture
Anthropologists who view culture as an
adaptation tend to be concerned with people’s
behavior as it relates to their well-being or the
relationship of cultural practices to ecosystems.
They investigate the ways cultures adapt to
specific environments and the ways in which
cultures have changed in response to new
physical and social conditions.
Cultural Change
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Innovation
A new variation on an existing cultural
pattern that is subsequently accepted by
others members of society
Diffusion
The spread of cultural elements from one
culture to another through cultural contact
Innovation
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This craftsman
from Niger has
fashioned
sandals from old
tires.
What are some
other examples
of innovation in
the U.S. and
other countries?
Cultural Change
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Changes may come from within or
from outside a culture.
Cultural change can result from:
• Invasions by a foreign culture
• Revolution
• Epidemic diseases
Quick Quiz
1. A culture may be characterized by all
except which one of the following?
a) variability among individuals and
groups within the culture
b) a highly integrated, static system
c) provides members with a system of
classification for understanding the
world
d) includes norms or guidelines for
behavior
Answer: b
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A culture may not be characterized as
being a highly integrated, static
system.
2. Anthropologists with training in ethnoscience
and/or cognitive anthropology might carry out
which of the following research projects?
a) investigating social networks of single
mothers
b) eliciting the categories of foods that make
up a ceremonial meal
c) measurement of rice yield in rural
Japanese villages
d) cross-cultural survey of the relationship
between marriage and traditional type of
subsistence
Answer: b
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Anthropologists with training in
ethnoscience and/or cognitive
anthropology might carry out a research
projects eliciting the categories of
foods that make up a ceremonial meal.
3. Which of the following anthropological
research projects would be considered a
good example of an interpretive/symbolic
approach?
a) an exploration of cricket as a commentary
on British culture
b) the ecological function of Hindu beliefs
regarding not eating beef
c) the social structure of middle-class
Brazilian households
d) classification of medicinal plants by
Samoan elders
Answer: a
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An exploration of cricket as a
commentary on British culture would
be considered a good example of an
interpretive/symbolic approach.