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Chapter 3 Anthropology and Intercultural Relations Introduction • Culture – Human capacity to differentiate – Categorize the world of experience – Assign meanings to the categories • Common sense – Unstated assumptions shared amongst communities • Cultural Misunderstandings – Different common senses amongst different groups • Intercultural Relations – Flows of symbols across the global landscape Cultural Misunderstandings in an International Milieu • Complexities of many beliefs or common senses – Misunderstandings occur – Both sides are correct, just different points of view • Misunderstandings on a larger scale – Not always at the interpersonal level – Happens often in politics What is Culture? • Humans generate meanings or models to understand the world around them • Culture is a learned system of meanings through which people orient themselves • Culture is… – Symbolic – Shared – Learned – Adaptive Culture is Symbolic • Humans understand and manipulate the world using symbols – Words, gestures, clothes…all symbols – Symbol: something that stands for something else to someone in some respect • Symbols are arbitrary – We know the meaning only if we were taught it Culture is Shared • Ideology – Mobilization of cultural symbols to • Create inequities • Sustain inequities • Resist inequities • Generation of similarity – Establish common beliefs in a community • Organization of difference – Effort to regulate behavior according to ideology [Figure 3.1 - Ideology involves the mobilization of cultural symbols toward political ends. Photo by Mark Allen Peterson.] Culture Is Learned • Enculturation: Passing on culture to new generations – Formal learning (institution) – Informal learning (watching, listening, participating) • Embodiment – How we speak, eat, move, etc. – Unconscious behaviors learned through doing. [Figure 3.2 - Most enculturation involves informal learning—the learning we engage in simply by participating in everyday activities. Photo by Mark Allen Peterson.] Culture is Adaptive • Cultural learning is a lifelong process – Adapt to internal and external pressures – Diffusion of ideas through direct and indirect contact • Culture does not cease to be culture because it adapts – Globalization does not change cultures, it is an integration of cultures Levels of Culture • Culture is deeper than what is seen – But what is seen does play into culture • Culture exists on three different levels – Everyday practices – Reasons and logical explanations for those practices – Assumptions about how the world works Cultural Practices • Everyday actions through which people in a particular community get through their day – The things we say – The tools we use – The things we buy – The ways we behave around other people • This level of culture is sometimes called artifact Cultural Logics • Underlying mechanisms behind human action in a certain community • Nature acts as a constraint to human action • There is always an explanation for the failure of cultural logics Worldview • Refers to the assumptions people have about the structure of the universe – Fundamental principles and values that organize and generate cultural logics • Expressive culture – How we show ourselves to ourselves – Art, poems, stories, rituals • Sometimes described as an encompassing picture of reality [Figure 3.3 - As cultures increasingly come into contact with each other through economic globalization, there is little evidence that a shared world view is coming into existence. Rather, we find an increasing organization of diversity. Photo by Mark Allen Peterson.] Intercultural Relations • Cross-cultural encounters have powerful transformative effects on social systems and individuals – Cultural diffusion through trade, books, etc. • Intercultural relations are about societies and people – Refugees, migrants, tourists, soldiers account are a few of the many people that influence other cultures • Culture shock – Unpleasant, sometimes traumatic feeling that comes with cultural misunderstandings – People deal with culture shock in different ways [Figure 3.4 - Rituals, play, art, sports, theater, novels and movies are all part of expressive culture, in which world views are articulated and elaborated in symbolic forms. Photo by Mark Allen Peterson.] Studying Culture: The Anthropological Perspective • Anthropology is the empirical study of what it means to be human – Not defined by its subject matter – May cover other fields of study • Defined by perspectives – – – – – Comparative Holistic Empirical Evolutionary Relativistic Comparative Perspective • People tend to define what they are accustomed to as normal – Might seem normal to one group but not to another • Comparison allows for the questioning of normalcy – Anthropology studies the differences Holistic Perspective • Anthropologists assume that all aspects of life are intertwined – Breaking down or simplifying human tendencies does not make sense • Example: Stephen Lansing’s study of Balinese agriculture revolution Empirical Perspective • Anthropology is a science in which data is collected through observation or interaction – “Fieldwork” • Participant observation refers to long-term engagements with a host community – Anthropologist enters into everyday life with the community – Learns through interaction Evolutionary Perspective • All communities are in continual processes of historical change – Adapt to population pressures, environmental changes, wars, technological advancements, etc. • The evolutionary assumption reminds us that traditions had histories Relativistic Perpective • Assumption: all human societies offer data of the same type – Controversial and misunderstood • One system is not better than another – Reverts to ideas on common senses • Methodological relativism – Data as institutions that serve particular social functions in a specific time and place, embedded in complex webs of meanings • Theoretical relativism – An assumption that all human actions make rational sense when understood in their own contexts • Philosophical relativism – Whatever people do is right for them Anthropology and International Studies • Anthropological perspective’s five key dimensions to international studies: 1. Importance of culture in explaining human actions 2. Urges a more sophisticated approach to cultural boundaries 3. Reminds us there are usually more than two points of view 4. Encourages us to think on a smaller scale 5. Emphasizes the importance of people in international studies