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CULTURE BASICS
B.L.A.B.
CULTURE
• A system of beliefs, values and
assumptions about life that guide
behavior and are shared by a group of
people.
• It includes customs, language, and material
artifacts. These are transmitted from generation
to generation, rarely with explicit instructions
CULTURE
Acculturation – cultural modification of an individual,
group or people by adapting to or borrowing from
another culture AND the process by which a human being
acquires the culture of a particular society from infancy.
• Custom – a usage or practice common to many; long
established practice
• Ethnicity – group of people classed according to common
racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic, or cultural
origin or background
• Traditions – cultural continuity in social attitudes,
customs , and institutions
LEARNED
• Culture is learned behavior - you are not
born with it
• Taught how to behave - do’s and don’ts
• You learn through language - as cultures
change and become more complicated,
vocabularies expand
• It is not absolute, not all taught is learned.
GEOGRAPHY
•WHERE you live shapes
What you believe
•What you do
•What you make
•What you speak
CULTURAL CONSTANTS
• Belief Anything considered true, right and
important
• Language Agreed upon , not universal
particular to group
• Artifacts anything made or used by humans
• Behavior Dictated by beliefs. How a group is
organized and controlled
BELIEFS
Beliefs are expressed in
Religion: Organized belief systems
Values: What is of importance to the group
Ethics: What is right and wrong
Arts and Esthetic Values :What is pleasing or
repulsive.
LANGUAGE
• Language is an agreed upon system of a
praticular group, it is the negotiated
expression of thoughts, feelings, etxc
• Spoken
• Written
• Number Systems
• Symbols and gestures
• Drama and Literature
LANGUAGE spoken
• DIALECT – regional variety of language
distinguished by features of vocabulary,
grammar, and pronunciation
• BROGUE – a dialect or regional
pronunciation, especially an Irish accent
• SLANG – an informal nonstandard
vocabulary
ARTIFACTS
Things made or used by the group
• Food
• Clothing and adornment
• Shelter and structures
• Technology
• Transportation
BEHAVIOR
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Family
Government
Economics
Recreation
FAMILY
• PATRIARCHY – social organization marked by the
supremacy of the father in the clan or family
• MATRIARCHY – a family, group, or state governed by a
woman (mother)
• EGALITARIANISM – belief in human equality
• NUCLEAR FAMILY – a family group consisting of father,
mother and children
• EXTENDED FAMILY – a family that includes near relatives
in addition to a nuclear family
GOVERNMENT
• DEMOCRACY – a government in which the supreme
power is vested in the people and exercised by them
directly or indirectly (REPUBLIC) usually involving periodic
free elections
• MONARCHY – undivided rule or absolute sovereignty by a
single person
• OLIGARCHY – government in which a small group
exercises control especially for selfish purposes
ECONOMICS
• ECONOMY – production, distribution and consumption of goods and
services
• Traditional Based on agriculture, limited trade, subsistence economy,
family is basic economic unit
• Market Based on supply and demand, focuses on consumer goods, little
government control
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CAPITALISM - an economic system characterized by private ownership, by
investments that are determined by private decision and by prices, production
and distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free
market
• Command : Natural resources, means of production, distribution
and prices set by the government
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SOCIALISM – economic theory advocating governmental ownership and administration of
production and distribution of goods
COMMUNISM – a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as
needed
. Mixed Combination of Market and Command ie some government controls
but consumer driven