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The Nature of Culture
What is this thing called culture, anyway?
E. B. Tylor (1871) gave us the most famous definition:
“Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge,
belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and
habits acquired by man as a member of society" (Tylor 1871).
The author of your text offers these definitions:
“The values, beliefs, and perceptions of the world shared by members
of a society, that they use to interpret experience and generate
behavior, and that are reflected in their behavior” (Haviland, 2003).
“A society’s shared and socially transmitted ideas, values, and
perceptions—which are used to make sense of experience and generate
behavior and which are reflected in behavior.”
(Haviland, 2005).
The Nature of Culture
Traditionally, a word of many uses…”high”culture, “low” culture,
agriculture, cultivate, cult…”way of life”
However, a more modern source, the American Heritage English
Dictionary, gives a primary definition of culture which is
substantially different than earlier primary definitions:
"The totality of socially transmitted
behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all
other products of human work and thought."
The Nature of Culture
Biological basis - computational theory of mind
Steven Pinker; John Tooby
Mind is largely a function of brain with special areas
associated with special functions
i.e. Wernike’s and Broca’s areas.
These areas evolved over millennia of adaptation as food
foragers.
“Mental templates” formed on a palimpsest, not a tabula rasa.
The Nature of Culture
Word of many uses… “high” culture, “low” culture,
agriculture, cultivate, cult… “way of life”
CULTURE/culture
CULTURE - way of life of human beings - ethnology
culture - way of life of a specific group of human beings -
ethnography
MAINLY learned
The Nature of Culture
Socialization - the processes involved in acquisition
of ability to function as a member of
society…does not involve symboling.
Enculturation - the processes involved in acquisition
of culture…requires symboling.
Ethnocentrism - a central feature of enculturation.
The Nature of Culture
MAINLY learned
Before birth….beginning of socialization.
Shortly after birth begins process of differentiation.
Within three weeks recognizes significant others.
By six months beginning symbolic learning/language sounds.
Beginning of enculturation……….
The Nature of Culture
Early Development: Prenatal period
Fetal Phase
The fetal phase of prenatal development lasts from nine weeks
after fertilization to birth.
During this period each of the organ systems continues to grow
and mature, and the overall size of the fetus increases
dramatically. The proportions change; as the arms and legs
grow, the head no longer seems so much out of proportion to the
rest of the body. During the first weeks of the fetal phase the sex
organs begin to take shape.
The Nature of Culture
Early Development:
Neonatal period (Neonate or newborn)
The period of life immediately after birth
The average North American newborn weighs about 7
pounds
Neurons
and
grow
measures
rapidly….dendrites
about 20 inches
show an estimated 500% increase
in density within the cortex from birth until age 2 in normal children.
The Nature of Culture
Moro (Startle)
/
Babinski's
reflex or
extensor plantar reflex is a test for dysfunction
Neonatal
Infancy
reflex: Draws
corticospinal
tract. up legs,
archs back when startled.
reflex:
Neonate
responds
stimulation
by sucking.
The Rooting
test consists
of stroking
the outside
soletofrom
heel to toe
with a
pointed object. The normal response is a bunching downward (flexor)
Babinski reflex: Baby spreads toes when foot tickled.
movement of all the toes. In infants under 2 years of age and people
with dysfunction in the corticospinal tract, this causes an upward
(extensor) movement of the big toe.
Vision: Baby can see up to about 12 inches away.
Cognitive ability: Can imitate mother’s facial expressions.
The Nature of Culture
• Infancy: From 2 weeks to 24 months.
– Physical Development
•
•
2 months: Raise head and chest off floor.
6 months: Sit unaided.
– Cognitive Development
• Infant actively involved with environment
• Picks up objects and put them in mouth.
• Realizes that objects still exist even when
they are not in sight. (Object Permanence)
The Nature of Culture
• Emotional & Social
Development
–
–
2 months: Smiling at
caregiver.
6 - 9 months: Shyness,
fear.
• Visual Cliff (Gibson &
Walk, 1960)
–
Development of fear of
heights.
Emotional bond between infant and caretaker.
Separation Anxiety
Apprehension when child is separated from caretaker.
Begins around 6 months.
The Nature of Culture
• Cognitive Development
•
•
–
Egocentric (self-centered thought)
Animism (attributes volition to inanimate objects)
Transductive reasoning
•
Logical errors regarding cause-and-effect.
– Because two things co-occur, one must cause the other.
• Emotional & Social Development
–
Change in peer relationships
•
•
•
Solitary play
Parallel play
Cooperative play
The Nature of Culture
MAINLY learned
SR conditioning
'An observable, measurable and relatively permanent
change in behavior that is the result of experience'.
Classical conditioning (Ivan Pavlov (Nobel Prize, 1904 Medicine and Physiology); John Watson,
Behaviorism. 1924 )
Imprinting
(Prägung,
in the original
German) is
defined as follows:…a
Prägung
(Imprinting)
- Konrad
Lorenz
Associationism
(Law of rapid
Effect …Edward Thorndyke, Animal Intelligence 1911)
relatively
learning
process that
takeswith
place during a short,
(Shared
Nobel Prize
in Medicine
in 1973
sensitive
period and
in early
youth.
It has a prominent-sensitive phase
Karl
von Frisch
Niko
Tinbergen)
Operant conditioning
( B.F. Skinner
About
Behaviorism. 1974 )
and a stable, often irreversible effect.
Symbolic learning (Cognitivism , Constructivism)
Based on ability to create and manipulate symbolic systems…the
neurological basis of CULTURE that had been attained by about 100,000
years B.P.
How Cultures Are Studied
Participant Observation
Important
Dichotomies
Culture Shock
Emic/Etic Method
Comparative
Inside/Outside
Overt/Covert
Real/Ideal
How Cultures Are Studied
Culture Change
acculturation
functional prerequisites
culture loss
cultural evolution
cultural diffusion
subculture
A Major Aspect of Culture Change in
Texas
Through Mid Century
Figure 3.1
Legal immigrants admitted to the U.S. by region of birth.
Percent of Texas Population by Age Group
and Ethnicity, 2000
Pe rce nt
80.0
72.6
67.1
66.4
63.5
60.2
60.0
57.2
53.0
47.8
44.0
39.5
40.0
45.0
45.0
41.6 41.3
40.5
38.4
38.0
44.4
43.1
38.6
35.3
30.5
26.7
24.2
22.4
20.6
20.3
20.0
16.7
0.0
s
<
5
ar
ye
5
to
9
s
ar
e
y
10
to
14
a
ye
15
rs
to
rs
19
a
ye
20
to
rs
24
a
ye
25
to
rs
29
a
ye
30
to
rs
34
a
ye
35
to
Anglo
39
a
ye
40
rs
to
rs
44
a
ye
45
to
His panic
rs
49
a
ye
50
to
54
a
ye
55
rs
to
rs
59
a
ye
60
to
rs
rs
64
a
ye
65
+
a
ye
Percent of Texas Population by Age Group
and Ethnicity, 2040*
Pe rce nt
80.0
69.9
70.0
67.8
66.5
66.8
66.0
65.5
66.4
64.3
62.6
60.6
60.0
56.7
55.2
52.3
50.0
39.8
40.0
37.1
30.0
20.3
19.9
19.3
17.7
20.0
19.8
19.3
s
ar
ye
ye
20.6
20.5
19.4
27.2
26.5
25.3
21.9
10.0
0.0
rs
<
5
a
ye
5
to
s
9
ar
ye
10
to
14
ye
ar
15
s
to
19
ye
ar
20
s
to
24
25
to
29
s
ar
30
to
34
ye
s
ar
35
to
39
Anglo
* Proje ctions are s how n for the 1.0 s ce nario
ye
ar
40
s
to
44
ye
s
ar
45
to
rs
49
His panic
a
ye
50
to
rs
54
a
ye
55
to
59
ye
s
ar
60
to
64
ye
ar
s
s
65
ar
+
ye
Projected Proportion of Population by
Race/Ethnicity in Texas, 2000-2040*
Percent
70.0
59.1
60.0
53.1
53.1
50.0
46.4
45.2
39.2
40.0
37.5
32.0
30.5
30.0
24.2
20.0
11.6
11.1
10.0
10.2
9.1
5.9
4.5
3.3
7.3
7.9
0.0
2000
2010
2020
2030
Year
Anglo
Black
Hispanic
Other
2040
8.8
Projected Percent of Net Change
Attributable to Each Race/Ethnicity
Group in Texas for 2000-2040*
Black
5.3%
Hispanic
78.2%
Anglo
3.9%
Other
12.6%
Global Warming
• We are in a significant warming interval.
• Human activity continues to be an
important factor…perhaps the most
important single factor.
• There are already signs of cultural stress
related to change in the environment.
• Will we be able to change our systems of
adaptation (cultures) fast enough to avoid
major calamities?