Download Section 2: Cultural Variation

Section 2: Cultural Variation

Cultures vary widely

Commonalities
 Certain features are shared in all cultures
○ Cultural universals
 George Murdock looked at hundreds of cultures to
determine general traits of cultures
 Ex. Family, dancing, cooking, housing, language,
myths and folklore, religion, sports, tool making are
just a few.
 Survival dictates the need for cultural universals but
the nature of the trait varies between cultures

Variations among societies
 Margaret Mead’s Study of cultural variation
○ Purpose= determine whether differences in
basic temperament results mainly from
inherited characteristics or from cultural
influences
○ Two societies of New Guinea= Arapesh and
the Mundugumor

The Arapesh:
 Gentle, non-agressive, receptive, trusting,
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and warm
Society based on cooperation
Villages consist of clans
Roles for men and women clearly defined
Children grow in a loving and friendly
environment
 Marriage practice
○ Girls at the age of 7 or 8 are promised to boys
6 years older and the girls are chosen by the
boy’s father
○ The girl goes to live with the boy’s family and
in about 5 years they begin to live as true
husband and wife
○ Marriage is seen as a way to increase the
warm family circle in which the descendants
may live.
○ Usually marriage is only between one man
and one woman but if a woman’s husband
dies then she will remarry to a man who has a
wife

The Mundugumor
 Aggressive, very
competitive, jealous,
and violent
 They seek revenge
and delight in
showing off and
fighting
 Prior to government
intervention they were
headhunters
 Families are so
competitive that they
don’t talk to each
other and are
ashamed to be seen
with one another
 The only ties that are shared are called the
“rope” which is through members of the
opposite sex
○ Ex. One rope = The father, his daughters, his
daughter sons and his daughters sons
daughters
○ The opposite is true for the mother
○ When someone dies the property passes
down the rope
 Wealth and power determined by the # of
wives
○ Wives are obtained by trading sisters
 Children push parents apart
○ Father wants a daughter to trade for another
wife and the mother wants a son for help and
as an heir
○ Children have little contact with the parents as
infants
○ Children have many rules and receive
physical punishment when the rules are not
obeyed

This is a
Mundugumor
mother holding her
child

Mead’s conclusion:
 The environments were different
○ Arapesh= mountains, food scarce
○ Mundugumor= river valley, abundant food
 Temperament is a result of culture rather
than biology
 This study is a wonderful example of the
variations of culture

Studying variation
 Sociologists must be careful of biases in
their observations and conclusions
 Ethnocentrism builds unity among group
members in a society
○ Too much could make a society stagnant and
unwilling to accept traits that could be
beneficial
 Cultural relativism helps sociologists keep
an open mind about different cultures
○ Sociologists attempt to understand cultural
practices from the points of view of the
members of the society being studied
○ Marvin Harris and the cows in India
 This study helps us understand why there may be
practical reason Indian people protect cows
 But it only makes sense when you look at it from an
Indian perspective!

There are also variations within a
society
 Subcultures
○ Ex. age, gender, religious, political,
geographic, social-class, and occupation
○ They do not reject all of the values held by the
larger society and don’t present a treat to
society
 Countercultures a specific kind of subculture
○ Ex. hippies, Organized crime families,
anarchists
○ Reject societal norms and values and
sometimes create a threat to society
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