Anthropological Concept of Culture (Lecture 4)

Question 1

Name five things most anthropologists agree about on culture, and explain their implications

Answer 1

Culture is…

1. Socially learned

==> people can learn different cultures; it’s not biological

2. Contested
3. Not idiosyncratic

==> distributed among people

4. Knowledge & Actions

==> Culture is a representation of the world

==> Culture is a guide to living in the world

5. Mostly implicit, taken for granted, invisible, tacit

Question 2

How does culture become visible? (What kind of shock? Said who?)

Answer 2

1. What’s ‘normal’ is violated
2. Encounter people from a different culture

Culture Shock! Roy Wagner

Question 3

Give 3 usages of the word “Culture” in contemporary English

Answer 3

1. Agriculture - cultivation of plants
2. Development of micro-organisms
3. “High Culture”

Question 4

What idea did Johann Herder oppose?

Answer 4

Johann Herder opposed the idea of universal human history, an idea from social evolutionists

Question 5

What is the plural of ‘culture’? What does it imply?

Answer 5

Kulturen - culture as a holistic way of life

Question 6

Give 3 everyday meanings of ‘culture’

Answer 6

Culture as…

1. A way of life
2. a characteristic of people
3. high Culture or civilisation

Question 7

Etymology of culture:

Latin colere

Latin cultura

Medieval French (from L. colere and cultura)

Medieval English

Answer 7

, ‘to inhabit or cultivate’

‘cultivation or tending’

‘husbandry, tending natural growth’

‘ploughed field’