Chapter 2

Question 1

What is culture?

Answer 1

elemnts of culture defining culture in this book

Question 2

if culture is emergent an dynamic why does it feel so stable?

Answer 2

~symbols ~values ~norms ~traditions

Question 3

how is culture expressed through social institutions?

Answer 3

~culture and social institutions ~American culture expressed through breakfast cereals and sexuality

Question 4

enculturation

Answer 4

the process of learning the social rules and cultural logic of a society.

Question 5

symbol

Answer 5

something-an object, idea, image, figure, or character-that represents something else

Question 6

interpretive theory of culture

Answer 6

a theory that culture is embodied and transmitted through symbols

Question 7

cross-cultural perspective

Answer 7

analyzing human social phenomenon by comparing that phenomenon in different cultures

Question 8

cultural construction

Answer 8

the meanings, concepts, and practices that people build out of their shared and collective experiences

Question 9

cultural determinism

Answer 9

the idea that all human actions are the product of culture, which denies the influence of other factors like physical environment and human biology on human behavior

Question 10

culture consists of the collective processes that make the ____________

Answer 10

artificial seem natural

Question 11

how can an understanding of the complexities of culture help us make sense of the day-to-day world in which we live? give an example from your life to illustrate your answer

Answer 11

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Question 12

values

Answer 12

symbolic expressions of intrinsically desirable principles or qualities

Question 13

norms

Answer 13

typical patterns of actual behavior as well as the rules about how things should be done

Question 14

social sanction

Answer 14

a reaction or measure intended to enforce norms and punish their violation

Question 15

customs

Answer 15

long-established norms that have a codified and law-like aspect

Question 16

tradition

Answer 16

practices and customs that have become most ritualized and enduring

Question 17

most students think it is easy to identify the symbols, values, norms, and traditions that support other people’s practices. But they find it more difficult to thing ab out their own daily practices in the same terms. use any of you won daily practices to illustrate how these four features of culture reinforce your own behavior

Answer 17

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Question 18

social institutions

Answer 18

organized sets of social relationships that link individuals to each other in a structured way in a particular society.

Question 19

functionalism

Answer 19

period: 1920’s-1960’s

major figures: bronislaw malinsowski

definition: cultural practices, beliefs, and institurions fulfill psychological and social needs

Question 20

holistic perspective

Answer 20

a perspective that aims to identify and understand the whole-that is, the systematic connections between individual cultural beliefs and practices-rather that the individual parts.

Question 21

anthropologists feel that holism is one of the key aspects of culture because it links together lots of things that people in other disciplines do not routinely think about. use an example of an object in daily life to show how ample, an item you use in your classes-such as a book, a pencil and paper, or a iPad to show how this object is liked to or breaks from our past but is connected to many other things in our lives.

Answer 21

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Question 22

cultural appreciation

Answer 22

the unilateral decision of one social group to take control over the symbols, practices, or objects of another

Question 23

discuss whether people from one culture could “own” a dance-like the samba from Brazil-that originated with people from another ethnic group. Could anyone own a style of pop music?

Answer 23

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Question 24

what is culture?

Answer 24

culture is a central component of what it means to be human. Culture involves the processes through which people comprehend, shape, and act in the world around them although most definitions of culture emphasize common themes, anthropologists have never agreed one a single definition of culture

Question 25

if culture is emergent and dynamic, why does it feel so stable?

Answer 25

cultural processes are emergent, fluid, and marked by creativity, uncertainty, differing individual meaning, and social conflict. Yet culture is also remarkably stable anthropologists continue to debate which is more important-dynamism or stability-in explaining how culture works in people’s lives

Question 26

how is culture expressed through social institutions?

Answer 26

a holistic perspective enables anthropologists to understand how different social institutions and domains of a society are interrelated anthropologists continue to debate how and why social institutions in any society change

Question 27

can anybody own culture?

Answer 27

the phenomenon of cultural appropriation illustrates the tensions between cultural change and stability, and raises important ethical and political questions abut anthropological knowledge itself anthropologists continue to debate over which research and collaborative strategies are most effective to respond to the ethical and political issues raised by the creation of anthropological knowledge about culture

Question 28

social evolutionism

Answer 28

period: 1870’s-1910’s

major figures: E.B Tylor, Herbert Spencer, L.H Morgan

definition: all societies pass through stages, from primitive state to complex civilization. Cultural differences are the result of different evolutionary stages.

Question 29

historical particularism

Answer 29

period: 1910’s-1930’s

major figures: Franz Boas, Alfred Kroeber, Edward Sapir

definition: individual societies develop particular cultural traits and undergo unique processes of change. culture traits diffuse from one culture to another

Question 30

structural-functionalism

Answer 30

period: 1920’s-1960’s

major figures: A.R. Radcliffe-Brown

definition: culture is systematic, its pieces working together in a balanced fashion to keep the whole society functioning smoothly

Question 31

neo-evolutionism

Answer 31

period: 1940’s-1970’s

major figures: Leslie White, Julian Steward

definition: cultures evolve from simple to complex by harnessing nature’s evergy through technology and the influence of particular culture-specific processes.

Question 32

cultural materialism

Answer 32

period: 1960’s-1970’s

major figures: Marvin Harris

definition: the material world, especially economic and ecological conditions, shape people’s customs and beliefs

Question 33

cognitive anthropology

Answer 33

period: 1950’s-1970’s

major figures: Ward Goodenough, Roy D’Andrade

definition: culture operates through mental models and logical systems

Question 34

structuralism

Answer 34

period: 1960’s-1970’s

major figures: Claude Levi-Strauss

definition: people make sense of their worlds through binary oppositions like hot-cold, culture-nature, male-female, and raw-cooked. Thesse binaries are expressed in social institutions and cultural practies like kinship, myth, and language

Question 35

interpretive anthropology

Answer 35

period: 1970’s-present

major figures:Clifford Geertz, Victor Turner, Mary Douglas

definition: culture is a shared system of meaning. People make sense of their worlds through the use of symbols and sybolic activities like myth and ritual.

Question 36

post-struturalism

Answer 36

period: 1980’s-present

major figures: Renato Rosaldo, George Marcus

definition: not a single school of thought, but a set of theoretical positions that rejects the idea that there are underlying structures that explain culture, Embraces the idea that cultural processes are dynamic, and that the observerof cultural processes can never see culture completely objectively.

Question 37

cultural appropriation

Answer 37

the uilateral decision of one social group to take control over the symbols, practices, or objects of another