Chapter 2: The Culture Concept Flashcards
Culture
- a set of beliefs, practices, and symbols that are learned and shared
- together they form an all-encompassing, integrated whole that binds people together and shapes their worldview and lifeways
Culture and Human Evolution
- First came the foot
- Brain development led to bipedalism, neoteny, cooperation and sharing, complex social organization, and language and communication
The Triune Brain
- neo-cortex
- limbic system
- r-complex
New Cortex
- the “smart brain”
- stores all higher-order conscious activity such as language, abstract thought, imagination, and creativity
- stores biographical and automatic memories such as walking and talking
Limbic System
- the “emotional brain”
- the reactive part of us that initiates the “fight or flight” response to danger
Reptilian Complex
- the primitive brain
- responsible for the most basic survival functions, such as heart rate, breathing, body temperature, and orientation in space
Enculturation and Child Rearing
- Prolonged infant dependency period in Homo sapiens
- Increased parental investment required
- Increased two-way learning capacity is required of human offspring (pedagogy)
How Culture is Learned
- informal
- formal
- technical
3 Domains of Culture
- material
- cognitive
- behavioural
Culture is based on symbols
includes symbol systems, language, discourse
Culture is Integrated
- Systematicity
- Strain to consistency
- Tendency for conservation of adaptations
The Kapauku Papuans of West
New Guinea
- Endemic warfare
- Political influence
- Patrilineality
- Polygyny
- Sweet potato horticulture
- Pig husbandry
Kuru in South Foré (Papua New Guinea)
- aka mad cow disease, pathogenic (bacteria that can cause diseases)
- people believed that it was caused by sorcery but it was through endocannibalism
- people thought the soul was in the brain but it was only kuru
- women ate brains, men ate other body parts
- colonial gov: The great pacification of New Guinea
- Christianity played a ideological role
- Discovered by anthropologists in the 1950s
- Stanley Prusiner made the biological structure
Endocannibalism
- cannibalism of members of one’s own family or tribe
- a funerary rite of passage
- changing gender roles for men
The Other
describe people whose customs, beliefs, or behaviors are “different” from one’s own
Armchair Anthropology
an early and discredited method of anthropological research that did not involve direct contact with the people studied
Cultural Determinism
the idea that behavioural differences are a result of cultural, not racial or genetic causes
Cultural Evolutionism
a discredited theory popular in nineteenth century anthropology suggesting that societies evolved through stages from simple to advanced
Functionalism
emphasized the way that parts of a society work together to support the functioning of the whole
Going Native
becoming fully integrated into another cultural group
Kinship
blood ties, common ancestry, and social relationships that form families within human groups
Structural-Functionalism
focuses on the ways in which the customs or social institutions in a culture contribute to the organization of society and the maintenance of social order
