Cultural anthropology

Question 1

Society

Answer 1

A society is a group of people who live in the same geographic location, who live by certain required rules, and who agreed to relate to each other in certain ways
– Culture is a part of society
– A society can contain many different cultures
– People carry their culture with them when they move from one society to another

Question 2

Culture

Answer 2

Culture is comprised of the huge body of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that we learn throughout our lives in order to be accepted into society and into survive in society

Question 3

Two types of culture

Answer 3

1. Material culture.
2. Non-material culture.

Question 4

Material culture

Answer 4

Consists of artefacts and physical objects, humans create and give meaning to (e.g. food, clothes, tools, industry, transportation, weapons, etc.)

Question 5

Non-material culture

Answer 5

Consists of more abstract creations (e.g. Customs, myths, religion, values, government laws, exchange of goods and services forms of property, communication, language, relationships, leisure, activities, etc..)

Question 6

Human characteristics and capacities that make culture possible

Answer 6

– Great brain capacity for learning to the extent that is required to learn culture (allows humans to make choices, change ideas, and behaviours participate in activities)
– Ability to skilfully manipulate objects with the hands (allows humans to change their environment)
– Ability to communicate through language and speech (allows humans to share ideas and pass, cultural changes onto future generations)

Question 7

Norms

Answer 7

– Specific rules which indicate appropriate behaviour in a given situation
– Define how people should behave
– Departure from norms is noticed more than conformity

Question 8

Two types of norms

Answer 8

1. Folkways
2. Mores

Question 9

Folkways

Answer 9

– The rule of every day life
– Certain amount of flexibility
– non-conformity is permitted
– People who don’t conform are seen as particular or eccentric they are not considered immoral or treated like criminals (i.e. don’t pick your nose, be on time for appointments)

Question 10

Mores

Answer 10

– Much stronger than folkways: often become laws
– Violations are treated seriously
– People believe that Mores are essential to maintain an orderly society
– People who don’t conform may be criticized, attacked, or institutionalized (nudity in a public place, theft, murder)
– Breaking certain mores is made unthinkable by taboos which are powerful social beliefs that make an act utterly loathsome (i.e. eating human flesh)

Question 11

Values

Answer 11

– General beliefs, that people share about what is good or bad, right and wrong, desirable or undesirable
Values influence that content of norms (if a society, values education it’s normal will make provisions for mass schooling, if a society is values monogamy, it’s normal will not allow people to marry more than one person at a time)

Question 12

Social control

Answer 12

Every society needs this to ensure members behave in appropriate ways

Question 13

Two types of social control

Answer 13

1. Formal – police, government, religion, school, etc..
2. Informal – reactions of other people in society, ourselves

Question 14

Sanctions

Answer 14

Positive – rewards for conformity (e.g. Not, a ceremony of public acclaim.)
Negative – punishments for non-conformity (e.g. disapproval, exclusion, imprisonment, execution)

Question 15

Ethnocentrism

Answer 15

– Tendency to judge other cultures by the standards of one’s own culture (e.g. One particular culture becomes a standard which all other cultures are compared.)
– People automatically assume that their beliefs (values) and customs (norms) are the best (e.g thinking that their culture is at the centre of everything)
– People often act in a no centric way because they have had experience with people from other cultures (e.g. ethnocentrism is particularly strong in homogenous societies because they may not have had much contact with other cultures)
– Even with mass communication and formal education, ethnocentric still prevails

Question 16

Cultural relativism

Answer 16

– The recognition that one’s own culture cannot be judged by the standards of another culture
– Our ability to achieve a full understanding of another culture depends largely on our willingness to adopt the position of cultural relativism
– The inability to adopt the position of cultural relativism is simply another form of ethnocentrism
– Cultural relativism does not mean that we can never pass judgement on another culture

Question 17

Dominant/popular culture

Answer 17

– Refers to the culture of most people in society.
– It is influenced by mass media in a number of ways

Question 18

Subcultures and countercultures

Answer 18

– Groups that do not fully participate in the dominant culture of society
– These groups are especially common in large heterogeneous, modern industrial societies in which there are many cultural differences between members of different regional, religious and occupational backgrounds

Question 19

Subculture

Answer 19

– Shares in the overall culture of the society, but also has its own norms values and lifestyle (i.e. young rich, different religious and ethnic groups, different regions)
– tend to be ethnocentric in relation to other subcultures
– May result in value conflict (i.e. deep, disagreements over goals and ideals)

Question 20

Counterculture

Answer 20

– Is a subculture that is fundamentally different from the dominant culture
– Purposefully (and usually proudly) rejects the most basic norms and values of the dominant culture (i.e. the youth movement in the 70s – hippies, cults)

Question 21

Components of rights of passage

Answer 21

– You are changed from what you were to something new
– You removed yourself from society temporarily
– You are admitted to society as a new person