Culture 12

Question 1

CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Answer 1

• Differences in race, ethnicity, language, nationality or religion.
• Refers to the variety or multiformity of human social structures, belief systems, and strategies for adapting to situations in different parts of the world.

Question 2

CULTURAL EVOLUTION

Answer 2

• Theories that have developed since the mid-19th century, which attempt to explain processes and patterns of cultural change.
• Often such theories have presented such change as “progress,” from “earlier” forms (“primitive”, “less developed,” “less advanced” etc.) To “later” forms (“more developed,” “more advanced”).
• These schemes usually have reflected the ethnocentrism of the theorists, as they frequently put their own societies at the pinnacle of “progress.”

Question 3

CULTURAL IDENTITY

Answer 3

• Is the identity of a group or culture, or of an individual as her/his belonging to a group or culture affects her/his view of herself/himself.
• People who feel they belong to the same culture share a common set of norms.

Question 4

CULTURAL IMPERIALISM

Answer 4

Is the rapid spread or advance of one culture at the expense of others, or its imposition on other cultures, which it modifies, replaces, or destroys-usually due to economic or political reasons.

Question 5

CULTURAL MATERIALISM

Answer 5

• Is a theoretical approach in Cultural Anthropology that explores and examines culture as a reflection or product of material conditions in a society.
• Cultural materialism is a variation on basic materialist approaches to understanding culture.
• The Anthropologist Marvin Harris is a famous representative.

Question 6

CULTURAL NORMS

Answer 6

• Are behaviour patterns that are typical of specific groups, which have distinct identities, based on culture, language, ethnicity or race separating them from other groups.
• Such behaviours are learned early in life from parents, teachers, peers and other human interaction.
• Are the unwritten rules that govern individual behaviour.
• Assume importance especially when broken or when an individual finds him/herself in a foreign environment dealing with an unfamiliar culture where the norms are different.

Question 7

CULTURAL RELATIVISM

Answer 7

• The position that the values, beliefs and customs of cultures differ and deserve recognition and acceptance.
• This principle was established by the German anthropologist Franz Boas (1858-1942) in the first few decades of the 20th century.
• As a movement was in part a response to Western ethnocentrism.
• Between World War I and World War II, ….. was the central tool for American anthropologists in their refusal of Western claims to universality.

Question 8

CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (CRM)

Answer 8

Is the branch of applied archaeology which aims to preserve archeological sites threatened by prospective dams, highways, and other projects.

Question 9

CULTURAL RIGHTS

Answer 9

• Is the idea that certain rights are vested not in individuals but in larger identifiable groups, such as religious and ethnic minorities and indigenous societies.
• Include a group’s ability to preserve its culture, to raise its children in the ways of its ancestors, to continue practising its language, and not to be deprived of its economic base by the nation-state or large political entity in which it is located.

Question 10

CULTURAL SCRIPTS OR TEXTS

Answer 10

Terms used by those concerned to analyse cultural objects, such as pictures, films, sports events, fashions, food styles, to indicate that these can be viewed as containing messages in a manner comparable to a piece of written text.

Question 11

CULTURAL SENSITIVITY

Answer 11

Is a necessary component of cultural competence, meaning that we make an effort to be aware of the potential and actual cultural factors that affect our interactions with others.

Question 12

CULTURAL TRANSMISSION

Answer 12

• How culture is passed on through learning from one generation to another.
• Also referred to as enculturation or socialization.

Question 13

CULTURAL UNIVERSAL

Answer 13

• General cultural traits and features found in all societies of the world.
• Some examples are organization of family life; roles of males, females, children and elders; division of labour; religious beliefs and practices; birth and death rituals; stories of creation and myths for explaining the unknown; “rights” and “wrongs” of behaviour etc.

Question 14

CULTURAL UNIVERSALISM

Answer 14

• Is the assertion that there exist values, which transcend cultural and national differences.
• Claims that more “primitive” cultures will eventually evolve to have the same system of law and rights as Western cultures.
• Cultural relativists on the other hand hold an opposite viewpoint, that a traditional culture is unchangeable. In universalism, an individual is a social unit, possessing inalienable rights, and driven by the pursuit of self-interest.
• In the cultural relativist model, a community is the basic social unit where concepts such as individualism, freedom of choice, and equality are absent.

Question 15

CULTURE

Answer 15

• The shared values, norms, traditions, customs, arts, history, folklore and institutions of a group of people.
• “Integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behaviour that is both a result of and integral to the human capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations.”
• The etymological root of the word is from the Latin ‘colere’ which means to cultivate, from which is derived ‘cultus’, that which is cultivated or fashioned. In comparison of words such as “Kultur” and “Zivilisation” in German, “culture” and civilisation” in English, and “culture” and “civilisation” in French the concepts reveal very different perspectives.
• The meaning of these concepts is however, converging across languages as a result of international contacts, cultural exchanges and other information processes.