The Concept of Culture

Question 1

Attributes of Culture

Answer 1

Learned, shared, dynamic, an interrelated system and is our primary means of adaptation

Question 2

Culture is Learned

Answer 2

acquired, taught by other people, not biological.

Question 3

Modes of transmission

Answer 3

Vertical - From the independent to the dependent eg. Parents to children
Horizontal - Between peers
Oblique - one to many, the media, advertisement

Question 4

Vertical transmission

Answer 4

Most direct and active in certain cultures and realms
* Language
* World views, belief systems, religions
* Ideas of family and kinship
* Core values of a society (ex: freedom in the US)
* Cultural lag - tend to have the hardest time changing (slower)

Question 5

Horizontal transmission

Answer 5

More active & change very rapidly
* Style/fashion
* Music
* Drugs and alcohol
* Social media increases the spread

Question 6

Oblique Transmission

Answer 6

Can be both positive and negative - Ex: hitler or MLK

Question 7

“the Clean Revolution,” Listerine (1920-30s)

Answer 7

began when Listerine advertised mouthwash as a way that said social ills will follow if you don’t use the product. It was a poster of a woman crying because she couldn’t be a bride for not using listerine. This got a bunch of new products to be released to make the breath smell better. This followed with a bunch of other cleaning products.
* During the great depression
* This cut infant mortality in half
* Made up the word halitosis (bad breath)

Question 8

Culture is Shared

Answer 8

everyone participates, is egalitarian, must be transmitted from one person to the next

Question 9

Culture is Dynamic

Answer 9

Always changing

9/11 & airports, football games, concerts, security= Response to a Critical event
* Affected people’s psyche → More security
* A lot of people tried to bring bombs in
* Patriot act
* A form of oblique transmission

COVID

Fashion, bathing practice, religion., music
* Mostly because of horizontal
transmission
* Contact with the world influence the rapidness of spreading

Question 10

Technological Change

Answer 10

Affects Language

• Phones & computers were rapidly advancing & became a status symbol
• New words introduced - Gigabyte, megabyte & slang on social media (faster horizontal transmission)

Question 11

Ogburn

Answer 11

Proposed Cultural lag - tend to have the hardest time changing (slower)

Question 12

Culture is an Interrelated System

Answer 12

The idea that cultural traits are not random occurrences, they are mostly adjusted to, or consistent with the other cultural traits found within the group.

Economics, culture, etc are all connected and will influence each other

Question 13

Social psychology

Answer 13

inherit behavior for humans to modify things to be consistent with each other

Question 14

Children and cognitive consistency

Answer 14

Children detect inconsistencies and tend to rebel against change (want to remain consistent)

EX: bed time changing, being upset over not being able to visit a friend’s house

Question 15

Sue Fisher’s study of Hispanic versus Non-Hispanic White Women and Reproductive Cancer in So. Calif

Answer 15

did a pap smear that shows that they all had abnormal cells. After talking to the women about their visits, they found that the non-hispanic women were having a lot better healthcare. The doctors somehow didn’t know these biases.

Question 16

Types of Reproductive cancer removal

Answer 16

Conozation - the removal of invasive cells
Cryosurgery - more invasive but doesn’t really affect women’s fertility. Freezes cells.
Hysterectomy - most radical intervention. Removal of the uterus. Causes a lot of issues in health.

Question 17

Outcome of Sue Fisher’s study of Hispanic versus Non-Hispanic White Women and Reproductive Cancer in So. Calif.

Answer 17

• Most hispanic women received hysterectomy because the government was paying for this. Maybe because of race that assumed that they couldn’t pay for another treatment
• Led to changes in informed consent laws across the country - the patient must know all the risks.
• Changes in standard protocol - always try the least invasive first
• Changes having insurance pay for all the treatments
  (economic changes)

Question 18

Culture is our Primary Means of Adaptation (what is adaptation & the avenues?)

Answer 18

Any trait or condition that maximizes an organism’s ability to meet its basic physiological needs, and to successfully reproduce

Genetic, developmental, Cultural

Question 19

Genetic Adaptation (sickle cell anemia)

Answer 19

offers immunity to malaria. It is a mutation of the red blood cells into a sickle shape.

• Malaria kills at a young age so those without sickle cell can’t pass on genes
• Malaria wasn’t an issue till agricultural systems started being put in forests full of mosquitoes. This also started making large populations gather to have malaria spread.
• Culturally forced genetic change

Question 20

Developmental Adaptation

Answer 20

change that occurs during a lifetime. Adaptation of different environments

Question 21

Examples of Developmental adaptation

Answer 21

Enhanced Vasoconstriction/dilation - the ability to push blood in a more forceful manner into limbs.
* 1940’s tests. Eskimos (people exposed to cold) vs lower 48, hands submerged in ice water, skin surface surface temperature changes= graduated/arrested vs straight drop. These changes affect those who are born in that environment.
* Hypoxia in Peru - high altitudes so less immune to hypoxia

Question 22

Cultural adaptation

Answer 22

satisfy basic needs and wants, psychological, social, emotional, as well as physical.

Question 23

Example of cultural adaptation in humans

Answer 23

adapting because of our physical needs.
We lost our ability to survive in the wild because our culture allows us to
* Needing clothes, housing, etc
* Surviving underwater, in space, etc

Question 24

Latent versus Manifest Function

Answer 24

the real purpose vs believed purpose

EX: Ayahuasca & harmine

Question 25

Ayahuasca & Harmine

Answer 25

Ayahuasca - plant native to amazon that is a hallucinogenic (chemical DMT) that mixed with a lot of other plants that unlock the chemical and is turned into a tea.

Harmine - purging effect on internal parasites.

Intestinal parasites are very common in the amazons.

It was done for ritual & vision reasons but really it helped with purging deadly parasites

Question 26

diseases today

Answer 26

infectious diseases of the past because of immunization, clean water, hygiene, and cultural changes

Question 27

Pintupi Peoples of W. Aust.,

Answer 27

Hunter-Gatherers/Foragers
Left in the 1960s
* Extremely harsh climate - very hot & little rain
* Incredible knowledge of the environment - knowing plants & medicinal functions
* Seasonal adaptations - moved based on weather (?)

Question 28

Ethnocentrism

Answer 28

the belief that one’s own culture (way of doing things) is superior, the best way or only way
* people impose their will and culture onto others

Question 29

Cultural Extinctions

Answer 29

groups physically die out because their land is taken from them because they are seen as unimportant. Or they are so pressured that their culture is forgotten.
* Introduction of diseases to the New World

Question 30

Xenophobia

Answer 30

fear of things foreign, foreign people, natural state of being for most humans
* Can be expanded with power to dehumanize others. Dehumanization campaigns

EX: Nazis dehumanizing jewish, slavery

Question 31

Native Tasmanians

Answer 31

island south of Australia that was colonized by british. The British saw the Tasmanians as barbaric cannibals. They were shamed in British media and wiped out. Some were captured in cages to be shamed in the public. Some were hunted down by aristocratic hunters.
* “Tasmanian devils”
* Spiritual practice of eating cooked remains of the dead to gain some of their essence

Question 32

Cultural Relativism

Answer 32

the need to evaluate culture practice in a way that natives see them.
Not always accepted if the culture harms others

Question 33

Eskimos and the Elderly

Answer 33

common to send old people to walk off on the ice alone during the night to commit suicide. It was honorable if they are too old and a burden.