Download Anthropology 12 Lectures Two and Three: On Culture 1) “Culture

Anthropology 12 Lectures Two and Three: On Culture 1) “Culture, then, is a name anthropologists give to the taken-for granted but powerfully influential understandings and codes that are learned and shared by members of a group." (Peacock, p.7) 2) We are seldom, clearly, consciously aware of our own culture. Being analytic about our (inevitable) ethnocentrism can allow us understand how our culture is affecting us – and to reduce our ethnocentrism. 3) An example from language concerning the way in which ones own culture operates -again, how it forms basic expectations about which we may have little conscious recognition. "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously." "Furiously sleep ideas green colorless." The examples could be multiplied and, as with cases of the ethnocentrism, we are most likely to be aware that we have cultural expectations -- of proper food, of proper speech, of etiquette -- how to act around other people -- where do you stand in an elevator, where do you look, what, if anything, do you say when those expectations are violated. 4) But there is much more to culture than customary behaviors -- food preference, speech patterns, and seating arrangements. Culture is a system of meaning and a context of interpretation. We don't simply behave -- we interpret and shape our behavior -- we act -according to a system of meaning. On winks and twitches and parodies of winks and twitches. Again, we are likely to be most aware of our cultural meanings and how we interpret in circumstances of contrast -- when our meanings and interpretations do not seem to be working very well or do not seem to be shared by those with whom we are interacting. 5) Culture provides models of reality (what is the difference between a wink and a twitch). It also provides models for behavior (how should I communicate a private understanding). It creates assumptions; it shapes expectations; it generates action.

6) Culture: powerful, often unconscious assumptions and expectations of the right, reasonable and proper; a system of ideas through which we interpret reality and shape behavior 7) Although very real, culture can be described only as an abstraction. It is a composite, a generalization, and it is historically contingent.

8) Virtually all animals -- at least those more complex than insects -- must to some extent learn how to behave -- very few, if any, rely completely on innate, on instinctual behavior. But, however, important learned behavior -- what to do and how to interpret/respond to the behavior, as well as the various verbal calls and signals individuals make -- is in chimp life, it is vastly more important in human life. Our status as the most adaptable of creatures derives from our reliance on culture—on our capacity to elaborate culture: to learn and unlearn; to innovate; to think; to modify behavior. 9) On bafflement. 10) During the course of evolutionary history our species has became increasingly dependent on culture and culture has become increasingly elaborate. Indeed, culture has become the primary human adaptation and has strongly affected even our most basic biological processes. All of our physical needs are moderated and shaped by culture. 11) Finally, and this is an elementary point but an important one. In contrast to physical appearance, culture is learned. It is a fundamental tenet of anthropology that regardless of where humans happen to grow up and how their culture happens to shape them; they are in terms of their humanness, their human potential, essentially the same.