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What is Culture?

Culture is the patterns of learned and shared behavior and beliefs of a particular social, ethnic,
or age group. It can also be described as the complex whole of collective human beliefs with a
structured stage of civilization that can be specific to a nation or time period. Humans in turn use
culture to adapt and transform the world they live in.

Ashanti flag, note the golden stool


This idea of Culture can be seen in the way that we describe the Ashanti, an African tribe located
in central Ghana. The Ashanti live with their families as you might assume but the meaning of
how and why they live with whom is an important aspect of Ashanti culture. In the Ashanti
culture, the family and the mothers clan are most important. A child is said to inherit the fathers
soul or spirit (ntoro) and from the mother, a child receives flesh and blood (mogya). This relates
them more closely to the mothers clan. The Ashanti live in an extended family. The family lives
in various homes or huts that are set up around a courtyard. The head of the household is usually
the oldest brother that lives there. He is chosen by the elders. He is called either Father or
Housefather and everyone in the household obeys him.[1]
The anthropological study of culture can be organized along two persistent and basic themes:
Diversity and Change. An individual's upbringing, and environment (or culture) is what makes
them diverse from other cultures. It is the differences between all cultures and sub-cultures of the
worlds regions. People's need to adapt and transform to physical, biological and cultural forces to
survive represents the second theme, Change. Culture generally changes for one of two reasons:
selective transmission or to meet changing needs. This means that when a village or culture is
met with new challenges for example a loss of a food source, they must change the way they
live. This could mean almost anything to the culture, including possible forced redistribution of,
or relocation from ancestral domains due to external and/or internal forces. And an
anthropologist would look at that and study their ways to learn from them.
Culture is:
Learned through active teaching, and passive habitus.
Shared meaning that it defines a group and meets common needs.
Patterned meaning that that there is a recourse of similar ideas. Related cultural beliefs and
practices show up repeatedly in different areas of social life.
Adaptive which helps individuals meet needs across variable environments.
Symbolic which means that there are simple and arbitrary signs that represent something else,
something more.

"Culture" vs. "culture"


At its most basic level, the difference between Culture and culture is in the way they are defined.
Culture with a capital C refers to the ability of the human species to absorb and imitate patterned
and symbolic ideas that ultimately further their survival. Culture is a trait all humans have,
whereas culture with a lower case c refers to a particular learned way of life and set of patterns
an individual person has picked up, representing one variation amongst many different cultures.

"Petty apartheid": sign on Durban beach in English, Afrikaans and Zulu (1989)
The concept of Culture vs. culture becomes more complex when it comes to how the two terms
are misinterpreted and misused. Originally the overlap of the two concepts had a positive effect,
especially during colonial times; it helped spread the idea that vulnerable seemingly primitive
and uncivilized cultures had some intrinsic value and deserved protection from other more
dominating cultures. But there are drawbacks to this mentality, as it assumes first that culture is a
static thing that it can be preserved, unchanged by the changing people and times it runs into. It
also assumes that the people accept at face value and do not wish to change their patterns or
ways of life. If people then do change, often they are criticized by member from within and
outside their own culture for not valuing authenticity and tradition. This relates to the Culture
vs. culture in that anthropologys focus and appreciation of Culture and how it develops
differently can be twisted when talking about Cultural relativism or human rights. Appreciation
and defense of Culture does not imply blind tolerance to all aspects of all cultures. A pertinent
example of this would be Female Genital Cutting and how as an aspect of little c culture, it can
be examined and judged a violation of human rights. This does not however, diminish an
anthropologists appreciation for the ability of the human being to develop Culture.
An example of how defense of culture has been misused is in apartheid South Africa, where the
white supremacist government justified the oppression of black Africans, or the bantu peoples

because their aim was a higher Bantu culture and not at producing black Europeans. They
argued that not race but culture was the true base of difference, the sign of destiny. And cultural
differences were to be valued. In such cases, the abuse of the term is clear, in that they were
using it as a basis for unequal treatment and access to services such as education.

Levels of culture
Familial culture
Familial culture is how you express culture as a family through traditions, roles, beliefs, and
other areas. Many aspects can influence a family culture such as religion, and the community
around you. Religion can strongly influence family culture, which can be demonstrated by the
Catholic religion in many Hispanic countries. Most Hispanic cultures practice Catholic beliefs
and within a family these beliefs are practiced to different degrees. For example, one family may
go to the catholic mass every week while some may only go once a month. This can all depend
on the standards and cultural norms for a given community. Every family is different, and every
family has its own culture.
Familial culture is also passed down from generation to generation and this means that it is both
shared and learned. It is shared because as a family grows, new generations are introduced to
traditional family practices and then it becomes a routine to that new generation. Familial culture
is learned by means of enculturation which is the process by which a person learns the
requirements of the culture that he or she is surrounded by. With enculturation an individual will
also learn behaviors that are appropriate or necessary in their given culture. The influences of
enculturation from the family direct and shape the individual.

The Royal Family of Great Britain is deeply set in family tradition


The present Royal family of Great Britain is a good example of family tradition because each
male member of the royal family has served in the armed forces. Prince Andrew joined the Navy
in 1979, Prince Edward joined the Royal Marines as a second lieutenant in 1983, Prince Charles
the current prince of Wales was appointed in 1969 as the as colonel-in-chief of the Royal
Regiment of Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh joined the Navy in 1939 and served in World War 2
and as of June 12, 2003 Prince Henry announced that he would be continuing the tradition by

joining the Army. This long standing tradition of serving in the armed forces is an important
aspect of familial culture because it shows the connection of the generations of the royal family
of Great Britain through the years.
Micro or Subculture
Micro or Subculture- distinct groups within a larger group that share some sort of common
trait, activity or language that ties them together and or differentiates them from the larger group.
A micro or subculture is also not limited on how small it can be. It could be defined similarly to a
clique. An example of this could be Mexican-Americans within the U.S. society. They share the
same language, but they are found in a larger whole. This is similar the subculture of an African
American, they are fully accepted in the American culture but are also capable of also
maintaining a individual smaller culture too. An example of a micro-culture would be the
Japanese hip hop genba (club site) that is becoming more and more popular throughout Japanese
cities.[2] Although rap started in the United States, it has created its own unique appearance and
style in the Japanese youth culture today. The physical appearance of rappers may be the same to
those in the States, however the content of the music differs along with the preservation of
Japanese traditions.

Cinco de Mayo dancers greeted by former Pres. George W. Bush."The holiday, which has been
celebrated in California continuously since 1863, is virtually ignored in Mexico."[3]
Cultural universals
Cultural universals ( which has been mentioned by anthropologists like George Murdock,
Claude Levi-Strauss, Donald Brown and others) can be defined as being anything common that
exists in every human culture on the planet yet varies from different culture to culture, such as
values and modes of behavior. Examples of elements that may be considered cultural universals
are gender roles, the incest taboo, religious and
healing ritual, mythology, marriage, language, art, dance, music, cooking, games, jokes, sports,
birth and death because they involve some sort of ritual ceremonies accompanying them, etc.
Many anthropologist and socialists with an extreme perspective of cultural relativism deny the
existence or reduce the importance of cultural universals believing that these traits were only
inherited biologically through the known controversy of nurture vs. nature. They are mainly
known as "empty universals" since just mentioning their existence in a culture doesn't make them
any more special or unique. The existence of these universals has been said to date to the Upper
Paleolithic with the first evidence of behavioral modernity.

A woman dancing folklrico in the traditional dress of Jalisco


Among the cultural universals listed by Brown are:
Language and cognition - All cultures employ some type of communication, symbolism is also
a universal idea in language.
Society - Being in a family, having peers, or being a member of any organized group or
community is what makes society.
Myth, Ritual, and aesthetics - Different cultures all have a number of things in common, for
example: a belief system, celebration of life and death, and other ceremonial events.
Technology - There are worldwide variations in clothing, housing, tools and techniques for
getting food through different types of technology.

Residents of Vanuatu making fire. The use of fire for cooking is a human cultural universal
Dance is a great example of a cultural universal because it exists in every culture as form of
expression, social interaction, or presented in a spiritual or performance setting. Traditional
dances found in Mexico are quite different from those found in the United States. American style
dancing includes Flat Foot Dancing, Hoofing, Buck Dancing, Soft Shoe, Clogging, Irish SeanNs Dance, and Irish Jig. Because these forms of dance are not commonly found on stage, in the
media, or taught in the dance schools, it has received minimal attention and its practice has
significantly decreasing compared to its past popularity. Mexico on the other hand had a
traditional style of dance called Ballet Folklorico which reflects different regions and folk music
genres. These dances are widely known and are constantly being taught in schools and performed
during festivities such as Cinco de Mayo.

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Components of Culture
Page history last edited by Christine Monnier 6
years ago

All cultures comprise different components that are


necessary for members of society to competently
participate in social life and interactions. First, culture
provides a stock of knowledge a cognitive component
that is a basic foundation for social behavior. Culture also
comprises elements necessary for the maintenance of
integration and conformity in society a normative
component that is, ways of specifying the correct ways of
thinking and behaving and of defining morality.

Tags: Culture, Social


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Symbols

A symbol is anything that represents something else. It


can be either a material object (a flag, a cross) or a nonmaterial element (a sound, a gesture). As members of a
culture, we are constantly and thoroughly surrounded by
symbols: when we stop at the red light, we obey a
symbolic command. Symbols carry shared meanings
among people and they can be used to produce loyalty or
hostility.

When American students pledge allegiance to the flag,


they symbolically display their patriotism. When crowds
in parts of the Middle East burn the American flag, they
symbolically display their hostility toward the United
States. For one category of people, the flag represents
national pride and is object of some degree of devotion
whereas for other categories of people, it represents evil
and imperialism. The fact that symbolic meaning is shared
is crucial: when Americans witness Middle Eastern
crowds burning the American flag on CNN, they have no
difficulty understanding the meaning of such actions. The
symbolic meaning is obvious and powerful. In other
words, the meaning of a symbol may depend on the users.

For instance, the picture of the snowman commonly


represents Christmas and snowy winters. However, when
used by a rapper, the snowman carries a completely
different meaning: the snowman becomes a cocaine dealer.

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