Anthropology

1. ASSIGNMENT ON
CULTURE
SUBMITTED TO:
PROF:ALLAUDDIN
LECTURER
DEPT. OF ARCHITECTURE
PREMIER UNIVERSITY
CHITTAGONG
SUBMITTED BY:
1300411600078
1300511600100
1300411600110
1400611600112
1400611600114
1400611600120
1400611600122
1400611600126
1400611600132
1400611600134

2. What is Culture?
 Culture Is Learned
 Culture Is Shared
 Culture Is Symbolic
 Culture and Nature
 Culture Is All-Encompassing
 Culture Is Integrated
 Culture Can Be Adaptive and Maladaptive
 Culture and the Individual: Agency and Practice
Culture Is Learned
 The ease with which children absorb
any cultural tradition rests on the
uniquely elaborated human capacity
to learn.
 On the basis of cultural learning,
people create, remember, and deal
with ideas.
 Every person begins immediately,
through a process of conscious and
unconscious learning and interaction
with others, to internalize, or
incorporate, a cultural tradition
through the process of enculturation.
 Culture also is transmitted through
observation.
Culture Is Shared
 Culture is an attribute not of
individuals per se but of
individuals as members of
groups.
 Culture is transmitted in society.
 Shared beliefs, values,
memories, and expectations link
people who grow up in the same
culture
 Enculturation unifi es people by
providing us with common
experiences.
Culture Is Symbolic
 Symbolic thought is unique and crucial
to humans and to cultural learning.
 A symbol is something verbal or
nonverbal, within a particular language
or culture, that comes to stand for
something else
 Culture symbolizes consists of tools,
implements, utensils, clothing,
ornaments, customs, institutions,
beliefs, rituals, games, works of art,
language, etc.
Culture and Nature
 Culture takes the natural
biological urges we share with
other animals and teaches us
how to express them in
particular ways.
 People have to eat, but culture
teaches us what, when, and how.
 Cultural habits, perceptions, and
inventions mold “human nature”
into many forms.
Characterstics Of Culture:
Culture Is All-Encompassing
 For anthropologists, culture includes much more than refinement, good taste,
sophistication, education, and appreciation of the fine arts.
 The most interesting and significant cultural forces are those that affect people
every day of their lives, particularly those that influence children during
enculturation.
 As a cultural manifestation comic book may be as significant as a book-award
winner.

3. Culture Is Integrated
 Cultures are not haphazard
collections of customs and beliefs.
 Cultures are integrated, patterned
systems.
 If one part of the system (the
overall economy, for instance)
changes, other parts change as
well.
 Attitudes and behavior regarding
marriage, family, and children
have changed. Late marriage,
“living together,” and divorce
have become more common.
 Cultures are integrated not simply
by their dominant economic
activities and r elated social
patterns but also by sets of values,
ideas, symbols, and judgments.
 Cultures train their individual
members to share certain
personality traits.
 A set of characteristic core
values (key, basic, central
values) integrates each culture and
helps distinguish it from others.
Different sets of dominant values
infl uence the patterns of other
cultures.
Culture Can Be Adaptive and
Maladaptive
 Humans have both biological and
cultural ways of coping with
environmental stresses.
 Besides our biological means of
adaptation, we also use “cultural
adaptive kits,” which contain
customary activities and tools that aid
us.
 Although humans continue to adapt
biologically, reliance on social and
cultural means of adaptation has
increased during human evolution and
plays a crucial role.
 Sometimes, adaptive behavior that
offers short-term benefits to particular
subgroups or individuals may harm the
environment and threaten the group’s
long-term survival.
 Thus, cultural traits, patterns, and
inventions can also be maladaptive ,
threatening the group’s continued
existence (survival and reproduction).
 Many cultural patterns such as
overconsumption and pollution
appear to be maladaptive in the long
run
Culture and the Individual: Agency and Practice
 Generations of anthropologists have theorized about the relationship between the “ system,”
on one hand, and the “person” or “individual” on the other.
 The system can refer to various concepts, including culture, society, social relations, or social
structure. Individual human beings always make up, or constitute, the system. But, living
within that system, humans also are constrained (to some extent, at least) by its rules and by
the actions of other individuals.
 Cultural rules provide guidance about what to do and how to do it, but people don’t always
do what the rules say should be done.
 People use their culture actively and creatively, rather than blindly following its dictates.
Cultures are dynamic and constantly changing.
 People learn, interpret, and manipulate the same rule in different ways—or they emphasize
different rules that better suit their interests.
 Culture is contested
 The ideal culture consists of what people say they should do and what they say they do.
 Real culture refers to their actual behavior as observed by the anthropologist.
 The system shapes how individuals experience and respond to external events, but
individuals also play an active role in how society functions and changes.
 Practice theory recognizes both constraints on individuals and the fl exibility and
changeability of cultures and social systems.

4. CULTURE CHANGE
Culture changes through developments in
technology, political beliefs and religious
ideas. External encounters with diverse
societies and environmental factors also
change cultural beliefs. Cultural
change sometimes causes a backlash from
those with more traditional social views
Cultures change in a number of ways. The only way new cultural traits emerge is through
the process of discovery and invention. Someone perceives a need and invents something to
meet that need. Seems a simple enough concept; however, it often takes a long time for a new
invention to be fully integrated into a culture. Why? Because often other elements of the culture
have to change to meet or maintain the needs of the new invention. This is referred to as culture
lag. The automobile is a good example of discovery and invention and culture lag. The auto was
invented as a mode of more efficient transportation. Many things had to change in order for the
automobile to become a fixture in a culture. People had to be persuaded that the automobile was
a better form of transportation. Roads had to be constructed; a way to procure fuel needed to be
developed; mechanics were needed to fix cars; efficient production of cars had to be developed
to meet supply demands; safety concerns, rules of the road, insurance, and numerous other
elements of culture had to catch up with the invention of the automobile.
Another way cultures change is through diffusion. Diffusion is simply the borrowing of traits.
There is a long laundry list of things in US culture that were borrowed from other cultures.
Pajamas made their way to the US from India. Spaghetti was borrowed from China by way of
Italy, and corn came from Mesoamerica. Ralph Linton, a noted anthropologist, wrote a short
article entitled “One Hundred Percent American” in which he outlines numerous things that U.S.
culture borrowed from other cultures.
Yet another way cultures change is through the process of acculturation. Acculturation is also
the borrowing of traits; however, there is a superordinate, or dominant, and subordinate, or
minority, relationship between cultures. The dominant culture picks and chooses those traits
from the subordinate culture that it deems useful, i.e., diffusion. The subordinate culture is
pressured to adopt the traits of the dominant culture. It is the element of pressure that
differentiates acculturation from diffusion.
Acculturation manifests itself in multiple ways. One way is called the Melting Pot. The melting
pot refers to a blending of cultures. This primarily occurs through intermarriage of people from
the two cultures. What frequently happens is that one of the two cultures is dominant and the
other subordinate within the relationship so that only some of its traits are practiced.
Another form of acculturation is called the Salad Bowl, or cultural pluralism. This occurs when
people immigrate and keep as many original cultural traits as possible. Chinatown in San
Francisco is a good example of the salad bowl. The different types of acculturation are not
necessarily mutually exclusive. Even in the case of cultural pluralism people must adopt certain
traits of the host country;

5. Diffusion: the spreading of something more widely.
Acculturation: Acculturation is the process of cultural change and psychological change that
results following meeting between cultures. The effects of acculturation can be seen at multiple
levels in both interacting cultures.
Processes of Change
All Cultures are inherently predisposed to change and, at the same time, to resist
change. There are dynamic processes operating that encourage the acceptance of new ideas
and things while there are others that encourage changeless stability. It is likely that social
and psychological chaos would result if there were not the conservative forces resisting
change.
There are three general sources of influence or pressure that are responsible for both change
and resistance to it:
Within a society, processes leading to change include invention and culture loss. Inventions
may be either technological or ideological. The latter includes such things as the invention
of algebra and calculus or the creation of a representative parliament as a replacement for
rule by royal decree. Technological inventions include new tools, energy sources, and
transportation methods as well as more frivolous and ephemeral things such as style of dress
and bodily adornment.
Culture loss is an inevitable result of old cultural patterns being replaced by new ones. For
instance, not many Americans today know how to care for a horse. A century ago, this was
common knowledge, except in a few large urban centers. Since then, vehicles with internal
combustion engines have replaced horses as our primary means of transportation and horse
care knowledge lost its importance. As a result, children are rarely taught these
skills. Instead, they are trained in the use of the new technologies of automobiles,
televisions, stereos, cellular phones, computers, and iPods.
Within a society, processes that result in the resistance to change include habit and the
integration of culture traits. Older people, in particular, are often reticent to replace their
comfortable, long familiar cultural patterns. Habitual behavior provides emotional security
in a threatening world of change. Religion also often provides strong moral justification and
support for maintaining traditional ways. In the early 21st century, this is especially true of
nations mostly guided by Islamic Law, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
The fact that cultural institutions are integrated and often interdependent is a major source of
resistance to change. For instance, in the second half of the20th century, rapidly changing
roles of North American and European women were resisted by many men because it
inevitably resulted in changes in their roles as well. Male and female roles do not exist
independent of each other. This sort of integration of cultural traits inevitably slows down
and modifies cultural changes. Needless to say, it is a source of frustration for both those
who want to change and those who do not.
 Forces at work within a society
 Contact between societies
 Changes in the natural environmental

6. The processes leading to change that occur as a result of contact between societies are
Diffusion is the movement of things and ideas from one culture to another. When diffusion
occurs, the form of a trait may move from one society to another but not its original cultural
meaning. For instance, when McDonald's first brought their American style hamburgers to
Moscow and Beijing, they were accepted as luxury foods for special occasions because they
were relatively expensive and exotic. In America, of course, they have a very different
meaning--they are ordinary every day fast food items.
Acculturation is what happens to an entire culture when alien traits diffuse in on a large
scale and substantially replace traditional cultural patterns. After several centuries of
relentless pressure from European Americans to adopt their ways, Native American cultures
have been largely acculturated. As a result, the vast majority of American Indians now
speak English instead of their ancestral language, wear European style clothes, go to school
to learn about the world from a European perspective, and see themselves as being a part of
the broader American society. As Native American societies continue to acculturate, most
are experiencing a corresponding loss of their traditional cultures despite efforts of
preservationists in their communities.
 Diffusion
 Acculturation
 Transculturation
While acculturation is what happens to an entire culture when alien traits overwhelm
it, transculturation is what happens to an individual when he or she moves to another society and
adopts its culture. Immigrants who successfully learn the language and accept as their own the
cultural patterns of their adopted country have transculturated. In contrast, people who live as
socially isolated expatriates in a foreign land for years without desiring or expecting to
become assimilated participants in the host culture are not transculturating.
There is one last process leading to change that occurs as an invention within a society as a
result of an idea that diffuses from another. This isstimulus diffusion --a genuine invention that
is sparked by an idea from another culture. An example of this occurred about 1821 when a
Cherokee Indian named Sequoyah saw English writing which stimulated him to create a
unique writing system for his own people. Part of hissyllable based system is illustrated
below. Note that some letters are similar to English while others are not.
It is also likely that ancient Egyptians around 3050 B.C. invented their hieroglyphic writing
system after learning about the cuneiform writing system invented by Sumerians in what is
today Southern Iraq.
There are processes operating in the contact between cultures as well that result in resistance
to change. These are due to "us versus them" competitive feelings and
perceptions. Ethnocentrism also leads people to reject alien ideas and things as being
unnatural and even immoral. These ingroup-outgroup dynamics commonly result in
resistance to acculturation and assimilation.

7. Summation
Culture is an essential aspect of being human. The few recorded cases of
children raised in isolation show that growing up as a member of society is
absolutely fundamental to human development.