ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE STUDY OF CULTURE

INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY
- It promotes a holistic study of humans
- Derived from two Greek words 'antropos' (human) and 'logos' (study).
- Seeks to answer the question "What does it mean to be human?"
- Biologically, it inquires on the genetic composition of humans, their relationship with other
primates, and their evolution Socially, it inquires on human behaviors, attitudes and belief systems,
which range from birth practices to burial rites.
- Anthropology can be defined as "the study of people - their origins, their development, and
contemporary variations, wherever and whenever they have been found on the face of the earth"
(Ember, Ember and Peregrine. 2010).

 5 SUB-DISCIPLINES OF ANTHROPOLOGY
1. Archaeology - examines the remains of ancient and historical human populations to promote an
understanding of how humans have adapted to their environment and developed.
2. Cultural Anthropology - promotes the study of a society's culture through their belief systems,
practices, and possessions.
3. Linguistic Anthropology - examines the language of a group of people and its relation to their
culture .
4. Physical Anthropology - looks into the biological development of humans and their contemporary
Variation.
5. Applied Anthropology - attempts to solve contemporary problems through the application of
theories and approaches of the discipline.

CULTURE
• It is everything that a person learns from a society.
• It refers to the knowledge, language, values, customs, and physical objects that are passed from
generation to generation among members of a group.
• Helps to explain social behaviour: what people do and do not do, what they like and dislike, what
they believe and don't believe, what they value and not.
 COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
1. Technology
A society's culture consists of not only physical objects but also rules for using those objects.
Sociologists sometimes refer to this combination of objects and rules as technology. Using items of
material culture, particularly tools, requires various skills, which are part of the non material culture.

2. Symbols
The use of symbols is the very basis of human culture. It is through symbols that we create our
culture and communicate it. Symbols range from physical objects to sounds, smells, and tastes. A
symbol is anything that represents something else. In other words, a symbol has a shared meaning
attached to it.

3. Language
One of the most obvious aspects of any culture is its language. Language is the organization of written
or spoken symbols into a standardized system. When organized according to accepted rules of
grammar, words can be used to express any idea.

4. Values
Language and other symbols are important partly because they allow us to communicate our
values to one another and to future generations. Values are shared beliefs about what is good or bad,
right or wrong, desirable or undesirable. The types of values held by a group help to determine the
character of its people and the kind of culture they create. A society that values war and displays of
physical strength above all else will be very different from one that places emphasis on cooperation
and sharing.

5. Norms
All groups create norms to enforce their cultural values. Norms are shared rules of conduct that t
people how to act in specific situations. It is important to keep in mind that norms are expectations for
behaviour, not actual governing certain behaviours does not necessarily mean that the actions of all
individuals will be in line with those norms.
TYPES OF NORMS
a. Folkways
- are norms that describe socially acceptable behaviour but do not have great moral significance
attached to them. In essence, they outline the common customs of everyday life. Because folkways are
not considered vital to group welfare, disapproval of those who break them is not very good. Those
who constantly violate folkways - such as, by talking loudly in quiet places, wearing different -
colored socks on each foot may appear odd. We may avoid these people, but we do not consider the
wicked or immoral.

b. Mores
- have great moral significance attached to them. This relation exists because the violation of such
rules endangers society's well-being and stability. For e example, dishonesty, fraud, and murder
greatly threaten society. These are deviances from cultural mores.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE
A. Culture is everything.
 Culture is everything that person learns as a member of society.
 It is what person has, doos, and thinks as part of society.
 This implies all of person's belief system, set of behaviours, and material possessions As such,
can be said that culture is a powerful agent shaping the decisions and actions of humans in a
given situation.
 It consists of the material and the nonmaterial
a. Material culture:
includes all the tangible and visible parts of culture, which include clothes, food. and even
buildings. The types of material culture present in societies differ, as each society is
configured by its environment and history For example, the culinary culture of the
Philippines is different from that of its neighbours in Asia such as Japan; the difference lies in
the availability of the ingredients in these areas.

b. Nonmaterial culture:
includes the intangible parts of culture, which consists of values, ideas, knowledge, beliefs,
family patterns, language, rules, skills, practices, etc. Just like material culture, the belief and
values systems of societies differ from one another based on their environment and history.
Values are concepts that are culturally determined, it separates what is acceptable from which
is taboo. Beliefs are culturally approved truths that deal with the specific parts of human life
B. Culture is learned.
✓ Culture is a set beliefs, attitudes, and practices that an individual learns through her family, school,
church, and other social institutions.

 Enculturation - refers to the process of learning and internalizing their cultures, value, norms,
beliefs and behaviours.
Example:
Raised in the Missionary faith, a young girl is instilled with traditional Christian values and
beliefs.
 As you interact with your immediate family and peers, you learn the values and accepted
behaviours in your society.

 Acculturation - the process of cultural exchange when people from different cultures come into
sustained contact.
Example:
A woman from Mexico moves to the United States and learns English to communicate with
her new neighbours.

 Deculturation - is the process by which a culture loses its cultural identity due to contact with
other cultures. Many tribal cultures are losing their identity under domination of external
cultures.

C. Culture is shared.
✓ Culture is shared intergenerationally. To share a culture, it must be taught to members of
contemporary society who will, in turn, teach the younger generation.
✓ The individual combines the culture that his or her parents teach him or her with the culture that he
or she experiences from other societies.
✓ As such, a Filipino living in another country would have a set of knowledge and behaviours that
corresponds to the combined culture of his or her parents and that of the adopted society.

D. Culture affects biology.

✓ Humans are born into cultures that have values on beauty and body.
✓ As such, they alter their bodies to fit into the psychological norms that are dictated by culture.
E. Culture is adaptive.
✓ Culture is a tool for survival that humans use in response to the pressures of their environment
Botm the material and the nonmaterial parts of culture are influenced by the goal of humans to
address the needs as dictated by their environment and their biology
✓ The Inuits of the Arctic region are well-known for building igloos during fishing and hunting
expedition. During summer, they use tupiqs, which are tents made out of animal skin, as their
temporary home.
✓ Another adaptive mechanism that is practiced in most cultures is the creation of food taboos
a. among the Muslims, consumption of pork is not allowed so cattle is one of their primary source
Meat.
b. In India, cows are venerated so consuming beef is considered a taboo

F. Culture is Maladaptive
✓ Culture can also cause problems for the people who subscribes to it These problems arise when the
environment has changed and culture has remained the same.
For example: The "car culture" present in most societies is getting maladaptive as the
environment gets more polluted. In the Philippines, the car industry remains active despite the
economic turmoil it faces as a developing country This is maladaptive given that the roads a not wide
enough. However, car ownership is still very popular in the Philippines.

G. Culture is constantly changing.

✓ Culture is never static, it changes. This dynamism of culture is due to the changing needs of
humans they interpret and survive in their environment As such, culture is continuously reinvented by
people From the clothes that we wear to the food that we eat, culture can be seen as ever changing
 THEORIES ON CULTURE
Theory Perspective on Culture
Cultural All cultures undergo the same development stages in the same order.
evolutionism
The main classifications include savagery, barbarism, and
Cultures evolve over
time from simpler to civilization
moe complex
Diffusionism All societies change as a result of cultural borrowing from one
another.
Historicism Each culture is unique and must be studied in its own context.
Focus on individual
culture
Psychological Personality is largely seen to be the result of learning culture.
anthropology
Functionalism Society is thought to be like a biological organism with all of the
Overloose the
parts interconnected Existing institutional structures of any society
historical contest of
cultural elements are thought to perform indispensable functions, without which the
society could not continue.
Neo-evolutionism Culture is said to be shaped by environmental and technological
conditions. Cultures evolve when people are able to increase the
amount of energy under their control
Materialism Culture is the product of the "material conditions" in which a given
Neglect other cultural
community of people finds itself
influences

Note. Definitions on the perspective on culture for each theory are directly liftied from Ferraro and
Andreatta (2010)

ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE 21 CENTURY

The key strength of anthropology as a discipline of the social science is its holistic approach to the
study of humans. It is holistic in the sense that it studies:

1. humans, both as biological and social creatures:

2. human behaviour from the time the species existed to the time that it will desist:
3. human behaviour from all regions of the world; and
4. all forms of human actions and beliefs.