Cultural Anthropology

Culture is a well organized unity divided into two fundamental aspects – a body of artifacts and a system of customs – Mammalians. â€Å"Humans cannot eat, breathe, defecate, mate, reproduce, sit, move about, sleep or Ill down without following or expressing some aspect of their society culture. Our cultures grow, expand, and evolve. It is their nature. † – Marvin Harris. The culture of a people is an ensemble of texts, themselves ensembles, which the anthropologist strains to read over the shoulders of those to whom they properly belong. † Geezer, Balinese Cockfight (p. 2). â€Å"Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun. I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore not an experimental science in search of law but an interpretative one in search of meaning. † Greet, Interpretation of Cultures (p. 5). â€Å"People do not realize how greatly culture Influences their behavior until they co me across other ways of doing things. † â€Å"Culture is learned behavior. † A person is not born with a culture. Culture is universal. Every human being possesses it by virtue of their biological state. Cultural Anthropology) Is Inherently pluralistic, seeking a framework In which the distinctive perspectives of each culture world can be appreciated. † â€Å"[Cultural practices are meaningful actions that occur routinely in everyday life, are widely shared by members of the group, and carry with them normative expectations about how things should be done† (Gooding, Miller and Sessile, 1995). â€Å"A collective name for all behavior patterns socially acquired and socially transmitted groups. † Dictionary of Sociology and Related Sciences. Culture is a civilization†¦ s that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man (sic. ) as a member of society. † – Edw ard Taylor â€Å"Culture embraces all the manifestations of social habits of a community, the reactions of the individual as affected by the habits of the group in which he lives, and the product of human activities as determined by these habits. † -Franz Boas. Coloratura Anthropology focuses on how language, customs, and culture in general develop.Cultural Anthropologists compare and contrast the vast range of cultures with the popes of better understanding â€Å"the diversity of human behavior, and ultimately to develop a science of human behavior. † – Fried,J. Cultural Anthropology. What is traditional (or folk) culture? â€Å"Traditional culture is the habitual behaviors or thoughts of any given social group, and there is not only the chance of customary behaviors occurring; customary behaviors are expected and generally required by members of the society (Smith- Seymour, 1986).Folk culture is a model of the peasant community characterized by economic self- efficiency, intimate social ties, the strong role of ritual and tradition, and the relative isolation from urban centers. The concept of folk culture is that it represents an attempt to characterize the values and social structure of traditional, rural communities existing within complex societies. What methods do they use to study culture? Fieldwork: visiting and living among a particular people.Mapping, inventories, census, behavior protocols, questionnaires, projective tests, collecting genealogies, kinship terminologies, oral traditions, recording cases, and racing networks† (Hunter and Whiten, 1976). In order to study these cultures, ethnographers had to become part of them. Live with the people for extended periods of time. To study different groups of people, the scientists had to become immersed in their study. One important qualification that anthropologists should possess is a strong awareness of their won culture.Although it is necessary for Anthropologists to be a s culture tendencies in order to comprehend another's culture. Therefore, absolute objectivity, which would require that the Anthropologist have biases, and in research exult no culture at all, should be given up in favor of a relative objectivity based on the characteristics of one's own culture. The Anthropologist is forced to include himself and his own way of life in his subject matter.In order to study others, and to study culture in general, the Anthropologist uses his own culture. What is material culture? Culture involves much more than behavioral traits; it includes all produced artifacts – tools, art, books and texts, etc. â€Å"Probably no other country in the world has such high regard for material culture as the United States. â€Å"Cultural materialism is a type of analysis that looks at ecology and economics for explanation of cultural beliefs and practices.It tries to explain cultural habits in terms of basic needs. ‘A cultural materialist view of hist ory looks for relationships between the use of new technologies, population booms, the material improvement of life, and the collapse of civilization† (fisher, 1986). What is cultural diffusion? â€Å"The worldwide tendency of human populations to share and pool creative efforts which are in origin locally known and used. † -David Hunter. Cultural Anthropology Construct a model of cross-cultural misunderstanding, using the information presented by Lee in this article. There are many cross-cultural misunderstandings including language barriers, the way people speak and interpret words, as well as actions performed. /ontah experienced these cross-cultural misunderstandings in the remotest corners of the Kalahari Desert, while living by the Bushman. Every year the people would slaughter an ox and feast and dance in celebration during Christmas time./ontah decided to buy the biggest ox he could find; he was proud of it until the ! Kung people started ridiculing his kill by saying that it was too thin to feed all of the people. They continued to say that Christmas would be a disaster, and that they would all go to bed hungry. This troubled /ontah because he was sure that he had a fat ox, but many men assured him it was only big boned. He searched for a replacement but could not find it.On the day of Christmas, they cut into the ox, and /ontah w as saying how big and fat the ox is and how the people must be out of their minds. The ! Kung started laughing and /ontah could not understand why. He soon found out that the whole time they had been tricking him in believing that his ox was worthless, when they were actually excited to eat it on Christmas. 3. Why do you think the ! Kung ridicule and denigrate people who have been successful hunters or who have provided them with a Christmas ox?Why do Americans expect people to be grateful to receive gifts? The ! Kung like to fool each other to make sure that their people don’t become arrogant. When one man â€Å"brings home the bacon,† then he starts to believe that he is the big man of the group and will boast of his superiority. Eventually, his pride could cause him to kill other people. Therefore, the people treated /ontah the same way they would treat any other Bushman, especially because /ontah provides tobacco to the people.The Bushman had good intentions by hid ing the true meaning of their actions and words, even though it did not make sense to /ontah. It was part of their tradition, which is different from American tradition; in America, most people are taught to be grateful for any gift they receive and not to complain. For example, â€Å"you get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit† is a common saying repeated to children at school. This story shows that the reasoning behind an action may have different meanings in separate cultures.