E. B. Tylor (1871) gave us the most famous definition:

What is this thing called culture, anyway?

The author of your text offers these definitions:

The Nature of CultureThe Nature of Culture

“A society’s shared and socially transmitted ideas, values, and perceptions—which are used to make sense of experience and generate behavior and which are reflected in behavior.”

(Haviland, 2005).

“Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society" (Tylor 1871).

“The values, beliefs, and perceptions of the world shared by members of a society, that they use to interpret experience and generate behavior, and that are reflected in their behavior” (Haviland, 2003).

Traditionally, a word of many uses…”high”culture, “low” culture, agriculture, cultivate, cult…”way of life”

However, a more modern source, the American Heritage English Dictionary, gives a primary definition of culture which is substantially different than earlier primary definitions:

"The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought."

The Nature of CultureThe Nature of Culture

Biological basis - computational theory of mind

Mind is largely a function of brain with special areas associated with special functions

These areas evolved over millennia of adaptation as food foragers.

Steven Pinker; John Tooby

i.e. Wernike’s and Broca’s areas.

“Mental templates” formed on a palimpsest, not a tabula rasa.

The Nature of CultureThe Nature of Culture

Word of many uses… “high” culture, “low” culture, agriculture, cultivate, cult… “way of life”

CULTURE/culture

CULTURE - way of life of human beings - ethnology

culture - way of life of a specific group of human beings - ethnography

MAINLY learned

The Nature of CultureThe Nature of Culture

Socialization - the processes involved in acquisition of ability to function as a member of society…does not involve symboling.

Enculturation - the processes involved in acquisition of culture…requires symboling.

Ethnocentrism - a central feature of enculturation.

The Nature of CultureThe Nature of Culture

MAINLY learned

Before birth….beginning of socialization.

Shortly after birth begins process of differentiation.

Within three weeks recognizes significant others.

By six months beginning symbolic learning/language sounds.

Beginning of enculturation……….

The Nature of CultureThe Nature of Culture

Early Development: Prenatal period

Fetal Phase

The fetal phase of prenatal development lasts from nine weeks after fertilization to birth.

During this period each of the organ systems continues to grow and mature, and the overall size of the fetus increases dramatically. The proportions change; as the arms and legs grow, the head no longer seems so much out of proportion to the rest of the body. During the first weeks of the fetal phase the

sex organs begin to take shape.

The Nature of CultureThe Nature of Culture

Neonatal period (Neonate or newborn)

The period of life immediately after birth

The average North American newborn weighs about 7 pounds and measures about 20 inches Neurons grow rapidly….dendrites show an estimated 500% increasein density within the cortex from birth until age 2 in normal children.

Early Development:

The Nature of CultureThe Nature of Culture

Moro (Startle) reflex: Draws up legs, archs back when startled.

Neonatal / Infancy

Rooting reflex: Neonate responds to stimulation by sucking.

Babinski reflex: Baby spreads toes when foot tickled.

Vision: Baby can see up to about 12 inches away.

Cognitive ability: Can imitate mother’s facial expressions.

The Nature of CultureThe Nature of Culture

Babinski's reflex or extensor plantar reflex is a test for dysfunction corticospinal tract.

The test consists of stroking the outside sole from heel to toe with a pointed object. The normal response is a bunching downward (flexor) movement of all the toes. In infants under 2 years of age and people with dysfunction in the corticospinal tract, this causes an upward (extensor) movement of the big toe.

• Infancy: From 2 weeks to 24 months.

– Physical Development• 2 months: Raise head and chest off floor.• 6 months: Sit unaided.

– Cognitive Development• Infant actively involved with environment

• Picks up objects and put them in mouth.• Realizes that objects still exist even when

they are not in sight. (Object Permanence)

The Nature of CultureThe Nature of Culture

• Emotional & Social Development– 2 months: Smiling at

caregiver.– 6 - 9 months: Shyness,

fear.

• Visual Cliff (Gibson & Walk, 1960)– Development of fear of

heights.

Separation AnxietyApprehension when child is separated from caretaker.

Begins around 6 months.

Emotional bond between infant and caretaker.

The Nature of CultureThe Nature of Culture

• Cognitive Development• Egocentric (self-centered thought)• Animism (attributes volition to inanimate objects)

– Transductive reasoning• Logical errors regarding cause-and-effect.

– Because two things co-occur, one must cause the other.

• Emotional & Social Development– Change in peer relationships

• Solitary play• Parallel play• Cooperative play

The Nature of CultureThe Nature of Culture

MAINLY learned

SR conditioning

Prägung (Imprinting) - Konrad Lorenz (Shared Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1973 with Karl von Frisch and Niko Tinbergen)

Symbolic learning (Cognitivism , Constructivism)

Imprinting (Prägung, in the original German) is defined as follows:…a relatively rapid learning process that takes place during a short,sensitive period in early youth. It has a prominent-sensitive phase and a stable, often irreversible effect.

Classical conditioning (Ivan Pavlov (Nobel Prize, 1904 Medicine and Physiology); John Watson, Behaviorism. 1924 )

Associationism (Law of Effect …Edward Thorndyke, Animal Intelligence 1911)

Operant conditioning ( B.F. Skinner About Behaviorism. 1974 )

Based on ability to create and manipulate symbolic systems…the neurological basis of CULTURE that had been attained by about 100,000 years B.P.

The Nature of CultureThe Nature of Culture

'An observable, measurable and relatively permanent change in behavior that is the result of experience'.

Participant ObservationCulture Shock

Comparative Method

Important Dichotomies

Emic/Etic

Inside/Outside

Overt/Covert

Real/Ideal

How Cultures Are StudiedHow Cultures Are Studied

subculture

Culture Change

acculturation

functional prerequisites

culture loss

cultural evolution

cultural diffusion

How Cultures Are StudiedHow Cultures Are Studied

A Major Aspect of Culture Change in A Major Aspect of Culture Change in TexasTexas

Through Mid CenturyThrough Mid Century

Figure 3.1 Legal immigrants admitted to the U.S. by region of birth.

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Anglo Hispanic

Percent of Texas Population by Age GroupPercent of Texas Population by Age Groupand Ethnicity, 2000and Ethnicity, 2000

* Projections are shown for the 1.0 scenario

17.719.3 19.9 20.3 19.8 19.3 19.4 20.5 20.6 21.9

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Percent of Texas Population by Age GroupPercent of Texas Population by Age Groupand Ethnicity, 2040*and Ethnicity, 2040*

Projected Proportion of Population byProjected Proportion of Population byRace/Ethnicity in Texas, 2000-2040*Race/Ethnicity in Texas, 2000-2040*

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Anglo Black Hispanic Other

Projected Percent of Net Change Projected Percent of Net Change Attributable to Each Race/Ethnicity Attributable to Each Race/Ethnicity

Group in Texas for 2000-2040*Group in Texas for 2000-2040*

Anglo3.9%

Black5.3%

Hispanic78.2%

Other12.6%

Global WarmingGlobal Warming

• We are in a significant warming interval.• Human activity continues to be an

important factor…perhaps the most important single factor.

• There are already signs of cultural stress related to change in the environment.

• Will we be able to change our systems of adaptation (cultures) fast enough to avoid major calamities?