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What is culture? IB SCA SL

What is culture? IB SCA SL. Definitions Ferraro: “Culture is everything that people have, think, and do as members of a society.” –Includes material objects,

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Page 1: What is culture? IB SCA SL. Definitions Ferraro: “Culture is everything that people have, think, and do as members of a society.” –Includes material objects,

What is culture?

IB SCA SL

Page 2: What is culture? IB SCA SL. Definitions Ferraro: “Culture is everything that people have, think, and do as members of a society.” –Includes material objects,

Definitions

• Ferraro: “Culture is everything that people have, think, and do as members of a society.”– Includes material objects, ideas, values,

attitudes, and patterned ways of behaving

• Omohundro: “Culture is the learned, shared understandings among a group of people about how to behave and what everything means.”

Page 3: What is culture? IB SCA SL. Definitions Ferraro: “Culture is everything that people have, think, and do as members of a society.” –Includes material objects,

Culture is Shared

• Behavior and thought in a society are predictable because of shared culture

• There is always some deviation from cultural norms (real vs. ideal culture)

• Subculture

• Pluralistic societies

Page 4: What is culture? IB SCA SL. Definitions Ferraro: “Culture is everything that people have, think, and do as members of a society.” –Includes material objects,

Culture is Learned

• Culture is acquired through a process of interacting with one’s cultural environment

• Tacit vs. explicit culture• Enculturation• Culture is not genetic• All peoples in the world acquire their

culture through the same process• Because behavior is learned, it can be

changed

Page 5: What is culture? IB SCA SL. Definitions Ferraro: “Culture is everything that people have, think, and do as members of a society.” –Includes material objects,

Culture influences biological processes

• We all have biological needs, but culture determines how we satisfy those needs

Page 6: What is culture? IB SCA SL. Definitions Ferraro: “Culture is everything that people have, think, and do as members of a society.” –Includes material objects,

Culture Changes

• No culture remains static year after year

• Process of change– Internal changes = innovations– External changes = cultural diffusion

• Causes for change– Theorists have varying ideas for causes

Page 7: What is culture? IB SCA SL. Definitions Ferraro: “Culture is everything that people have, think, and do as members of a society.” –Includes material objects,

Cultural Universals

• Early anthropology focused on documenting cultural differences

• Each culture has its own set of solutions to universal human problems of societies

• Vast number of cultural differences shows how flexible and adaptable humans are

• Basic physiological needs must be met– Economics, marriage, family, education, social

control, supernatural belief, communication

Page 8: What is culture? IB SCA SL. Definitions Ferraro: “Culture is everything that people have, think, and do as members of a society.” –Includes material objects,

Culture is Adaptive or Maladaptive

• Humans rely more on cultural adaptations than on biological adaptations

• Some adaptations are maladaptive or dysfunctional

• Features adaptive in one culture may be maladaptive or neutral in other cultures

• The adaptability of a cultural item varies over time within any culture

• Cultural relativism

Page 9: What is culture? IB SCA SL. Definitions Ferraro: “Culture is everything that people have, think, and do as members of a society.” –Includes material objects,

Cultures are Integrated

• Cultural components are interconnected with one another

• Cultural anthropologists describe the various parts of culture, show how they function and how they are interconnected

• Cultures are logical and coherent systems

• Because parts of culture are interrelated, change in one part influences other parts

Page 10: What is culture? IB SCA SL. Definitions Ferraro: “Culture is everything that people have, think, and do as members of a society.” –Includes material objects,

Culture is Symbolic

• Humans create meaning with symbols

• Symbols vary by culture– Oral language– Written language– Money