Culture

• What is culture?


  • Ideas, values, traditions, and norms that are shared by a large group of people
  • Passed down through generations and are often resistant to change
  • E.g. different roles men and women take, expectations change regarding norms and typical behaviour
• Culture and gender roles - Mead


  • Papua New Guinea - same biology, e.g. Arapesh - gentle and responsive (feminine)
  • Mundugonors - aggressive and hostile (masculine)
  • Tchanbuli - aggressive women, passive men; the reverse of industrialised societies
• Mate choice - Eagly & Wood


  • Mate preferences are based on cultural expectations, shaped by roles and behaviours in society
  • E.g. men looking for pretty, young, fertile partners, women looking for strong, provider partners
  • Culture shifts and shapes mate choice, so it cannot be biological as evolutionary psychologists might suggest