Lesson 3 anthropological self

• Anthropology


  The study of what makes us human
• Anthropology


  • Explores many different aspects of human experience
  • Tries to answer the question of what makes us human
• Society


  A group of people who lives in a definable community and share a culture
• Culture

  The beliefs and practices of a group
• Culture and society


  Neither could exist without the other
• Material culture


  Tangible things such as physical structures, local cuisine, and mode of transportation
• Non-material culture


  The ideas, attitudes, and beliefs in a society
• Material and non-material culture can vary from one place to another
• Ethnocentrism


  The belief or attitude that one's own culture is better than all others
• Culture shock

  When people are not always expecting cultural differences
• Cultural relativism


  The ability to understand a culture on its own terms and not to make judgments using the standards of one's own culture
• Xenocentrism


  The belief that another culture is superior to one's own
• Elements of culture

  • Values
  • Beliefs
  • Norms
  • Symbols
• Values


  The standard that one culture has to discern what is good and just in society
• Beliefs


  The convictions that people hold to be true
• People can have specific beliefs but they also have collective values
• Upholding values

  1. Rewards

  2. Sanctions

  3. Punishment
• Values are not static, they are different across time and place, and vary between groups
• Norms


  Behaviors that society has defined as good, right, and important, that most members of society follow
• Types of norms

  • Formal norms
  • Informal norms
• Formal norms


  Established, written rules that are strictly enforced
• Informal norms


  Casual behaviors that are widely conformed to, learned through observation, imitation, and socialization
• Classification of norms

  • Mores
  • Folkways
• Mores


  Norms that personify the moral views of a group, with serious consequences for violating them
• Folkways


  Norms that have no moral underpinnings, indicating appropriate behavior in daily practices and expressions of a culture
• Symbols


  Gestures, signs, objects, signals, and words that help individuals understand the world around them
• Language is a symbolic system used to communicate and transmit culture
• Different classifications of culture

  • High culture
  • Popular culture
  • Subculture
  • Counterculture
• High culture


  The pattern of cultural experiences and attitudes that exist in the highest class segments of society, usually expensive and deemed formal
• Popular culture


  The pattern of cultural experiences and attitudes that exist in mainstream society, accessible to most individuals
• Subculture


  A smaller group within a larger culture, sharing a specific identity
• Counterculture


  A type of subculture that rejects some of the larger culture's norms and values, defying larger society
• Cultural change

  1. Innovation through discovery or invention

  2. Globalization

  3. Diffusion
• Cultures can change, with what was once high culture becoming popular culture, and new ideas and ways of living entering a society
• Globalization is the opening up of global markets to one another
• Diffusion is the spread of material and non-material culture, showing a similar process to the integration of international cultures