Lesson 1

• The scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures and societies, in both the present and past, including past human species.

  Anthropology
• It is a branch of the social sciences that studies the relationship between the individual and the society as they develop and change in history.

  Sociology
• Edward Burnett Taylor ,an English anthropologists, was the first to coin the term “culture” in the eighteenth century.
• Bronisław Kasper Malinowski ,one of the most important anthropologists of the 20th century who is widely recognized as a founder of social anthropology
• Robert R. Redfield , on the other hand, defined culture as “an organized body of conventional understandings manifest in art which, persisting through tradition, characterizes a human group”.
• V. de Robert ,described culture as “the body of thought and knowledge, both theoretical and practical, which only man can possess”.
• Culture is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morale, laws, custom, and any other capabilities and habits as acquired by man as a member of the society”.
• The “complex whole” suggests that culture cannot be simply broken down into a set of attributes. It means that an understanding of a part can only be achieved (or is only possible) in relation to the other parts of the system.
• Elements of Culture:

  Knowlege

  Beliefs

  Arts

  Morals

  Folkways

  Laws
• Culture denotes acquired behaviors and habits that are shared by and transmitted through social interactions