THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE

“Appreciation of our differences starts with the acknowledgment of our similarities”

-Peter Reese

“As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without cultivation, so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit.”

Seneca, Roman philosopher

Defining Culture

•How do you know what you know?

•Where did you get that knowledge from?

•What kind of an “attitude” do you have?

•What is your behavior like?• Is this all yours individually or was it “passed down” to you?

What Is Culture?

What Is Culture?

• The customary ways in which humans live. For example; diet, family forms and processes, social organizations, and religions.

Mikel Hogan-Garcia

Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by men/women as members of the society.

Edward Taylor

…Simpler

Culture is everything that people: - have (material possessions), - think (values and attitudes) and - do (behavior patterns) as members of a

society

The Role theory:

Personality consists of a set of learned roles, the correctbehaviour in a particular situation:

teacher/pupil interactionweddings, funerals, birthday partiesboss/subordinate interactionboy/girl relationships

• There is a correct way to herd goats, drive a car, raise children, etc.

• Role theory places standard responses to standard situations.

• Problems can arise when circumstances change and the standard behaviours no longer produce satisfactory outcomes.

ARE THERE CULTURED AND UNCULTURED PEOPLE?

Core Identity

• Includes everything an individual finds meaningful, beliefs, values, perceptions, assumptions, and framework about reality.

• Developed through social interaction with family and others in a specific environment.

Self-Awareness

• Requires self-knowledge of own culture in order to know when cultural limits are likely to be pushed, foreseeing potential areas of tension, and conflict with specific groups.

HIGH CULTURE???

ORDINARY CULTURE???

IN FACT, WE ALL HAVE CULTURE…

Ethnocentrism

• The belief that one’s own group or culture is superior to all other groups or cultures.

• The tendency to use our own way of life as a standard for judging others

• It also indicates the belief, on the part of most individuals, that their race, culture, society, etc., are superior to all others.

Ethnorelativism• From being neutral about differences to being

positive. • Not only accepts cultural differences, but willing

and able to adjust our own behavior to conform to different norms.

• Bi-cultural or multi-cultural.• Effortlessly adjusting behavior to suit a different

culture.• "style switching" • Do not give up their own or birth culture's values

and beliefs, but integrate aspects of other cultures into it.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE

Enculturation

the process of learning or interacting with one’s cultural environment.

Acculturation

It occurs when a society changes because it accepts or adopts an innovation.

How does this picture show acculturation?

How does this picture show acculturation?

CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE

• Culture is dynamic• Culture is adaptive• Culture is integrated • Culture is learnt (not biologically

transmitted) • Culture is shared (people of the same

culture can predict, within limits, how others will think and behave)

LAYERS OF CULTURE

• Cultural universals: learned behaviour patterns shared by all human beings.

• Mainstream culture: Cultural traditions that distinguish a specific society.

Cultural universals• Economic system.• Systems of marriage and family. • Educational system.• Social control system.• System of supernatural beliefs. • Systems of communication.

Lic. Oscar Conejo

Chacón