Culture & Human Adaptation

CULTURE Refers to customs, beliefs, values, knowledge and skills that guide people's behavior Knowledge, language, values, customs, and material objects that are passed from person to person and from one generation to the next in a human group or society

CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE: Culture is learned Not biological/inherited Non-instinctive- We are not genetically programmed to learn one." Learned from families, peers, institutions and media. Enculturation- process of learning culture Culture is shared.

"Allows us to act in socially appropriate ways and predict how others will behave" Not homogenous (the same) Multiple cultures exist Culture is based on symbols.

Symbols vary among cultures. They only have meaning when people of a certain culture agree on their use. Culture is integrated.

The various parts of a culture are interconnected. To learn a certain culture, one must study all of its parts and not only a few. Culture is dynamic. Cultures interact and change. They exchange ideas and symbols. Change-needed to adapt to changing environments. If one component changes, the entire system must adapt.

CLASSIFICATION OF CULTURE:

A. Material Culture Consists of the physical or tangible creations that members of a society make, use, and share Example: clothing, tools, shelter B. Nonmaterial Culture Consists of the abstract or intangible human creations of society that influences people's behavior Example: language, beliefs, values, political system

COMPONENTS OF CULTURE:

1. Symbols Anything that meaningfully represents something else Example: heart stands for love, a dove stands for peace 2. Language A set of symbols that expresses ideas and enables people to think and communicate with one another. a) Verbal language spoken b) Nonverbal language written or gestured 3. Values Collective ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad, and desirable or undesirable in a particular culture 4. Norms Established rules of behavior or standards of conduct a) Folkways informal norms or everyday customs that may be violated without serious consequences within a particular culture b) Mores strongly held norms with moral and ethical connotations that may not be violated without serious consequences in a particular culture c) Laws formal, standardized norms that have been enacted by legislatures and are enforced by formal sanctions FACTORS INFLUENCING CULTURAL ARRANGEMENTS AND CHANGES Culture does not remain static. Throughout history, humans have replaced or altered customary behaviors and attitudes as their needs have changed. Societies continually experience cultural change at both material and nonmaterial levels.

All parts of the culture do not change at the same pace. When a change occurs in the material culture, nonmaterial culture must adapt. This rate of change is uneven, resulting in a gap. This disparity is referred to as Cultural Lag, the gap between the technical development of a society and its moral and legal institutions. It occurs when material culture changes faster than nonmaterial culture.

The Factors Which Influence Changes in Culture Natural Environment a change in the natural environment such as a change in climate, the kinds of food people eat, the clothes they wear, and the way they make a living will be affected, thus their culture will also change. Discovery process of learning about something previously unknown or unrecognized. It is any addition to knowledge. Ex: Vaccine, True shape of the Earth

Invention process of reshaping existing cultural items into a new form. It is a new application of knowledge. Unconscious Invention (Accidental Juxtaposition) - the results of literally dozens of tiny initiatives by unconscious inventors. Intentional Invention - arise out of deliberate attempts to produce a new idea or objects. Such innovations are obvious responses to perceived needs. Discoveries and inventions, which may originate inside or outside a society, are ultimately the sources of all culture change. But they do not necessarily lead to change. If an invention or discovery is ignored, no change in culture results. Only when society accepts an invention or discovery and uses it regularly can we begin to speak of culture change. The speed of accepting an innovation may depend partly on how new behaviors and ideas are typically transmitted in a society.

Technology refers to the knowledge, techniques and tools that allow people to transform resources into usable forms and the knowledge and skills required to use what is developed. Ex: Introduction of the Printing Press, Advent of Computers and Electronic Communications The pace of technological change has increased rapidly in the past 150 years as contrasted with the 4,000 years prior to that.

Diffusion transmission of cultural items or social practices from one group of society to another through such means as exploration, war, media, tourism and immigration. Patterns of Diffusion Direct Contact - elements of a societys culture may first be taken up by neighboring societies and then gradually spread farther and farther afield. Intermediate Contact it occurs through the agency of third parties. Stimulus Diffusion knowledge of a trait belonging to another culture stimulates the invention or development of a local equivalent.

Diffusion is a selective process. Not all cultural traits are borrowed as readily as the ones mentioned, nor do they usually expand in neat, ever-widening circles. Diffusion is selective because cultural traits differ in the extent to which they can be communicated. Diffusion is selective because the overt form of a particular trait, rather than its function or meaning, frequently seems to determine how the trait will be received.

Acculturation - refers to the changes that occur when different cultural groups come into intensive contact. It is often used to describe a situation in which one of the societies in contact is much more powerful than the other.

Even though customs are not genetically inherited, cultural adaptation may be similar to biological adaptation in one major respect. Traits (cultural or genetic) that are more likely to be reproduced (learned or inherited) are likely to become more frequent in a population over time.

Ethnogenesis The process of creating a new culture in the aftermath of violent events such as depopulation, relocation, enslavement, and genocide. Example: Maroon Societies

Cultural Diversity wide range of cultural differences found between and within nations. Homogenous Societies include people who share a common culture and who are typically from similar social, religious, political and economic backgrounds. Heterogenous Societies include people who are dissimilar in regard to social characteristics such as religion, income or race/ethnicity.

Globalization - the widespread flow of people, information, technology, and capital over the earths surface - has minimized cultural diversity in some respects, but it hasnt eliminated it. Subculture group of people who share a distinctive set of cultural beliefs and behaviors that differ in some significant way from that of the larger society. Counterculture a group that strongly rejects dominant societal values and norms and seeks alternative lifestyles. Culture Shock disorientation that people feels when they encounter cultures radically different from their own and believe they cannot depend on their own taken-for-granted assumptions about life. Ethnocentrism practice of judging all other cultures by ones own culture. It is based on the assumption that ones own way of life is superior. Cultural Relativism belief that the behaviors and customs of any culture must be viewed and analyzed by the cultures own standards.

VIEWS/ATTITUDES TOWARD CULTURE High Culture & Popular Culture a distinction between different cultural forms. o o High Culture consists of activities that only the elite have the resources to appreciate. (ex. classical music, opera, ballet, live theater, etc.) Popular Culture make up activities assumed to primarily involve the middle and working class. (ex. rock concerts, spectator sports, movies, television soap operas, etc.) Fads are activities that are extensively imitated by large numbers of people, and are often temporary in nature. Object fads - are items that people purchase despite the fact that they have little use or intrinsic value. Activity fads - include pursuits such as body piercing, surng the Internet, and the free hugs campaign, wherein individuals offer hugs to strangers in a public setting as a random act of kind-ness to make someone feel better. Idea fads - such as New Age ideologies including The Secret, as advocated by Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities. Personality fads - those surrounding celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Tiger Woods, 50 Cent, and Brad Pitt. Fashion - a currently valued style of behavior, thinking, or appearance that is longer lasting and more widespread than a fad. * cultural imperialism - the extensive infusion of one nations culture into other nations Sociological Analysis of Culture 1. Functionalist Perspective - are based on the assumption that society is a stable, orderly system with interrelated parts that serve specic functions. 2. Conflict Perspective - based on the assumption that social life is a continuous struggle in which members of powerful groups seek to control scarce resources. 3. Symbolic Interactionist Perspective - engage in a microlevel analysis that views society as the sum of all peoples interactions. 4. Postmodernist Perspective argues that there is no one true reality but diverse interpretations of it. It focuses how societies use language to construct their own realities.

EVOLUTION OF SOCIETIES 1. Hunting-Gathering or Foraging The primary institution is the family, which decides how food is to be shared and how children are to be socialized, and which provides for the protection of its members. They tend to be small, with fewer than fifty members. They tend to be nomadic, moving to new areas when the current food supply in a given area has been exhausted. Members display a high level of interdependence. Labor division is based on sex: men hunt, and women gather 2. Horticulture Villages (less than a hundred inhabitants to several hundred) Domestication of plants and animals Semi-nomadic Food production is a major social effort Division of labor evolves especially by gender 3. Pastoralism Relies on the domestication and breeding of animals for food Began to produce more food than they needed Became larger and more permanently rooted to one location Job specialization emerged 4. Agriculture Members of an agricultural or agrarian society tend crops with an animal harnessed to a plow Productivity increases, and as long as there is plenty of food, people do not have to move As crop yields are high, it is no longer necessary for every member of the society to engage in some form of farming, so some people begin developing other skills. Job specialization increases. Fewer people are directly involved with the production of food, and the economy becomes more complex.

5.

Industrialism People and goods traversed much longer distances because of innovations in transportation, such as the train and the steamship. Rural areas lost population because more and more people were engaged in factory work and had to move to the cities. Fewer people were needed in agriculture, and societies became urbanized, which means that the majority of the population lived within commuting distance of a major city. Suburbs grew up around cities to provide city-dwellers with alternative places to live.

A postindustrial society, the type of society that has developed over the past few decades, features an economy based on services and technology, not production. There are three major characteristics of a postindustrial economy: 1. 2. Focus on ideas: Tangible goods no longer drive the economy. Need for higher education: Factory work does not require advanced training, and the new focus on

information and technology means that people must pursue greater education. 3. Shift in workplace from cities to homes: New communications technology allows work to be

performed from a variety of locations.

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Sources: Horton and Hunt. Sociology. Kendall, Diana. Sociology in Our Times: The Essentials. Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2007. Anonuevo, Cora, et al."Human Behavior:From the Disciplines of Anthropology, Psychology and Sociology."Mandaluyong City: Books atbp. Publishing Corp., 2004. Appelbaum, Richard. "Introduction to Sociology Fourth Edition."New York City:W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2003. http://home.earthlink.net/~youngturck/Chapter8.htm http://anthro.palomar.edu/culture/culture_2.htm http://www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/hip/us/hip_us_pearsonhighered/samplechapter/0205711200.pdf http://www.uh.edu/~nestor/lecturenotes/unit2lecture5.html http://isinylmz.com/different-types-of-societies-and-their-major-characteristics/ http://www.cliffsnotes.com/sciences/sociology/culture-and-societies/types-of-societies http://www.sparknotes.com/sociology/society-and-culture/section2.rhtml

Reported by: Group 2 (Arroyo, Goco, Lorque, Nolasco, Rocamora)