What is Culture? (Manuel) The word culture has many different meanings.

For some it refers to an appreciation of good literature, music, art, and food. For a biologist, it is likely to be a colony of bacteria or other microorganisms growing in a nutrient medium in a laboratory Petri dish. However, for anthropologists and other behavioral scientists, culture is the full range of learned human behavior patterns. The term was first used in this way by the pioneer English Anthropologist Edward B. Tylor in his book, Primitive Culture,published in 1871. Tylor said that culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." Of course, it is not limited to men. Women possess and create it as well. Since Tylor's time, the concept of culture has become the central focus of anthropology. Culture is a powerful human tool for survival, but it is a fragile phenomenon. It is constantly changing and easily lost because it exists only in our minds. Our written languages, governments, buildings, and other man-made things are merely the products of culture. They are not culture in themselves. For this reason, archaeologists can not dig up culture directly in their excavations. The broken pots and other artifacts of ancient people that they uncover are only material remains that reflect cultural patterns--they are things that were made and used through cultural knowledge and skills. Salvadorean Culture (Nelson) The El Salvador Culture is highly influenced by Roman Catholicism. Being the main religion followed by the people of the El Salvador, Roman Catholicism has great influence over the culture. Culture of El Salvador also includes. Spanish is the national language. The official language is Spanish, but a few Indians do speak in Nahua and other tribal languages, which they have preserved for quite some time now. English is also used, as tourists mostly communicate in English with the local people. As there are great artists in El Salvador, art is an important part of the culture in El Salvador. El Salvador covers an area of about 21,040 square kilometers. With a population of 6,700,000 people, Culture in El Salvador is quite versatile. El Salvador is primarily made up of three ethnic group Mestizos, which is a combination of Europeans and Indians, Amerindian and the Europeans. Mestizos are 89%, Amerindians are about 10% and Europeans are about 1%. El Salvador Culture has the influence of both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. The culture of El Salvador is similar to other countries in Latin America, and more specifically to other countries in Central America. The European influences are emphasized in the architecture of the colonial churches, museums and theaters throughout most of El Salvador. In addition, contemporary life in its cities has become similar to that of the rest of Latin America. Additionally, the contemporary life has become similar in most of the cities and village of El Salvador.

El Salvador is a country of 8,260 square miles (21,040 square kilometers) in Central America, between Guatemala and Honduras. Mountains separate the country into the southern coastal belt, the central valleys and plateaus, and the northern mountains. These regions have created slight cultural variations because of the different crops grown in each one. Coffee grown in the mountains and cane grown on the coast provide the rural population with paid labor; in the central valleys, corn and beans are grown for private consumption and for sale. Most industry is in the center, where the capital, San Salvador, is located. Other large cities include San Miguel in the east and Santa Ana in the west. Language (Eduardo) In El Salvador the official language is Castilian language. The speech can mix words of indigenous origin and in the food, causing what are the different idioms or salvadoreismos. A small amount of the population speaks Pipil language, as in Izalco and other towns not currently making the need to learn it, or remembered only by older people. Among the preColumbian languages are chorotega, Cacaopera chort language, language xinca, Lenca language Pocomam. Gastronomy Corn is the staple of the diet and is most often made into thick tortillas that are eaten at every meal and also are served as tamales and in a thick corn drink called atol. Small red beans are the other staple. A variety of fruits and vegetables are eaten, including mango, papaya, tamarind, oranges, bananas, watermelon, cucumber, pacayao, lettuce, tomatoes, and radish. Salvadorans also eat rice, eggs, chicken, pork, beef, fish and seafood, and some game. Coffee is the most common drink, along with highly sugared fruit drinks. Elotes (new corn) are eaten in September before the corn hardens. Restaurants are most often cafeterias, comedores, where food is ordered from a menu near the kitchen or a buffet table and waitresses bring the food to the table. There are fast food restaurants in the cities which are more expensive, and expensive restaurants where food is ordered from a menu at the table. Some of the country's traditional foods are beans with rice and herbs, fried cassava, tamales and of course The pupusas, which were created by The Pipil, native people of El Salvador. Were prepared as thick tortilla made with corn dough and stuffed with one or more ingredients, among which we can mention: cheese, beans, pork rinds, etc..

Another variety is the rice pupusas in them used rice flour to make the dough. Among the popular soda can cite the horchata (made with pumpkin seeds-fricassee-, cocoa and rice, sometimes milk is added), which is often accompanied with marquesote (compact sweet bread) in kids parties or prayers (novenarios), the fresh chan (of semillitas fleshy), the cashew, mango, tamarind (seeds brown acid), melon, pineapple, the fresh salad is very unique because it has chopped cashew, pineapple and other fruits. Restaurants of El Salvador are influenced by various cultures. There are many food options available including American, Italian, French, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Chilean, Argentinian, Middle Eastern, Peruvian, German, Spanish and others. American food chains are also scattered all over the country like McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Dominos, Wendys, Subway, KFC, Little Caesars and Quiznos. A normal diet of Salvadoran includes plenty of seafood, beans and rice (mainly those people prefer them who live nearby the coast). In drinks, you can try Horchata (made from morro seeds and rice) and Cebada (sweet and smooth refreshment). Natural juices are also very popular like maranon, guava, arrayan, jocote, granadilla de moco and cherimoya. Salvadoran Food There are number of specialties of Salvadoran food which are also very common in other countries of Central America. Dishes of Salvadoran Food

Empanadas made from cream filling and bananas Pupusa: A hand-made corn which is filled with pork (chicharron), cheeses and beans Maize pasties with vegetables and minced meat

Usual Salvadoran Food A normal Salvadoran meal contains these ingredients:

Tortillas Fish, poultry and meat Vegetables: loroco, pulses, potato, rice and cassava Dairy products: butter and cheese Fruit: maranon, mangoes, mamones and coconuts

Salvadoran dishes based on maize

Pupusa: thick, hand-made corn tortilla filled with chicharrn (pork), beans and cheese. Atole and tamales of elote (corn tamales).

Atole shuco (a drink prepared from maize flour and other ingredients) Maize pastries with a filling of minced meat or vegetables. Levantamuertos, which is a consomm of garrobo (a reptile similar to an iguana measuring some 50 cm in length). Empanada that are made of banana and cream filling.

Social Stratification (Manuel) About half the population lives below the national poverty line, able to buy food but not clothing and medicine. Over half of these families live in a situation of extreme poverty. Fortyseven percent of the population does not have access to clean water. The difference between the incomes of the most wealthy and the poorest are extreme and increasing. The poorest 20 percent receive only 2 percent of the national income, whereas the richest 20 percent receive 66 percent. The distinction between the rich and poor is no longer ethnic, as the vast majority of the population is now mestizo(about 97 percent). The rich have more access to American goods and typically dress like Americans. They also have access to education at home and abroad and often speak English, as well as a more grammatical form of Spanish. Marriage, Family, and Kinship (Manuel) Marriage: Among the poor, marriage is the decision of the couple. The most common kind of marriage is informal: a man and a woman set up a household and have children without a civil or church service. These unions are recognized under law but can be dissolved easily. However, men are now required to support children conceived in common law marriage as well as with women with whom they have no formal relationship. A marriage performed in a church is considered irreversible, and many people wait until they have children to marry. Couples must be 18 years old to marry unless the woman is pregnant or already has children. In both civil and religious marriages, divorce law requires a separation and a cause. The Catholic Church and many Evangelical churches never condone divorce. Domestic Unit: The domestic unit generally consists of a couple and their children, although other relatives also may live in the household. The man is nominally the head of the household,

but women, especially in poorer families, often provide economic support for their children. A large proportion of families are headed by single women. Kin groups: The extended family is very important in the national culture. A woman can count on her cousins, uncles, aunts, and grandparents on both sides for support. The Family Code recognizes the importance of the extended family and requires various categories of kin to support their relatives with food, clothing, housing, health care, and education. Either spouse may be required to pay support to the other. Grandparents may be asked to support grandchildren, and vice versa. Parents must support their children, and brothers and sisters may be required to pay support to their siblings. Socialization (Nelson) . Infants in poor families are cared for by their mothers, who take them along on their daily tasks. They sleep in a room with their parents, in a crib or hammock of their own or in the parents' bed. People are affectionate with babies and play and talk with them often. They are breast-fed on demand and are not weaned until eighteen months or two years of age. In the upper middle and upper classes, child care often is delegated to a nanny. Children are expected to show "respect" to their elders, which involves using respectful greetings and terms of address. They are expected to be obedient and comply with requests from adults immediately. Children may be hit or reprimanded after age six or seven years for not complying with adults' requests, complaining, or answering back. Shaming is another method used to discipline children. Parents loudly complain about a misbehaving child to another adult or child, within earshot of the offending child. Shaming most often occurs in regard to completing assigned tasks, school performance, and propriety in matters such as dress. Basic education is compulsory until age thirteen, but half the children ages six to sixteen in the poorest families do not attend school. Nine of ten children of the richest families attend school, and a quarter go on to study at a university. Poor families often cannot afford to pay school fees or pay for shoes and school supplies.

Higher education is not emphasized and accounts for a small part of the government budget. Professors and students at the Universidad Centramericana and the National University were killed in the war, and neither university has been given the resources to recover. There has been an explosion of private colleges offering professional and technical degrees, but these schools are not respected and prepare students badly. Religion (Eduardo) El Salvador is 75 percent Roman Catholic but has a growing Protestant movement. The Catholic Church returned to its traditional conservative stance after the end of the civil war. Among Protestant denominations, Pentecostal and fundamentalist sectscalled evangelical churcheshave had the largest growth. There are a number of reasons for the growth of evangelical churches in the last two decades of the twentieth century. First, Catholics were often targets of government repression for their "subversive" involvement in base Christian communities, while evangelicals were safe from government repression. Second, the evangelical emphasis on personal conversion is considered apolitical. Finally, small evangelical churches provide their members with a strong sense of community and family. While the Catholic Church has allowed greater participation of religious lay workers, the possibilities for leadership in the laity are restricted. There are more possibilities in the evangelical churches for nonspecialists to rise to leadership positions. Such positions are restricted to men. Catholics devote nine nights of prayer for deceased persons so that the souls of the dead can be purified and they can rise from purgatory to heaven. The Catholic Church is the majority religious affiliation since colonial times, and which has a membership close to 74% of the population. The Protestant churches such as the Anglicans, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses have experienced significant growth since the 1970s. Today about 20% of the population belongs to one of these Christian churches. There are also small Jewish and Islamic communities, caused by immigration.

The Attire (Nelson) In El Salvador there are different types of costumes, in which most are used in various festivities, although there are some people who still use them. In the female attire is common to see things like a scapular, a shawl, a cloth and different colored ornaments, and cotton fabric. and may be in a skirt and blouse, or dress in shoe wear sandals. In male attire is common to see a suit of cotton, also in traditional festivals, using modern jeans with a cotton shirt, in footwear sandals or boots, and a hat. They really are rural in nature and have different variations depending on location. The Dance (Manuel) Folk dances are fulfilling a social function, one of the most popular dances is the torito pinto. It uses traditional dress, and may represent different historical events or rural activities such as agriculture, livestock, are danced by several couples. They may have different choreography depending on what is to be displayed, accompanied by traditional music. It is usually held at different times and in different places. The classification of these dances is indigenous and traditional.

Festivities (Eduardo?) Date January 1 January 16 March 8 March / April May 1 May 3rd May 7th May 10 June 17 Local Name New Year * Signing of Peace Agreements Women's Day Easter * Labour Day * Cross Day Day of the Soldier Mother's Day Father's Day

June 22 4, 5 and August 6 September 15 October 1 November 2 November 5

Teacher's Day August festivities ** Independence Day * Children's Day All Souls Day Saints * Day First Cry of Independence

Second Sunday of November National Day Pupusas December 25th * Christmas

* ** Holiday holiday in San Salvador

Si quieren buscar ms, anexenla xD La presentacin no s quin la har. Para lo de las festivities estaba pensando si cada quien busca una & la explica tambin. :D (Enviar & anexar info) Succesful (xito) xDD
CONCLUSION El Salvador is deeply rooted in tradition and history. Salvadoran culture is important to the people of El Salvador and communicators must understand customs, language and history in order to create successful campaigns.

There is a large divide between the upper class and the lower class in El Salvador with a very small middle class in between. All cultures are beautiful and rich.