Cultural Anthropology:

Cultural anthropologists
study groups of people and
Cultural Anthropology record the components of
their culture and lifestyle.
Introduction
Definition: Culture is the socially acquired way of life of a group of people. It consists of patterned,
repetitive ways of thinking, feeling and acting that are characteristic of the members of a society or a
particular segment of society. Culture is all the shared and learned behaviours and ideas, and is found
universally among human beings. Since there is a tremendous variation in cultural beliefs and
behaviour, cultural anthropologists, by and large, take a ‘nurture’ position in the nature/nurture debate,
ie. that culture is learned, not genetically inherited.

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 cannot 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.

Cultural Anthropology Analysis

Cultural anthropology divides culture into two main divisions:

a) Non-material culture: thoughts or ideas that make a culture.

i) Behaviour patterns: Rules of behaviour (folkways, mores, taboos), Kinship and family systems,
Political systems, Economic Systems, Communication, Recreation, War
ii) Knowledge and beliefs: Science, Myth, Attitudes, Religion, Philosophy, Values, Symbols

b) Material Culture: physical evidence of a culture in the objects and architecture they make, or
have made.

i) Food, Dress, Tools (technology), Transportation, Shelter, Art, , Weapons, Industry

Cultural Anthropologists
Anthropologists who study culture tend to be divided into:

a) Ethnologists: research one topic in many different cultures, eg. ‘marriage’ rituals or adoption

b) Ethnographers: do in-depth study of one culture, often through participant observation.

Some of the classic studies include Margaret Mead’s study of sex role differences in three New Guinea
tribes and Radcliffe-Brown’s study of Andaman Islanders. Though much of the early research focused
on isolated cultures, in more recent years, there have been many studies done on small agricultural
villages in India or Ireland or even smaller communities in industrial societies, such as working class
neighbourhoods in London or Boston. Some research has even focused on the study of sub-cultures,
such as biker gangs or cults. One such study by Philippe Bourgeois is titled “In Search Of Respect: Selling
Crack in El Barrio”, which looks at how people cope with poverty in dangerous areas.

Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism:

Ethnocentrism: is the tendency of all human beings to judge other cultures based on the standards of
their our culture or upbringing. Anthropologists avoid and try to eliminate ethnocentrism in their work.

Cultural Relativism: is a concept that anthropologists accept and practice. It is the idea that cultures
should be understood in terms of the beliefs and values of that culture alone.

Cultural Universals
No matter where people live in the world, there are certain learned patterns of behaviour, called
‘cultural universals’ that are shared by all humanity collectively. These traits include:

1. Communication with a verbal language consisting of a set of sounds and grammatical rules.
2. Using age and gender to classify people.
3. Classifying people based on marriage and descent relationships and having kinship terms to refer to them.
4. Raising children in some sort of family setting.
5. Having a sexual division of labour: men vs. women’s work.
6. Having a concept of privacy.
7. Having rules to regulate sexual behaviour.
8. Distinguishing between good and bad behaviours.
9. Having some sort of body ornamentation.
10. Making jokes and playing games.
11. Having art.
12. Having some sort of leadership roles for the implementation of community decisions.

While all cultures have these and possibly many other universal traits, different cultures develop their
own specific ways of carrying out or expressing themselves. For instance, people in deaf subcultures
frequently use their hands to communicate with sign language. However, sign languages have
grammatical rules just as verbal ones do.

While human societies and cultures are not the same thing, they are inextricably connected because
culture is created and transmitted to others in a society. Cultures are not the product of lone
individuals. They are the continuously evolving products of people interacting with each other. Cultural
patterns such as language and politics make no sense except in terms of the interaction of people. If
you were the only human on earth, there would be no need for language or government.