This document provides an overview of cultural anthropology and key anthropological concepts like culture, enculturation, ethnocentrism, cultural relativism, and fieldwork methods. It defines culture as learned ideas and behaviors shared by a group, and discusses how culture is integrated, changes over time, and shapes how humans satisfy biological needs. The relationship between culture and biology is complex. The document also compares anthropology and sociology, noting they both study human social groups but have different origins and methods.

1. “The purpose of anthropology is to make the
world safe for human differences.”
Ruth Benedict, Ph.D.
Culture

2. Anthropology
• Anthropology: the holistic study of
humanity.
• In the US, Anthropology is broken up
into four main sub-fields.
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3. 09/02/15 3

4. Cultural Anthropology
• Cultural Anthropology represents the
study of human cultural variation.
• This leads to the question, what exactly
is culture?

5. Culture: one definition
• Culture is a collection of learned ideas
and behaviors shared by a particular
group of people.

6. Characteristics of Culture
• All people are cultured.

7. Characteristics of Culture
• Culture is learned.

8. Characteristics of Culture
• Culture is shared.

9. Characteristics of Culture
• Culture incorporates ideas (beliefs,
attitudes, values…etc.).

10. Characteristics of Culture
• Culture incorporates behaviors
(economic activities, cooking,
celebrations, rituals…etc.).

11. Culture:
• Culture changes and adapts.

12. Characteristics of Culture
• Culture is symbolic.
• A symbol is anything that represents an
idea, a sound, an activity…etc. Symbols
communicate meaning.

13. Symbolic Culture
“ Man is an animal suspended in webs of
significance he himself has spun.”
Max Weber

14. Characteristics of Culture
• Culture is integrated.
• Part of the holistic perspective of
anthropology is the attempt to see the
various parts of culture connect to each
other.

15. Culture and Biology
• If we didn’t have large, developed
brains we would not have complex
culture…
• Yet, our culture is learned and not
encoded in our genes.

16. Culture and Biology
• The relationship between culture and
biology is complex: culture shapes how
we satisfy biological needs.
• How we satisfy sexual urges, hunger
and need for shelter are shaped by
culture.

17. Enculturation
• Enculturation: the process by which we
internalize the values and behaviors of
our culture.
• Enculturation is a process that begins
immediately after birth and well into
adulthood.

18. Ethnocentrism
• Ethnocentrism: the belief in the
superiority of one’s own culture…and
the tendency to judge other societies by
YOUR culture’s standards.

19. Bias
• Bias: “a particular tendency or
inclination, especially one that prevents
unprejudiced consideration of a
question; prejudice”.

20. Naturalization and
Normalization
• Naturalization: the process by which
something takes on an aura or feeling
of “naturalness.”
• Normalization: the process by which
something takes on the aura or feeling
of “normality.”

21. Cultural Relativism
 Cultural Relativism involves judging
other societies by that societies
standards rather than one’s own.
 Anthropologists, by and large, attempt
to be culturally relativistic in their
studies of other societies.

22. Cultural Relativism
• The degree to which we can be truly
culturally relativistic is heavily debated.
• It is very common for contemporary
ethnographers to discuss their own
backgrounds and biases.

23. Etic and Emic
• Etic: From the perspective of the
outsider or observer.
• Emic: from the perspective of the
“native”.

24. Culture Shock
• Culture shock refers to the anxiety and
disorientation caused by operating in a
foreign culture where you don’t
understand “the rules.”
• Culture shock is experienced, to a
greater or lesser extent, by all
immigrants, migrant workers and
anthropologists.

25. Anthropology vs. Sociology
• Cultural Anthropology and Sociology
both study human social groups and
examine human ideas and behaviors.
• However, these fields have different
origins and different methods.

26. Anthropology and Sociology
• Anthropology is the child of colonialism:
it has its origins in Europeans studying
non-Western, indigenous cultures.
• Anthropology has a reputation for
studying so-called “primitive” and
“exotic” people.

27. Sociology
• Sociology is the child of the Industrial.
Revolution: it has historically focused on
large scale, Western, urban societies.
• Sociology’s methods tend to focus on
survey research, reflecting their study of
large, literate societies

28. Doing Anthropology
• Anthropologist typically live and interact
with the people they study. This is what
is meant by fieldwork.

29. Fieldwork
• Participant-observation = observing a
group of people while participating in
their day-to-day lives.

30. Ethnography
• An ethnography is a piece of literature
describing a particular culture or group
of people.

31. Sociology and Anthropology
Redux
• Currently, the differences between
cultural anthropology and sociology are
becoming increasingly small.
• Plenty of anthropologists study large,
urbanized cultures. And many
sociologists are engaged in participant-
observation based research.

32. Agency
• Agency refers to the capacity of
individuals to act independently and to
make their own free choices
• Our cultural context, gender, class and
ethnic background all shape the
choices we make and the values we
hold.

33. The Individual in Society
• As individuals, we make choices on
everything from what we wear, to the
foods we eat, to the way we greet
others…
• Most of us don’t consider how much
symbolic value lies in these choices.