MyNiceSpace.com
Christmas Myspace Comments
All about humankind, its past, present and future; human diversity; human problems; social change...
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.
These Cuban American women in Miami, Florida have a shared subculture identity that is reinforced through their language, food, and other traditions.While all cultures have these and possibly many other universal traits, different cultures have developed their own specific ways of carrying out or expressing them. For instance, people in deaf subcultures frequently use their hands to communicate with sign language instead of verbal language. However, sign languages have grammatical rules just as verbal ones do.
Culture and Society
Culture and society are not the same thing. While cultures are complexes of learned behavior patterns and perceptions, societies are groups of interacting organisms. People are not the only animals that have societies. Schools of fish, flocks of birds, and hives of bees are societies. In the case of humans, however, societies are groups of people who directly or indirectly interact with each other. People in human societies also generally perceive that their society is distinct from other societies in terms of shared traditions and expectations.
Non-human culture? This orangutan mother is using a specially prepared stick to "fish out" food from a crevice. She learned this skill and is now teaching it to her child who is hanging on her shoulder and intently watching.
Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus aethiopicus
Homo erectus
Homo neanderthalensis
Neanderthal
Cro-magnon

Modern Sapiens
Based on field work.






INTERDISCIPLINARY/INTERRELATIONSHIPS
1.Sciences
2.Humanities
Natural (e.g.,biology) and Social Sciences (e.g., sociology)
Cross-cultural perspective to the study of
economics
politics
psychology
art
music
literature
society in general
Human Adaptability
Humans – among world’s most adaptable animals.
Adaptability and flexibility – basic human attributes
Human diversity – subject matter of anthropology.
Examples:
Andes of South America – people wake up in villages 16,000 feet above sea level, then travel upward 1,500 ft higher to work in tin mines.
People survive malaria in tropical countries.
Men have walked on the moon.
Most people think that anthropologists study fossils and non industrial, non-Western cultures, and many of them do.
But anthropology is much more than the study of nonindustrial peoples.
It examines all societies –ancient and modern, simple and complex.
Other social sciences focus on a single society like the U.S. or the Philippines.
Anthropology offers a unique cross-cultural perspective by comparing the customs of one society with those of others.
People share society – organized life in groups – with other animals, including wolves, lions, and even ants.
Culture is distinctly human. It is the full range of learned human behavior patterns.
English Anthropologist Edward B. Tylor in his book, Primitive Culture, published in 1871, 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 transmitted through learning rather than biological inheritance. Culture is not itself biological, but it rests on certain features of human biology.
Micro Enculturation – process by which people learn traditions by growing up in a particular/limited society.
Questions like-
Mysteries of Human origins/ Hominid biology
Hominids – members of the zoological family that includes fossil and living humans.
When did our ancestors separate from those great aunts and great uncles whose descendants are the apes?
Homo sapiens started when and where?
How has our species changed?
What are we now and where are we going?
Our genus, Homo, has been changing for more than 1 million years.
Humans continue to adapt and change both biologically and culturally.
Adaptation – refers to the processes by which organisms cope with environmental forces and stresses, like those posed by climate and topography (terrains) or landforms.
Humans, like other animals, use biological means or adaptations to fit their environments.
Humans are unique in also having cultural means of adaptation.
Physical Anthropology : A Brief Background
Cultural Diversity
Human Diversity and Race
Language and Communication
Making a Living
Families, Kinship, and Descent
The Modern World
References:
Border, R. and Maltz, D. (2001). Applying Cultural Antrhopology: An Introductory Reader. Mayfield Publishing Company. USA
Kottak, C. (2002). Cultural Anthropology. 9th Edition. McGraw-Hill, Inc. USA.
Kottak, C. (2004). Anthropology. The Exploration of Human Diversity. 10th Edition. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. New York, USA.
Kottak, C. (2005). Mirror for Humanity: A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. 2nd Edition. McGraw-Hill, Inc. USA
Lenkeit, R.E. (2004). Introducing Cultural Anthropology. 2nd Edition. McGraw-Hill Inc., USA.
http://www.indiana.edu/~wanthro/theory.htm
http://www.anthro.mankato.msus.edu/information/biography/index.pl
http://www.wsu.edu/gened/learn-modules/top_culture
http://www.tamu.edu/anthropology/news.html