Topic 8
CULTURE
Prepared By: William C. Revelo Major 5
Cultural Anthropology

Culture
Culture can be generally defined as an interrelated set of values, tools,
and practices that is shared among a group of people who posses a
common social identity. More simply culture is the sum total of our
worldviews or of our ways of living. Cultural world-views affect a range of
psychological processes, including perceptual, cognitive, personality, and
social processes, but are thought to most strongly influence social
psychological processes.

 He was a British anthropologist
who are first explicitly defined
culture in 1871
 English anthropologist regarded as
the founder of Cultural
Anthropology.
 He used the term to refer “ Culture
is, that complex whole which
includes knowledge, arts, morals,
law, custom, and any other
capabilities and habits acquired by
man as a member of society.”

Culture
 Culture in anthropology is patterns of behavior and thinking that people
living in social groups learn, create, and share.
 Culture is the most important concept in anthropology (the study of all
aspects of human life, past and present).
 Anthropologists commonly use the term culture to refer to a society or
group in which many or all people live and think in the same ways.
Likewise, any group of people who share a common culture—and in
particular, common rules of behavior and a basic form of social
organization—constitutes a society.
 The terms culture and society are somewhat interchangeable.
However, while many animals live in societies, such as herds of elk or
packs of wild dogs, only humans have culture.

Culture
 Culture developed together with the evolution of the human species, Homo sapiens,
and is closely related to human biology. The ability of people to have culture comes in
large part from their physical features: having big, complex brains; an upright
posture; free hands that can grasp and manipulate small objects; and a vocal tract
that can produce and articulate a wide range of sounds.
 Culture can also be considered as the sum total of human knowledge and acquired
behavior. In this sense, there is a body of knowledge that is not shared by all
individuals of any society.
 Agriculture is an aspect of human culture that many hunters – gatherers and pastoral
societies do not traditionally share. Similarly, atomic energy, is for the most part
restricted to a limited number of industrialized societies, with full knowledge of its
technical aspects generally possessed by only a small number of scientists and
engineers.

Language and Culture (Linguistic Analysis)
 Language and culture are interwined0. A particular language usually points out to a
specific group of people. When to interact with another language, it means you are
also interacting with the culture that speaks the language. You cannot understand
ones culture without accessing it's language directly.
 Linguistic anthropologists, as well as many cultural anthropologists, use a variety of
methods to analyze the details of a people’s language. The practice of phonology, for
example, involves precisely documenting the sound properties of spoken words.
 Language reveals much about a people’s culture. Anthropologists have studied such
topics as how different languages assign gender to words, shape the ways in which
people perceive the natural and supernatural worlds, and create or reinforce divisions
of rank and status within societies.

Culture Pattern
Generally refers to a set of cultural traits or elements that
form an interrelated system. The plow, for instance, is an
element of a culture pattern, the domestic animals used to
draw the plow. As a culture pattern, plow agriculture and its
associated elements diffused from the Middle East about
5000 BC.
Such culture patterns persist over time; yet as they are
spread from one culture to another, new elements are
frequently added. Today, plow agriculture as a culture pattern
has incorporated new crops such as peanuts, soybeans, and
other vegetables and new forms of synthetic fertilizers.