KEBUDAYAAAN
Sumber: Microsoft Encarta 2009
Terjemahan: Wayan Marianta, M.A., SVD
Kata “kebudayaan,” terutama dalam antropologi, dipakai untuk berbicara tentang pola-pola perilaku dan pemikiran yang dipelajari, diciptakan dan dimiliki bersama oleh orang-orang yang hidup dalam kelompok sosial tertentu. Budaya membedakan kelompok manusia yang satu dengan yang lain dan membedakan manusia dari hewan. Budaya sebuah masyarakat mencakup keyakinan, aturan perilaku, bahasa, ritual, seni, teknologi, gaya berpakaian, cara memproduksi dan memasak makanan, agama, sistem politik dan sistem ekonomi.
Kebudayaan adalah konsep yang paling penting dalam antropologi (studi tentang semua aspek kehidupan manusia, baik di masa lalu masa kini). Antropolog biasanya menggunakan istilah “kebudayaan” untuk berbicara tentang suatu masyarakat atau kelompok yang banyak anggota atau bahkan semua anggotanya hidup dan berpikir dalam cara yang sama. Demikian pula sebaliknya, Sekelompok orang yang memiliki budaya yang sama dan khususnya, aturan prilaku dan bentuk dasar organisasi sosial yang sama -merupakan sebuah masyarakat. Dengan demikian, istilah “kebudayaan” dan “masyarakat” sebetulnya bisa dipertukarkan dalam pemakaiannya. Ada banyak binatang yang hidup dalam kelompok, antara lain rusa dan anjing liar, namun hanya manusia yang memiliki budaya.
Kebudayaan berkembang bersama-sama dengan evolusi spesies manusia, Homo sapiens, dan terkait erat dengan biologi manusia. Kemampuan manusia memiliki budaya ditopang oleh fitur fisik mereka: memiliki otak yang besar dan kompleks, postur tegak, tangan “bebas” yang dapat mencengkeram dan memanipulasi benda-benda kecil, dan saluran vokal yang dapat menghasilkan dan mengartikulasikan berbagai macam suara. Fitur-fitur fisik yang khas manusia ini mulai berkembang pada nenek moyang manusia dari Afrika lebih dari empat juta tahun lalu. Bukti fisik paling awal dari munculnya kebudayaan adalah alat-alat batu kasar yang diproduksi di Afrika Timur sekitar dua juta tahun yang lalu.
KARAKTERISTIK KEBUDAYAAN
Kebudayaan memiliki beberapa karakteristik khas. (1) Kebudayaan itu berbasis simbol – cara-cara abstrak untuk merujuk pada dan memahami ide, obyek, perasaan dan prilaku – dan kemampuan berkomunikasi dengan simbol-simbol melalui bahasa. (2) Kebudayaan itu dimiliki bersama (shared). Orang-orang dalam masyarakat yang sama memiliki prilaku dan cara berpikir yang sama melalui budaya mereka. (3) Kebudayaan itu dipelajari. Secara biologis manusia mewarisi banyak karakter fisik dan insting prilaku, namun kebudayaan diwarisi secara sosial. Orang harus mempelajarinya dari orang lain dalam sebuah masyarakat. (4) Kebudayaan itu adaptif. Orang menggunakan budaya untuk beradaptasi secara fleksible dan cepat terhadap perubahan-perubahan dunia di sekitar mereka.
I. KEBUDAYAAN ITU SIMBOLIK
Manusia memiliki budaya terutama karena mereka dapat berkomunikasi dengan dan memahami simbol-simbol. Simbol memungkinkan orang untuk mengembangkan pikiran yang kompleks dan bertukar pikiran dengan orang lain. Bahasa dan bentuk-bentuk komunikasi simbolik lainnya, seperti seni, memungkinkan orang membuat, menjelaskan dan merekam ide-ide serta informasi baru.
Simbol bisa memiliki koneksi tidak langsung dengan objek, ide, perasaan atau perilaku yang dirujuk namun bisa juga tidak memiliki hubungan apapun [dengan hal yang dirujuk]. Sebagai contoh, sebagian besar orang di Amerika Serikat menemukan makna dalam kombinasi warna merah, putih dan biru. Tapi warna-warna itu dalam dirinya sendiri tidak ada kaitannya dengan, misalnya, tanah yang disebut Amerika Serikat, konsep patriotisme, atau lagu kebangsaan AS, The Star Spangled Banner.
Untuk menyampaikan ide-ide baru, orang terus-menerus membuat simbol-simbol baru, seperti rumus-rumus matematika. Orang juga dapat menggunakan sebuah simbol, semisal sebuah kata, untuk mewakili banyak ide, perasaan atau nilai yang berbeda. Dengan demikian, simbol menyediakan cara yang fleksibel bagi manusia untuk mengomunikasikan bahkan pikiran yang sangat kompleks satu sama lain. Sebagai contoh, hanya melalui simbol para arsitek, insinyur dan pekerja konstruksi mengomunikasikan informasi yang diperlukan untuk membangun sebuah gedung pencakar langit atau jembatan.
Manusia memiliki kapasitas sejak lahir untuk membangun, memahami dan berkomunikasi melalui simbol-simbol, terutama dengan menggunakan bahasa. Penelitian menunjukkan, semisal, bahwa bayi memiliki struktur dasar berbahasa - semacam tata bahasa universal - yang tertanam dalam pikiran mereka. Dengan demikian, bayi memiliki predisposisi untuk belajar bahasa yang dipakai oleh orang-orang di sekitar mereka.
terdekat manusia secara genetik, menggunakan beberapa lusin seruan dan berbagai gerakan untuk berkomunikasi di alam liar. Beberapa simpanse telah diajar untuk berkomunikasi dengan menggunakan
American Sign Language dan bahasa berbasis gambar, dan telah menguasai beberapa ratus kosakata. Tapi sebuah Kamus Lengkap Bahasa Inggris berisi lebih dari setengah juta entri kosakata. Simpanse juga belum dapat menunjukkan secara jelas kemampuan untuk menggunakan tata bahasa (grammar), yang sangat penting untuk mengomunikasikan pikiran-pikiran yang kompleks.
Selain itu, saluran vokal manusia, tidak seperti yang dimiliki simpanse dan hewan lainnya, dapat menciptakan dan mengartikulasikan berbagai macam suara yang cukup untuk menciptakan jutaan kata yang berbeda. Bahkan sejatinya, setiap bahasa manusia hanya menggunakan sebagian kecil dari suara yang bisa dibuat manusia. Otak manusia juga mengandung area-area tertentu yang didedikasikan untuk produksi dan interpretasi wicara (speech), yang tidak dimiliki oleh hewan-hewan lain. Jadi, manusia memiliki predisposisi dalam banyak hal untuk menggunakan komunikasi simbolik.
II. KEBUDAYAAN ITU DIPELAJARI
Manusia tidak dilahirkan dengan budaya, mereka harus mempelajarinya. Sebagai contoh, orang harus belajar berbicara dan memahami bahasa dan mematuhi aturan-aturan suatu masyarakat. Dalam banyak masyarakat, orang harus belajar memproduksi dan menyiapkan makanan dan membangun tempat tinggal. Dalam masyarakat lain, orang harus belajar keterampilan tertentu untuk mendapatkan uang yang kemudian mereka gunakan untuk menafkahi diri mereka sendiri. Dalam semua masyarakat manusia, anak-anak belajar budaya dari orang dewasa. Antropolog menyebut proses ini “enkulturasi” (enculturation) atau transmisi budaya (cultural transmission).
Enkulturasi adalah sebuah proses panjang. Mempelajari seluk-beluk bahasa saja, sebuah bagian utama dari enkulturasi, membutuhkan waktu bertahun-tahun. Keluarga biasanya memproteksi dan meng-enkulturasi anak-anak dalam rumah tangga tempat mereka lahir selama 15 tahun atau lebih. Hanya pada titik ini anak-anak dapat meninggalkan rumah dan membangun rumah tangga mereka sendiri. Orang juga terus belajar sepanjang hidup mereka. Karena itu, kebanyakan masyarakat menghormati para tetua mereka karena mereka telah belajar sepanjang usia mereka.
Bukan hanya manusia yang memiliki kemampuan belajar prilaku-prilaku tertentu. Kelompok simpanse, semisal, mungkin belajar menggunakan sumber makanan tertentu atau membuat beberapa alat sederhana. Prilaku-prilaku tersebut mungkin membedakan mereka dari kelompok-kelompok simpanse lain. Tapi cara-cara hidup yang unik ini tergolong kecil dibandingkan dengan budaya-budaya yang begitu kaya yang membedakan masyarakat manusia yang satu dengan yang lain. Ketidakmampuan berbicara sangat membatasi kemampuan simpanse dalam belajar, berkomunikasi satu dengan yang lain dan meneruskan sesuatu dari generasi ke generasi.
III. KEBUDAYAAN ITU DIMILIKI BERSAMA
Orang-orang yang hidup bersama dalam sebuah masyarakat berbagi budaya. Sebagai contoh, hampir semua orang yang tinggal di Amerika Serikat berbahasa Inggris, berpakaian dengan gaya serupa, makan banyak makanan yang sama, dan merayakan liburan yang sama.
Semua warga masyarakat secara kolektif menciptakan dan mempertahankan budaya. Masyarakat melestarikan budaya lebih lama dari panjangnya hidup salah satu warganya. Mereka melestarikannya dalam bentuk pengetahuan, seperti penemuan-penemuan ilmiah; benda-benda, seperti karya seni; dan tradisi, seperti ketentuan hari-hari libur.
3.1. Etnosentrisme dan Relativisme Budaya
Identitas diri biasanya tergantung pada budaya sehingga masuk (immersion) ke dalam budaya yang sangat berbeda dapat menyebabkan perasaan bingung dan disorientasi. Para antropolog menyebut fenomena ini “kejutan budaya” (culture shock). Dalam masyarakat multikultural - seperti Amerika Serikat yang menjadi tempat datangnya orang dari berbagai budaya – bentuk-bentuk budaya yang tidak dimiliki bersama (unshared forms of culture) dapat menyebabkan ketegangan.
Anggota masyarakat dari sebuah kebudayaan sering memiliki aneka bentuk etnosentrisme, pandangan bahwa budayanya lebih masuk akal atau superior daripada budaya masyarakat lain. Etnosentrisme memberi sumbangan untuk integritas budaya karena menegaskan kepercayaan dan nilai-nilai bersama berhadapan dengan nilai-nilai yang dijunjung oleh orang-orang dari latar belakang budaya lain. Pada aras yang paling buruk, etnosentrisme memicu orang melakukan ethnocide, pemusnahan budaya, dan genosida, pemusnahan seluruh populasi. Ini terjadi, semisal, atas orang-orang Yahudi yang hidup di masa Nazi Jerman pada tahun 1940-an.
relativisme budaya mencoba menghargai semua budaya dengan setara. Meskipun hanya seseorang yang hidup dalam sebuah kelompok budaya dapat sepenuhnya memahami budaya itu, para penganut relativisme budaya percaya bahwa orang luar (outsiders) dapat belajar menghormati keyakinan dan praktik-praktik yang tidak mereka hidupi.
Meski demikian, kebanyakan antropolog percaya bahwa relativisme budaya memiliki batas-batasnya. Secara teoretis, seorang penganut ekstrem relativisisme akan menerima secara tidak kritis praktik-praktik dari semua budaya, bahkan jika praktik-praktik tersebut membahayakan orang. Sebagai contoh, para antropolog memperdebatkan apakah mereka harus menerima atau menyetujui praktik sunat perempuan, yang dilakukan dalam banyak masyarakat Afrika. Sunat perempuan mencakup penghilangan sebagian atau seluruh labia dan klitoris perempuan dan biasanya dilakukan pada anak perempuan yang memasuki masa remaja. Praktik ini menyakitkan dan berbahaya bagi perempuan tetapi masyarakat yang menganutnya cenderung mengklaim bahwa praktik tersebut penting dan berakar mendalam dalam budaya mereka.
3.2. Syering Budaya Lintas-Masyarakat
Karena tiada masyarakat yang hidup dalam isolasi total, masyarakat-masyarakat yang berbeda saling bertukar dan berbagi budaya. Sejatinya, semua masyarakat memiliki interaksi-interaksi tertentu dengan yang lain, baik karena rasa ingin tahu maupun karena fakta bahwa masyarakat yang sangat mandiri sekalipun membutuhkan bantuan dari tetangganya. Dewasa ini, sebagai contoh, orang di berbagai belahan dunia menggunakan jenis-jenis teknologi yang serupa seperti mobil, telepon dan televisi. Perdagangan komersial dan teknologi komunikasi, seperti jaringan komputer, telah menciptakan sebuah budaya global (global culture). Karena itu, menjadi semakin sulit untuk menemukan budaya yang dihidupi bersama hanya dalam batas-batas sebuah masyarakat.
Pertukaran kultural dapat menguntungkan semua kebudayaan. Masyarakat yang berbeda-beda dapat bertukar ide, orang, barang dan sumber daya alam. Meski demikian, pertukaran tersebut bisa juga merugikan. Sering terjadi masuknya aspek-aspek tertentu dari kebudayaan masyarakat lain dapat mengganggu kehidupan kohesif sekelompok orang. Sebagai contoh, masuknya konsumerisme ke dalam kelompok-kelompok masyarakat kecil telah menyebabkan munculnya apa yang disebut oleh para antropolog sebagai cargo cults. Dalam cargo cults, orang memfokuskan energi religius dan banyak waktu untuk mencoba mendatangkan barang-barang komersial secara magis.
Pertukaran lintas budaya juga sering menghasilkan apa yang disebut oleh para antropolog sebagai “akulturasi” (acculturation), ketika anggota sebuah budaya tertentu mengadopsi fitur-fitur kebudayaan lain. Ini terjadi, antara lain, ketika penduduk asli di Dunia Barat mengadopsi bahasa dan banyak kebiasaan Spanyol, yang mengolonisasi Amerika Selatan dan Tengah pada permulaan tahun 1500an.
3.3. Subkultur
Beberapa kelompok orang memiliki serangkaian ciri-ciri kultural tertentu yang khas dan berbeda dari masyarakat yang lebih luas. Grup-grup semacam ini sering disebut “subkultur” (subcultures). Sebagai contoh, para anggota dari sebuah subkultur mungkin memiliki bahasa yang khas atau dialek (variasi dari bahasa yang dominan), ritual-ritual yang unik, dan gaya berpakaian tertentu. Di Amerika Serikat and Kanada, banyak grup yang berintegrasi kuat secara religius, seperti komunitas-komunitas Mennonite pedesaan, memiliki karakteristik subkultur.
IV. KEBUDAYAAN ITU ADAPTIF [DINAMIS]
Kebudayaan membantu masyarakat manusia bertahan hidup dalam lingkungan alamiah yang berubah. Sebagai contoh, akhir Jaman Es, yang mulai sekitar 15.000 tahun lalu, menghadirkan tantangan luar biasa yang memaksa manusia untuk beradaptasi. Sebelumnya, sebagian besar belahan bumi bagian utara tertutup oleh lapisan es yang banyak menyimpan air. Di Amerika Utara, binatang-binatang besar yang menjelajahi tundra yang luas menjadi bahan makanan, pakaian dan tempat berteduh untuk manusia. Ketika bumi memanas, binatang-binatang besar dari Jaman Es tersebut menghilang dan tenggelam karena meningkatnya permukaan laut akibat mencairnya es. Meski demikian, manusia bertahan hidup. Mereka menciptakan teknologi-teknologi baru dan belajar menopang hidup dengan bersandar pada spesies tanaman dan hewan baru. Akhirnya, mereka menetap dalam kampung-kampung yang permanen dengan rumah-rumah dan lahan pertanian dan peternakan yang tahan lama.
dari 8 juta selama Jaman Es menjadi hampir 6 miliar dewasa ini [Catatan: pada tahun 2011 diperkirakan sudah mencapai 7 miliar].
Meski demikian, keberhasilan kultural juga menciptakan masalah-masalah jangka panjang. Selama 200 tahun ini, manusia telah menggunakan sumber-sumber daya alam dan energi dalam jumlah besar dan menghasilkan sampah material dan kimiawi dalam skala yang juga besar. Populasi global dewasa ini mengonsumsi sumber-sumber daya alam penting – seperti minyak bumi, kayu, dan batu-batuan mineral – lebih cepat daripada kemampuan alam untuk menghasilkannya. Banyak ilmuwan percaya bahwa dalam proses pembakaran bahan bakar dan produksi sampah, manusia mungkin sedang mengubah iklim global ke arah yang sulit diprediksi dan membahayakan. Hal itu berarti bahwa keberhasilan adaptif dari kebudayaan produksi dan perdagangan global dewasa ini bisa jadi bersifat sementara.
Kebudayaan harus berguna bagi orang, sekurang-kurangnya dalam jangka pendek, agar diteruskan kepada generasi-generasi baru. Meski demikian, kebudayaan juga dapat jelas-jelas membahayakan manusia. Jumlah orang yang hidup dalam kemiskinan parah pada akhir abad ke-20 lebih besar daripada seluruh populasi pada tahun 1.500 Masehi.
Culture
I INTRODUCTION
Culture, in anthropology, the patterns of behavior and thinking that people living in social groups learn, create, and share. Culture distinguishes one human group from others. It also distinguishes humans from other animals. A people’s culture includes their beliefs, rules of behavior, language, rituals, art, technology, styles of dress, ways of producing and cooking food, religion, and political and economic systems.
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. Thus, 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 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. These distinctively human physical features began to develop in African ancestors of humans more than four million years ago. The earliest physical evidence of culture is crude stone tools produced in East Africa over two million years ago. II THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE
Culture has several distinguishing characteristics. (1) It is based on symbols—abstract ways of referring to and understanding ideas, objects, feelings, or behaviors—and the ability to communicate with symbols using language. (2) Culture is shared. People in the same society share common behaviors and ways of thinking through culture. (3) Culture is learned. While people biologically inherit many physical traits and behavioral instincts, culture is socially inherited. A person must learn culture from other people in a society. (4) Culture is adaptive. People use culture to flexibly and quickly adjust to changes in the world around them.
Symbolism of the Zodiac
In cultures as diverse as the United States, China, and the ancient civilization of the Aztec, zodiac signs have symbolized qualities ascribed to people born at particular times. In the Western zodiac system a crab symbolizes Cancer, the sign for people born between June 22 and July 22. Astrologers say that Cancerians are strongly protective of those they love and exhibit highly developed
imagination, discipline, and intuition. Dorling Kindersley
People have culture primarily because they can communicate with and understand symbols. Symbols allow people to develop complex thoughts and to exchange those thoughts with others. Language and other forms of symbolic communication, such as art, enable people to create, explain, and record new ideas and information.
A symbol has either an indirect connection or no connection at all with the object, idea, feeling, or behavior to which it refers. For instance, most people in the United States find some meaning in the combination of the colors red, white, and blue. But those colors themselves have nothing to do with, for instance, the land that people call the United States, the concept of patriotism, or the U.S. national anthem, The Star
Spangled Banner.
To convey new ideas, people constantly invent new symbols, such as for mathematical formulas. In
addition, people may use one symbol, such as a single word, to represent many different ideas, feelings, or values. Thus, symbols provide a flexible way for people to communicate even very complex thoughts with each other. For example, only through symbols can architects, engineers, and construction workers
communicate the information necessary to construct a skyscraper or bridge.
People have the capacity at birth to construct, understand, and communicate through symbols, primarily by using language. Research has shown, for example, that infants have a basic structure of language—a sort of universal grammar—built into their minds. Infants are thus predisposed to learn the languages spoken by the people around them.
Language provides a means to store, process, and communicate amounts of information that vastly exceed the capabilities of nonhuman animals. For instance, chimpanzees, the closest genetic relatives of humans, use a few dozen calls and a variety of gestures to communicate in the wild. People have taught some chimps to communicate using American Sign Language and picture-based languages, and some have developed vocabularies of a few hundred words. But an unabridged English dictionary might contain more than half-a-million vocabulary entries. Chimpanzees have also not clearly demonstrated the ability to use grammar, which is crucial for communicating complex thoughts.
In addition, the human vocal tract, unlike that of chimpanzees and other animals, can create and articulate a wide enough variety of sounds to create millions of distinct words. In fact, each human language uses only a fraction of the sounds humans can make. The human brain also contains areas dedicated to the production and interpretation of speech, which other animals lack. Thus, humans are predisposed in many ways to use symbolic communication.
B Culture Is Learned
Enculturation is a long process. Just learning the intricacies of a human language, a major part of
enculturation, takes many years. Families commonly protect and enculturate children in the households of their birth for 15 years or more. Only at this point can children leave and establish their own households. People also continue to learn throughout their lifetimes. Thus, most societies respect their elders, who have learned for an entire lifetime.
Humans are not alone in their ability to learn behaviors, only in the amount and complexity of what they can learn. For example, members of a group of chimpanzees may learn to use a unique source of food or to fashion some simple tools, behaviors that might distinguish them from other chimpanzee groups. But these unique ways of life are minor in comparison to the rich cultures that distinguish different human societies. Lacking speech, chimps are very limited in what they can learn, communicate to others, and pass on from generation to generation.
C Culture Is Shared
Ukrainian Orthodox Church
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has played a key role in preserving a sense of ethnic identity among Ukrainian Americans. Religious observances provide opportunities for the community to gather and affirm its cultural heritage. A religious tradition dating back to the late 10th century, the Ukrainian Orthodox faith has a rich legacy of ritual, art, and hymns. This church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is constructed in the traditional Ukrainian Orthodox style.
W.Cody/Corbis
People living together in a society share culture. For example, almost all people living in the United States share the English language, dress in similar styles, eat many of the same foods, and celebrate many of the same holidays.
All the people of a society collectively create and maintain culture. Societies preserve culture for much longer than the life of any one person. They preserve it in the form of knowledge, such as scientific discoveries; objects, such as works of art; and traditions, such as the observance of holidays. C1 Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism
Self-identity usually depends on culture to such a great extent that immersion in a very different culture— with which a person does not share common ways of life or beliefs—can cause a feeling of confusion and disorientation. Anthropologists refer to this phenomenon as culture shock. In multicultural societies— societies such as the United States into which people come from a diversity of cultures—unshared forms of culture can also lead to tension.
Members of a society who share culture often also share some feelings of ethnocentrism, the notion that one’s culture is more sensible than or superior to that of other societies. Ethnocentrism contributes to the integrity of culture because it affirms people’s shared beliefs and values in the face of other, often
contradictory, beliefs and values held by people of other cultural backgrounds. At its worst, ethnocentrism has led people to commit ethnocide, the destruction of cultures, and genocide, the destruction of entire populations. This happened, for example, to Jews living in Nazi Germany in the 1940s (see Holocaust; National Socialism).
equally. Although only someone living within a group that shares culture can fully understand that culture, cultural relativists believe that outsiders can learn to respect beliefs and practices that they do not share. However, most anthropologists believe that cultural relativism has its limits. In theory, an extreme relativist would uncritically accept the practices of all cultures, even if those practices harm people. For example, anthropologists have debated over whether they should accept or approve of the practice of female circumcision, performed in many African societies. Female circumcision involves removing part or all of a woman’s labia and clitoris and is usually performed on girls entering adolescence. This practice is painful, and often harmful, to the women of societies that perform it, but many of those societies claim that the practice is important and deeply rooted in their culture.
C2 Sharing Culture Across Societies
Coca-Cola Billboard, Vietnam
Today global communications systems and the worldwide distribution of mass-produced commodities create a kind of global culture. Here, a billboard in Vietnam for the U.S. soft drink Coca-Cola beckons to commuters with the slogan “It’s so good to see you again.” L. Dematteis/The Image Works
Since no human society exists in complete isolation, different societies also exchange and share culture. In fact, all societies have some interactions with others, both out of curiosity and because even highly self-sufficient societies sometimes need assistance from their neighbors. Today, for instance, many people around the world use similar kinds of technology, such as cars, telephones, and televisions. Commercial trade and communication technologies, such as computer networks, have created a form of global culture. Therefore, it has become increasingly difficult to find culture that is shared within only a single society. Cultural exchange can provide many benefits for all societies. Different societies can exchange ideas, people, manufactured goods, and natural resources. Such exchanges can also have drawbacks, however. Often the introduction of aspects of another society’s culture can disrupt the cohesive life of a people. For example, the introduction of consumerism into many small societies has led to what anthropologists refer to as cargo cults. In cargo cults, people focus much of their religious energy and time on trying to
magically acquire commercial goods.
Cross-cultural exchange often results in what anthropologists call acculturation, when the members of one culture adopt features of another. This has happened, for example, when indigenous peoples in the
western hemisphere adopted the language and many of the customs of Spain, which colonized South and Central America beginning in the 1500s.
C3 Subcultures
Some groups of people share a distinct set of cultural traits within a larger society. Such groups are often referred to as subcultures. For instance, the members of a subculture may share a distinct language or dialect (variation based on the dominant language), unique rituals, and a particular style of dress. In the United States and Canada, many strongly integrated religious groups, such as rural Mennonite
communities, have the characteristics of subcultures. D Culture Is Adaptive
provided people with food and materials for clothing and simple shelters. When the earth warmed, large Ice Age game animals disappeared, and many land areas were submerged by rising sea levels from melting ice. But people survived. They developed new technologies and learned how to subsist on new plant and animal species. Eventually some people settled into villages of permanent, durable houses and farms.
Cultural adaptation has made humans one of the most successful species on the planet. Through history, major developments in technology, medicine, and nutrition have allowed people to reproduce and survive in ever-increasing numbers. The global population has risen from 8 million during the Ice Age to almost 6 billion today (see Population: World Population Growth and Distribution).
However, the successes of culture can also create problems in the long run. Over the last 200 years, people have begun to use large quantities of natural resources and energy and to produce a great amount of material and chemical wastes. The global population now consumes some crucial natural resources— such as petroleum, timber, and mineral ores—faster than nature can produce them. Many scientists believe that in the process of burning fuels and producing wastes, people may be altering the global climate in unpredictable and possibly harmful ways (see Global Warming). Thus, the adaptive success of the present-day global culture of production and commerce may be temporary.
Culture must benefit people, at least in the short term, in order for it to be passed on to new generations. But it can clearly also harm some people. The number of people living in severe poverty near the end of the 20th century was larger than the entire population of the world in AD 1500.
III CATEGORIES OF CULTURE
Edward Tylor
Sir Edward Burnett Tylor was a pioneer of cultural anthropology in Britain. Tylor gave one of the first anthropological definitions of culture in his book Primitive Culture (1871). Here an actor recites Tylor’s definition of culture.
(p) 1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved./The Image Works
Anthropologists have described a number of different categories of culture. For example, a simple distinction can be made between cultural objects, such as types of clothing, and cultural beliefs, such as forms of religion. Many early anthropological definitions of culture are essentially descriptions of categories of culture or cultural items.
British anthropologist Edward B. Tylor gave one of the first complete definitions of culture in his book
Later anthropologists came up with simpler categorizations of culture. A common practice is to divide all of culture into three broad categories: material, social, and ideological. A fourth category, the arts, has characteristics of both material and ideological culture.
Material culture includes products of human manufacture, such as technology. Social culture pertains to people’s forms of social organization—how people interact and organize themselves in groups. Ideological culture relates to what people think, value, believe, and hold as ideals. The arts include such activities and areas of interest as music, sculpture, painting, pottery, theater, cooking, writing, and fashion.
Anthropologists often study how these categories of culture differ across different types of societies that vary in scale (size and complexity).
Anthropologists have identified several distinct types of societies by scale. The smallest societies are known as bands. Bands consist of nomadic (not settled) groups of fewer than a hundred, mostly related people. A tribe, the next largest type of society, generally consists of a few hundred people living in settled villages. A larger form of society, called a chiefdom, binds together two or more villages or tribes under a leader who is born into the position of rule. The largest societies, known as civilizations, contain from several thousand to millions of mostly unrelated people, many of whom live in large cities. Some anthropologists characterize the world today as a single global-scale culture, in which people are linked together by industrial technology and markets of commercial exchange.
A Material Culture
All societies produce and exchange material goods so that people can feed, clothe, shelter, and otherwise provide for themselves. This system is commonly known as an economy. Anthropologists look at several aspects of people’s material culture. These aspects include (1) the methods by which people obtain or produce food, known as a pattern of subsistence; (2) the ways in which people exchange goods and services; (3) the kinds of technologies and other objects people make and use; and (4) the effects of people’s economy on the natural environment.
A1 Patterns of Subsistence
Inuit Summer Hunting Camp
In the past, the Inuit were chiefly a nomadic people who hunted for sustenance and followed their game's seasonal movements. Although many Inuit now live in fixed settlements throughout Nunavut, a region in northern Canada, some maintain their traditional hunting customs. Pictured here is an Inuit standing next to his summer house, a tent made of walrus or seal hides.
Wolfgang Kaehler
Mongolian Pastoralists
Nomadic herders in Mongolia follow a traditional way of life, journeying with livestock and living in yurts, which are felt tents that protect them from the country’s intense heat and cold. Here, some yurts are visible beyond the grazing horses and sheep. George Holton/Photo Researchers, Inc.
Many peoples living in larger societies, such the Han of northern China, practice manual (sometimes called extensive) agriculture and produce surpluses of food and other goods. Some surpluses create wealth, while surplus foods are commonly stored for use in times of need. Because of this surplus production, some people work in nonsubsistence (not food-producing) activities. People not involved in food production may work, for example, as craftspeople, religious practitioners, or political administrators. Manual agriculture also supported early civilizations such as Sumer, which existed from about 3000 to about 1800 BC in what
is now Iraq.
Simple Farming Methods in Ethiopia
Animals are still used as beasts of burden on many Ethiopian farms. Traditional agriculture is the most common form of economic activity in Ethiopia.
Purcell/Ald/Maryknoll Missioners
Agriculture in nonindustrialized societies relies on systems of irrigation run from natural waterways, animal-powered plowing, and natural methods of fertilization, such as the use of rotted vegetation to add nutrients to soil. Animal-powered plow agriculture and irrigation involve more time, energy, and material inputs than do swidden gardening, pastoralism, or hunting and gathering.
Corn Harvest in Illinois
Industrialized countries generally practice large-scale, mechanized farming. In this photograph of a farm in Illinois, corn combines pick the ears from the stalks, remove the husks, and shell the kernels from the cobs.
Dr. A.C. Twomey/Photo Researchers, Inc.
The food production in large, industrial and commerce-based societies—such as the United States and Western Europe—depends on expensive machinery, vast supplies of fossil fuels to power that machinery, automated irrigation systems, and great quantities of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This form of production, known as intensive agriculture, is more costly than any other, but produces quantities of food vast enough to allow most people to work in nonsubsistence activities.
Early Forms of Money
Before paper and coins were introduced as permanent forms of money, people used a variety of other objects to serve as money for trading goods. Examples of early forms of money, as shown here, include rice (China), dogs’ teeth (Papua New Guinea), small tools (China), quartz pebbles (Ghana), gambling counters (Hong Kong), cowrie shells (India), metal disks (Tibet), and limestone disks (Yap Island).
Dorling Kindersley
People in small societies commonly exchange goods with each other and with people in other small societies through systems of barter, ceremonies, and gifts. For example, the people of the Trobriand Islands in Papua New Guinea, practice an elaborate form of inter-island exchange known as the kula.
Through the kula, people living on different islands continually exchange prestige goods, such as beautiful shell necklaces, as well as food, clothing, weapons, and other items. Such systems of ongoing exchange of goods, common to all societies, create long-lasting bonds between people.
Money of the World
Most nations have their own system of money and print their own currency. Made of paper, these pieces of currency have very little intrinsic value. As fiat money, however, the paper notes represent a specific monetary value decreed by the government and accepted by the people. The notes pictured here are examples of fiat money from all over the world.
William Taufic/Corbis
Contemporary industrial societies have organized markets for land, labor, and money, and virtually everything is a commodity. People buy and sell goods and services using money. This form of economy, known as capitalism, disconnects the value of goods and services from the goods and services themselves and the people who produce or provide them. Thus, the exchange of goods and services for currency is not particularly important for creating social bonds. In industrialized and commerce-based societies, people also exchange securities (such as the stocks of corporations), which have value based on their
representation of ownership, and derivatives, whose value is based on that of underlying securities. A3 Technology and Manufacture
Yapese Community House
Community houses in Yap state, the westernmost state of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), serve as meeting places for Yapese villagers. The Yapese have retained much of their traditional culture, despite the influence of Western administrations from the late 1800s to 1986, when the FSM gained self-government.
In small societies people usually build shelters and make clothing out of readily available plant and animal materials. For example, in forest horticultural societies in the Amazon region of South America, people make houses of wooden branches covered with layers of palm leaves.
Band and tribal peoples also use fairly simple technologies for work. People commonly use sticks to dig the ground for planting or for getting at edible roots. They may use animal hides or plant materials such as tree bark to make clothing and sacs or baskets for carrying items. Hunters take their prey either with sharpened sticks or with arrowheads of stone or bone attached to wooden shafts. Some coat the tips of their arrows with poisons gathered from plants or animals. Poisoned weapons can quickly disable prey. People who live by water commonly make boats of wood and animal skins for travel, fishing, and the hunting of sea mammals such as seals and whales. Most hunter-gatherers, horticulturists, and pastoralists cook over open fires.
Clothing in Botswana
This woman from Botswana is wearing a colorful dress made of different pieces of fabric sewn together. Some of the designs on the patches are made in the traditional batik method, but this dress is contemporary.
Marlise Pepperell/Compix/Bridgeman Art Library, London/New York
In primarily agricultural societies, many of which still exist today in countries throughout Africa and Asia, the people build sturdy houses of sun-dried mud brick and thatch, wooden beams, or quarried stone. These people commonly produce beautiful and functional ceramic storage containers and other pottery, finely woven textiles, and tools of forged metal. People in agricultural societies also have many methods of cooking using pots and ovens of mud brick or stone.
In large industrial and commerce-based societies, most people live in wood-frame or brick houses and apartment buildings with plumbing, supplies of electricity and natural gas, and telephone service. Much of the material culture in these societies consists of mass-produced goods created through industrial
production. A great deal of food and clothing are produced in this way. The variety of common household technologies includes televisions, stereos, microwave ovens, and computers. Many people work in giant skyscrapers built from metal girders and beams, concrete, and high-strength glass. People and goods can travel great distances by automobile, train, plane, and ship. Other significant technologies include artificial satellites, enormously potent and complex weaponry systems, and reactors for producing nuclear energy. A4 Effects on the Environment
Hunting and gathering, horticultural, and pastoral ways of life generally make small demands on the natural environment, because people tend to gather or grow only enough food and other materials for their basic needs. These nomadic or seminomadic societies can also move away from depleted areas, allowing plants to regrow and animals to repopulate.
Agricultural societies can heavily burden the environment, sometimes endangering their own survival. For example, early Mediterranean civilizations deforested and overgrazed large areas of land. These damages to the land prompted soil erosion, which made food production increasingly costly over time.
Industrial societies put even larger demands on the environment, and they may someday exhaust important supplies of natural resources. The mass production of goods is often wasteful and polluting. Thus, large societies must also put great effort into disposing of their wastes and developing new sources of energy and material resources.
Cultural Styles of Communication
People from different cultures have different styles of communication. These photos provide some examples: clockwise from top left, Bahraini men talking with animated gestures and making direct eye contact, Polish teens avoiding eye contact as they talk, Eskimo women talking with considerable space between them, and Kashmīri women talking at a very close distance.
Charlie Westerman/Gamma Liaison;Carlos Freire/Hutchison Library;Gamma Liaison;Wolfgang Kaehler/Gamma Liaison
People in all types of societies organize themselves in relation to each other for work and other duties, and to structure their interactions. People commonly organize themselves according to (1) bonds by kinship and marriage, (2) work duties and economic position, and (3) political position. Important factors in family, work, and political relations include age and gender (behaviors and roles associated with men and
women).
B1 Kinship and Family
Totem Pole
The Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples, who are part of the Northwest Coast cultural group, live in the Alaska panhandle and nearby islands. For centuries totem poles were landmarks in the villages of Northwest Coast peoples. These tall poles, carved from wood, trace the histories of families and clans much like a family crest or family tree. Each figure on the pole is a symbol of a family characteristic, an event, or a “totem,” a power of nature to which the family has a special relation. Totems often take the form of an animal or spirit.
John Warden
Family Tree
In some cultures family trees trace the lineage of families, showing the relationships among relatives and ancestors. The family tree shown here displays the family history of Alfonso VII, a Spanish king who reigned over the regions of León and Castile from 1126 to 1157.
Archivo Iconografico, S.A./Corbis
Small societies categorize kin in many different ways and define appropriate types of behavior between kin, including who can marry. In band societies, people know their relationships to others in their band, which usually includes only a few families. People do not marry within their immediate family, but often take spouses from other bands to create ties that bond them together in times of need.
Monogamy
Monogamy is the most common form of marriage. In a monogamous marriage, two people are married to each other and to no one else. This Jordanian family consists of a monogamous couple with their children.
Bill Lyons/Liaison Agency
All people in bands generally respect each other as equals, though children must show increased respect for their elders. The eldest group members often earn special recognition for their knowledge. Men and women in bands also commonly regard each other as equals.
Polygamist and Wives
Polygamy is a form of marriage practiced in many cultures, in which a person has more than one spouse. Although multiple marriage is not legally recognized in the United States, some Americans have polygamous relationships. This family in Nevada consists of a husband with ten wives and several children.
Nik Wheeler/Corbis
People living in tribes belong to lineages or clans, which are large kin groups that trace their descent to a common ancestor. Clans are somewhat larger than lineages and usually cover more generations. Clans trace their descent to a fictitious ancestor (ancestor whose true identity is not known), often identified as an animal spirit or clan totem(see Totemism).
For instance, many Native American societies (see Native Americans of North America: Social and Political Organization), in both North and South America, live or once lived in tribes. One Native American group, the Navajo, who have long lived primarily in what is now Arizona, organized themselves in the past as matrilineal (descent traced through women) clan-based tribes. Status and property passed to people through their mother’s line.
on organizations, workplaces, and government institutions to provide support available in smaller societies from family and kin.
B2 Work Life
Water Pump, Togo
The majority of people in Togo, West Africa, work in agriculture. Most of these agricultural workers are sharecroppers and subsistence farmers on small plots of land. In many cases, groups of families own farmland collectively and cultivate corn, millet, yams, sorghum, and cassava for direct consumption. In this photo, villagers in Kara, a town in northern Togo, gather around the communal water pump.
Betty Press/Woodfin Camp and Associates, Inc.
Anthropologists call the smallest unit of economic production in any society a household. A household consists of a group of people, usually a family, who work collectively to support each other and often to raise children.
Rubber Workers
One of the valuable products of the Brazilian forests, rubber is gathered by tapping—making a small incision in the bark of a rubber tree and collecting the fluid that drains out. Rubber trees are scattered throughout the rain forest. These rubber tappers belong to the Xapuri Rural Workers Union. Tappers began forming unions in the mid-1970s to stop ranchers from cutting down the forests to make room for cattle pastures.
Rogerio Reis/Black Star
Cooperative Farming in Israel
Cooperative farming establishments called kibbutzim and moshavim provide much of Israel’s agricultural output. The workers shown here are harvesting cantaloupes at a moshav, where families own separate farms but cooperate in many aspects of agricultural production and marketing. In a kibbutz, all property is owned collectively.
Paul A. Souders/Corbis
Inchiefdoms and civilizations, households have to produce enough to support themselves and their leaders. All households do not always have equal access to needed materials, such as tools or draft animals, or land. Thus, some families have higher status than others do. On the whole, men in these societies have higher status than women and perform fewer menial tasks.
Rosie the Riveter
During World War II the United States government sought increased domestic production to supply the war effort while at the same time sending a large percentage of the male work force into military service. To help meet the need for a larger labor force the government created Rosie the Riveter, a publicity campaign from 1942 to 1945 that encouraged women to support the war by working outside the home. More than 6 million women joined the U.S. domestic work force during World War II.
THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE
In civilizations, many people specialize in offering a variety of services and producing a variety of goods. Each occupation is commonly associated with a different level of status, usually referred to as an economic class. Hindus in India, by comparison, live according to the caste system, in which a person’s status is fixed at birth and closely tied to his or her occupation.
South Korean Electronic Workers
Agriculture once dominated the South Korean economy, but export-oriented manufacturing has transformed the country from one of the world's poorest into an industrial power. About one-third of South Korea’s labor force is now involved in industry, as are these workers at a tele-electric company.
Allen Green/Photo Researchers, Inc.
In industrial societies, few households are self-sufficient. For instance, most people could not build their own houses, grow and cook all of their own food, and make all of their clothes. Most people also depend on technologies that no one could produce alone from raw materials, such as cars, refrigerators, and
In addition, most households in industrial societies consist of nuclear families, which contain only parents and their children. Nuclear families lack the support network and productive capabilities of extended families. Fathers in nuclear families commonly work to earn income, while mothers manage the household and care for children—often in addition to working for income. These gender role patterns have changed somewhat since the 1960s to more equal roles for men and women. People in most modern industrial and commerce-based societies also identify strongly with groups of people united by work, such as professional organizations and labor unions. These groups are entirely separate from family and kinship ties.
B3 Leadership and Political Power
Zulu Headmen
This photograph of three Zulu headmen was taken in 1888 in South Africa. They are wearing traditional warrior clothing and are carrying the distinctive Zulu shields. The Zulus, led by their chief Shaka, were a powerful military force in the early 1800s in South Africa.
THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE
Groups of people living in bands have no formal leadership, and all people have input in making group decisions. Most decision-making in tribes occurs within households. Occasionally, most or all members of lineages or clans convene to make important village decisions, such as about dealing with neighboring tribes. Descent groups may also regulate access to crucial resources, such as favored hunting areas, and choose where people will live.
Within most tribes, all groups commonly have about equal status. Since every person belongs to a descent group, no one person ranks too far above or below another. In some tribes, however, people known as big men might earn a degree of higher status and respect than others by demonstrating bravery or bravado.
Representative Democracy
In representative democracies, citizens elect people to serve in legislative and executive positions. These representatives, invested with the confidence of their constituencies, then try to convey the interests and desires of these constituencies by participating in governmental processes. In the United States, citizens elect people to the House of Representatives and the Senate, which together comprise the nation’s bicameral legislature. Citizens in each state elect two senators and a certain number of representatives based on the population of the state. Here, members of the Senate (right) and House of Representatives (left) meet in their respective chambers to discuss legislation.
UPI/THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE
King Fahd
Saudi Arabia is a monarchy with no separate legislature or political parties. Fahd ibn Abdul Aziz (seated in the foreground) became king of Saudi Arabia in 1982 and remained king until his death in 2005.
Getty Images/Jane Lewis / Tony Stone Images
Civilizations have powerful autonomous bodies of authority managed by formal bureaucracies. This political structure is formally known as a state. Some of the first major state societies existed in the area known as Mesopotamia, in what is now Iraq, and in ancient Egypt (see Egypt: History).
A state may claim ownership of all its territory and resources and may wage wars against other nations. Important families may rule states for several generations, though this happened more commonly in the past.But all states have distinct social and economic classes, and higher classes have greater political influence or power than do lower classes.
Families still rule some states, sometimes as royalty and sometimes as elected aristocracies (small groups, often families, deemed by citizens as qualified to rule).But many states today have elected governments not based on family lines. The citizens of these states share a common identity based on language, ideals, shared rituals, and other cultural bonds. This form of state is known as a nation.
Many national governments serve the interests of business and commerce as much as they do individuals and families. In many cases commercial corporations (businesses created through legal means) have a great deal of political influence. Corporations and large economic market exchanges control the production and distribution of goods and services, as well as transfers of money. Access to employment, not family, often determines where people live. People who cannot earn sufficient income may live in poverty, and many of the poor depend on government welfare for economic support.
C Ideological Culture
In every society, culturally unique ways of thinking about the world unite people in their behavior. Anthropologists often refer to the body of ideas that people share as ideology. Ideology can be broken down into at least three specific categories: beliefs, values, and ideals. People’s beliefs give them an understanding of how the world works and how they should respond to the actions of others and their environments. Particular beliefs often tie in closely with the daily concerns of domestic life, such as making a living, health and sickness, happiness and sadness, interpersonal relationships, and death. People’s values tell them the differences between right and wrong or good and bad. Ideals serve as models for what people hope to achieve in life.
Many people rely on religion, systems of belief in the supernatural (things beyond the natural world), to shape their values and ideals and to influence their behavior. Beliefs, values, and ideals also come from observations of the natural world, a practice anthropologists commonly refer to as secularism.
Shamanism
The shaman, right, of this tribe in Mexico applies healing techniques during a ceremony. Shamans are an important part of many cultures where they have the power to heal the sick and to communicate with the spiritual world. Shamans usually enjoy special status among their people, functioning as priests, healers, and receivers of visions.
Kal Muller/Woodfin Camp and Associates, Inc.
Religion allows people to know about and communicate with supernatural beings—such as animal spirits, gods, and spirits of the dead. Religion often serves to help people cope with the death of relatives and friends, and it figures prominently in most funeral ceremonies (see Funeral Rites and Customs).
Funeral Dance of the Dogon
Many cultures incorporate dances and other ceremonies as part of funeral rites. These rituals often are infused with religious
symbolism, sometimes representing the spirits of the underworld, sometimes representing the passage of the deceased into the next world. Here, Dogon tribesmen from Mali perform a dance that serves as part of their funeral ritual.
Hutchison Library
Peoples of many small band and tribal societies believe that plants and animals, as well as people, can have souls or spirits that can take on different forms to help or harm people. Anthropologists refer to this kind of religious belief as animism. In hunting societies, people commonly believe that forest beings control the supply of game animals and may punish people for irresponsible behavior by making animals outwit the hunt.
Temple in Bali
Life on the southern Indonesian island of Bali, in the Indian Ocean, centers around religion—a blend of Hinduism, Buddhism, Malay ancestor worship, and animism. Places of worship are numerous, and temples, such as this one in Mengwi, are found in every village. F. McConnaughey/Photo Researchers, Inc.
In many small societies, visionaries and healers known as shamans receive stories from supernatural beings and later recite them to others or act them out in dramatic rituals. As religious specialists, shamans have special access to this spirit world as well as a rich knowledge of medicinal plants. Shamans
Easter Procession, Guatemala
Guatemalan villagers in traditional Maya dress carry a statue of Jesus during an Easter procession. The major religion in Guatemala is Roman Catholicism, but many indigenous people practice traditional religions, sometimes combined with Catholic beliefs.
Ellen Beach/Bruce Coleman, Inc.
In larger, agricultural societies, religion has long been a means of asking for bountiful harvests, a source of power for rulers, and an inspiration to go to war. In early civilized societies, religious visionaries became leaders because people believed those leaders could communicate with the supernatural to control the fate of a civilization. This became their greatest source of power, and people often regarded leaders as actual gods.
Accessories of Prayer
Prayer exists in most religions, but the methods and accessories of the spiritual act differ in each religion. For example, the prayer flags (upper left) accompany Buddhist rituals in Bhutan. Other prayer aids pictured include a Tibetan Buddhist prayer wheel (upper right), a Muslim prayer rug (lower right), and a Roman Catholic rosary (lower left).
Rich Andrews/Courtesy of Ishaque Mehdi;Vladpans/Leo de Wys, Inc.;The Hutchison Library;Sarah Errington/The Hutchison Library
For example, in the great civilization of the Aztec, which flourished in what is now Mexico in the 15th and 16th centuries, rulers claimed privileged association with the powerful god Huitzilopochtli. They said that this god required human blood to ensure that the sun would rise and set each day. Aztec rulers thus inspired great awe by regularly conducting human sacrifices. They also conspicuously displayed their vast power as wealth in luxury goods, such as fine jewels, clothing, and palaces. Rulers obtained their wealth from the great numbers of craftspeople, traders, and warriors under their control.
C2 Secularism
Sir Francis Bacon
Sir Francis Bacon was the most influential and versatile English writer of the 17th century. Bacon’s range of topics included ethics, philosophy, science, law, history, and politics.
Hulton Deutsch
Many societies today interpret the natural world and form beliefs based on science and logic. Societies in which many people do not practice any religion, such as the United States, may be known as secular societies. However, no society is entirely secular.
world and rational philosophies both led people to believe that they could explain natural and social phenomena without believing in gods or spirits. Religion remained an influential system of belief, however. Both religion and science drove the development of capitalism, the economic system of commerce-driven market exchange. Capitalism itself influences people’s beliefs, values, and ideals in many present-day, large, civilized societies. In these societies, such as in the United States, many people view the world and shape their behavior based on a belief that they can understand and control their environment and that work, commerce, and the accumulation of wealth serve an ultimate good. The governments of most large societies today also assert that human well-being derives from the growth of economies and the
development of technology.
In addition, many people have come to believe in the fundamental nature of human rights and free will. These beliefs grew out of people’s faith in their ability to control the natural world—a faith promoted by science and rationalism. Religious beliefs continue to change to affirm or accommodate these other dominant beliefs, but sometimes the two are at odds with each other. For instance, many religious people have difficulty reconciling their belief in a supreme spiritual force with the theory of natural evolution, which requires no belief in the supernatural.
D Art
Landscape Painting
The Tang dynasty, from 618 to 906, was a period of growth and prosperity for the arts in China. Painting during this period was dominated by secular landscapes, although some religious works were produced. This Tang painting contains bright blues and greens and emphasizes the monumental character of the land. It is in the Avery Brundage Museum of Asian Art in San Francisco, California. Laurie Platt Winfrey, Inc./Woodfin Camp and Associates, Inc.
Art is a distinctly human production, and many people consider it the ultimate form of culture because it can have the quality of pure expression, entirely separate from basic human needs. But some
anthropologists actually regard artistic expression as a basic human need, as basic as food and water. Some art takes the form of material production, and many utilitarian items have artistic qualities. Other forms of art, such as music or acting, reside in the mind and body and take expression as performance. The material arts include painting, pottery, sculpture, textiles and clothing, and cookery. Nonmaterial arts include music, dance, drama and dramatic arts, storytelling, and written narratives.
Panpipe Music of Bolivia
Kevin Healy/"Sicuriada" from Music of the Andes and Argentina (Cat.# Music of the World T-112) (p)1988 Music of the World, Ltd. All rights reserved.
People had begun making art by at least 30,000 years ago, painting stylized animal figures and abstract symbols on cave walls (see Paleolithic Art). For thousands of years people have also adorned their bodies with ornamentation, such as jewelry, pigments, and stylized scars.
Classical Dance of South India
The southern Indian kathakali is a dance drama that dates from the 17th century and is rooted in Hindu mythology. Male dancers perform kathakali at religious ceremonies and in exhibitions for tourists. The rhythmic cycle and melodic scale of traditional southern Indian music direct the dancer’s movements. This performer wears ceremonial makeup and dress that includes a large, circular headdress made of wood.
"Kathakali Dance Theater" from Ritual Music and Theater of Kerala (Cat.# Le Chant du Monde LDX 274 010) (p)1989 Le Chant du Monde. All rights reserved./Photo Researchers, Inc.
In most societies people establish their personal and group identity through such forms of artistic
expression as patterns of dress and body adornment, ceremonial costumes and dances, or group symbols. For example, many Native American groups in the Pacific Northwest carve massive wooden totem poles as symbols of their group identity and history. The stylized figures carved into totem poles represent
important clan ancestors and stories of important historical events.
Kanganaman Mask from New Guinea
This mask from Kanganaman, Middle Sepik area, New Guinea, was meant to be worn or carried in rituals. The mask is wood with overmodeling, with cowrie shells, boar’s tusks, and human hair. It stands 59 cm (about 23 in) and is part of the collection of the Tropical Museum, Amsterdam.
Bridgeman Art Library, London/New York
Cultural Arts
Balinese artists are world renowned for their skill in carving wood and painting representations of the local mythical beings. Here a man in the village of Pujung, near Ubud, paints masks.
Sergio Dorantes
Many people also use art as a vehicle for spiritual expression or to ask for help from the spiritual world. For instance, some archaeologists believe that one of the earliest known sculptures—a voluptuously shaped female figure made in Willendorf, Austria, in about 23,000 BC and known as the Venus of Willendorf—might have been used to invoke supernatural powers to bring its makers reproductive fertility.
Chinese Jade Carving
Jade carving has a long history in China, dating from around 4000 bc. These carved jade figures represent the enlightened Buddhist being known as Guanyin. They are in a private collection.
Art Resource, NY
In large societies, governments may hire artisans to produce works that will support the political structure. For example, in the Inca Empire—which dominated the Andean region of Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina in the 15th and 16th centuries—the elite hired metalworkers and textile makers to make
exclusive gold and silver jewelry or create special clothing and adornments for them. These royal items displayed insignia that indicated high status. In contrast, non-elites wore coarse, ordinary clothing, reflecting their low status.
Venus of Willendorf
This so-called Venus figurine from the area of Willendorf, Austria, is one of the earliest known examples of sculpture, dating from about 23,000 bc. The figure, which is carved out of limestone, is only 11.25 cm (4.5 in) high, and was probably designed to be held in the hand. It is believed the Venus may be a fertility symbol, which would explain the exaggerated female anatomy.
Ali Meyer/Bridgeman Art Library, London/New York
content of artworks such as books, films, songs, dances, and paintings as intellectual property, which people own and can sell.
IV HISTORY OF THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE A Early Development
People have long been aware of cultural differences among societies. Some of the earliest accounts of culture come from the Greek historian Herodotus, who lived in the 400s BC. Herodotus traveled through the
Persian Empire, which included much of the Middle East and surrounding parts of Asia and Africa. He wrote at length about the cultural and racial diversity of these places, much of which he linked to differences in people’s environments.
For almost 2000 years following the time of Herodotus, many people attributed cultural differences to racial inheritance. The biblical account of the Tower of Babel, in which God caused people to speak new languages, also provided an explanation for cultural diversity.
At the end of the Middle Ages (5th to 15th century AD), many countries of Western Europe began sending
explorers around the world to find new sources of material goods and wealth. Prolonged contacts with new cultures during these travels sparked Europeans’ interest in the sources and meaning of cultural diversity. The English term culture actually came into use during the Middle Ages. It derived from the Latin word for cultivation, as in the practice of nurturing domesticated plants in gardens. Thus, the word originally referred to people’s role in controlling nature.
B Theories of Cultural Evolution
By the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century, many European scientists and philosophers had come to believe that culture had gone through progressive stages of improvement throughout human existence. The first anthropologists, including Tylor, also promoted such theories of cultural evolution.
Many people of the upper classes in 19th-century Victorian England used the term culture in a sense similar to its original meaning. In the Victorian usage, culture referred to the controlling of the unrefined behaviors and tastes associated with the lower classes. Thus, the Victorian term culture referred to the refined tastes, intellectual training, and mannerisms of the upper classes. However, many anthropologists, sociologists, and historians of that same period used the term civilization, from the Latin word for “citizen,” as a scientific description of what the upper classes called culture. Civilization thus also meant the
pinnacle of cultural evolution.
C 19th Century Scientific Discoveries
New scientific discoveries in the early and middle 19th century demonstrated that the world and its people had existed much longer than previously had been thought. These new ideas greatly influenced how anthropologists thought about human biological, social, and cultural development.
The accounts of the Bible had promoted the idea of a divine creation of the world sometime between 10,000 and 6,000 years ago. In contrast, the observations of Scottish geologist Sir Charles Lyell in the early 1800s led him to suggest that the earth was much older and had changed gradually over time. Lyell’s geological theories and archaeological discoveries of ancient stone tools, also in the early 1800s, influenced a number of new theories of culture.
C1 Lubbock
thought that the earlier stages were represented in the present by so-called primitive societies. His stages included the Paleolithic(Old Stone Age), the Neolithic(New Stone Age), the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. Lubbock argued that other forms of cultural development, such as in morality and spirituality,
accompanied each stage of technological development. C2 Spencer
Coinciding with the groundbreaking theory of biological evolution proposed by British naturalist Charles Darwin in the 1860s, British social philosopher Herbert Spencer put forward his own theory of biological and cultural evolution. Spencer argued that all worldly phenomena, including human societies, changed over time, advancing toward perfection. He argued that human evolution was characterized by a struggle he called the “survival of the fittest,” in which weaker races and societies must eventually be replaced by stronger, more advanced races and societies (see Race).
Although the racist and ethnocentric theory of cultural evolution promoted by Spencer did not agree with the theory of Darwin, it became commonly known by the misapplied name of social Darwinism. Social Darwinism helped European nations justify their domination of peoples around the world through
colonialism—the taking of new lands to gain natural resources and human labor (see Colonies and Colonialism).
C3 Morgan
American anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan introduced another theory of cultural evolution in the late 1800s. Morgan, along with Tylor, was one of the founders of modern anthropology. In his work, he attempted to show how all aspects of culture changed together in the evolution of societies. Thus, in Morgan’s view, diverse aspects of culture, such as the structure of families, forms of marriage, categories of kinship, ownership of property, forms of government, technology, and systems of food production, all changed as societies evolved.
Morgan called his evolutionary stages ethnical periods and labeled them Savagery (with three stages: Lower, Middle, and Upper), Barbarism (also with three stages), and Civilization. Morgan did not necessarily believe in the use of his theory to promote racism, ethnocentrism, or exploitation. But like others of his time, he considered Western civilization to be the highest form of culture. Morgan believed that race, nationality, language, and culture were all related and that Europeans were the most biologically and culturally advanced people.
D Uniqueness and Diffusionism
Franz Boas
German-American anthropologist Franz Boas, a professor at Columbia University in New York City for 37 years, helped pioneer modern anthropology. He advocated the theories that there is no pure race and that no race is superior to any other.
Corbis
