INTRODUCTION TO CULTURE STUDIES The Concept of Culture One of the two or three most complicated words in English language

(R. Williams 1976) Culture not cultivation in the arts and social graces; it refers to learned, accumulated experience The sum of total knowledge, attitudes, and habitual behaviour., patterns shared and transmitted by the members of a particular society (Linton 1940) All the historically created designs for living explicit and implicit, rational, irrational and nonrational, which exist at any given time, as potential guides for the behaviour of a man(Kluckholm and Kellt 1945) The mass of learned and transmitted motor reactions, habits, techniques, ideas and values and the behaviour they induce.(Knockber? 1948) The man-made part of the environment (Herskovits 1955) that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities, and habits acquired by a man as a member of society ( Tylor 1871) Culture is All-Encompassing [otaczajaca] Everyone is cultured, not just people with elite education. Being much more than the refinement [wyrafinowane], taste, sophistication, education and appreciation of the fine arts. Culture encompasses features that are sometimes regarded [postrzegane] as trivial or unworthy of serious study, such as popular culture. Culture is Learned Some kinds of learning we share with the other animals: -individual situational learning an animal learns from its own experience(e.g. avoiding fire) nature and culture (culture comes from agriculture, to cultivate; nature: native, nativity) culture vs. Nature; nurture vs. nature; Culture vs. civilisation (civilisation applies to technological advancement) Commonly understood, culture comprises the most valued aspects of life, mostly arts (=>Tylors definition) Social situational learning they learn from other members of the social group (e.g. birds to fly) Cultural learning based on human capacity [zdolnosc] to think symbolically

Culture is also transmitted through observation children pay attention to the things that go around them Culture is also absorbed unconsciously e.g. no one tells Latinos to stand closer together than the North Americans do. Enculturation the process by which a child learns his or her culture. As a result of common enculturation, people share experiences, memories, values, and beliefs.(enculturation unifies people by common experiences) McLuhan => culture and civilisation is an extension [przeduenie] of human body Culture is Symbolic Symbol something; verbal or nonverbal, that arbitrarily [bezwzglednie] and by convention stands for something else, with which it has no necessary or natural connections. Symbols are usually linguistic, yet there are also nonverbal symbols, such as flags, which stand for countries. Culture is Shared Culture is an attribute not of individuals but of individuals as members of groups. We learn our culture by observing, listening, talking, and interacting with other people. Enculturation -> unifies people by common experience Culture is Integrated Culture is an integrated system with each of its elements interrelated to all the others. Culture Seizes Nature Culture takes the natural biological urges and teaches us now to express them in particular ways. People have to eat, but culture teaches us what, when and how; people must eliminate wastes from their bodies, but the methods differ. Culture is Patterned Cultures are not haphazard [bezplanowy] collections of customs and beliefs but integrated, patterned systems. Customs, institutions, beliefs and values are interrelated; if one changes, others change as well. Culture is Adaptive and Maladaptive To cope with or adapt to environmental stresses, humans rely on both biological traits [cechy] nad learned, symbol-based behaviour patterns cultural adaptive kits containing customary patterns can also be maladaptive, threatening the groups continued existence (survival and reproduction). Practices adaptive or harmless for one culture may be maladaptive for another. Rules and Violation [naruszenie] Every culture teaches its members what is decent, what is worth wishing for, what

dignity [dostojnosc] is. Although cultural rules tell us what to do and how to do it, people can learn, interpret, and manipulate the same rule in different ways, with any rules being violated, (e.g. automobile speed limits) The ideal culture what people say they should do and what they do should say Universal traits are the ones that more or less distinguish [odrzniaja] Homo sapiens from other species. Biologically varied universals: a long period of infant dependency year-round (rather than seasonal) sexuality a complex brain that enables us to use symbols, languages, tools Psychological universals: growth in the womb [macica] birth itself interaction with parents and parent substitutes Particularity different cultures emphasize different things Generality one cultural generality that is present in many but not all societies is the nuclear family, a kinship group consisting of parents and children National culture International culture Ethnocentrism Culture Change any shared, relatively enduring [trwaly] transformation of culturally patterned belief or behaviour. Any given society reveals a record of transformation, a mingling [mieszanie] of continuity and change: no culture today is as it has always been. All cultures change for a variety of reasons: Change is inevitable people search for better, more efficient [efektywne] ways of doing the things they must do Change is viewed in the West as essentially good it separates us from our savage or primitive past Change and terms as progress, modernization, development are used as synonyms in the West It is to remember, though, that: there has never been change, modernization, progress or development with only benefits a benefit to someone or something invariably [niezmiennie] involves a cost to someone or something else factionalism [partyjnictwo] and divisiveness [] are common responses to changing circumstances: some people readily accept any change, only to become disillusioned by its lack of fit with their beliefs and practices: a desire is generated among the disillusioned to return to the good old days

Voluntary change based on a nondirected and basically informal interaction between individuals - occurs without specific efforts on the part of anyone to introduce or implement it. Directed, intended or planned change actively sought by a change agent who works toward the implementation or acceptance of change, with or without the willing participation of those to be affected. Some form of coercion is required to get other members of a culture group to adopt a change in their beliefs or practices; left alone, a cultural grouping would probably choose not to change any of their learned ways.

Cultural Ecology Humans are animals, and like all other animals, must maintain [utrzymywac] an adaptive relationship with their ecosystems in order to survive. Democritus (ca. 460 ca.370 BC) proposed that cultural development was based on better adaptations to the environment The general principle that adaptation operates through negative constraints [presja]. Ecological and demographic constraints (whether of diet, population, soil fertility etc.) set limits to what is viable [wykonalne]. Culture does not itself adapt to environments but is the means through which individuals adapt to their environment in a process of individual cultural innovation. ACCULTURATION 1. The modification of a culture by adopting new cultural traits from a society with different cultural traditions. 2. Cultural assimilation or replacement of one set of cultural traits by another. Commonly, material culture and technology are more easily assimilated than ideologies, religion, or language. Acculturation must be distinguished from enculturation. Enculturation refers to the process by which the developing individual learns the culture(language, norms, values etc.) of his/her group. Together with socialization, enculturation forms part of the mechanism of cultural transmission within a culture. In contrast, acculturation refers to second-culture acquisition through contact with different cultures. ACCULTURATION, the process of cultural transformation resulting from the contact of societies, generally occurs under conditions of significant inequality in the scale, power or technological complexity of the societies involved.

Acculturative change may be the consequence of : direct cultural transmission diffusion noncultural causes, such as ecological or demographic modifications induced by an impinging culture, it may be delayed, as with internal adjustments following upon the acceptance of alien traits or patterns or it may be a reactive adaptation of traditional modes of life independent invention 1.Independent invention development of the same culture trait or pattern in separate cultures as a result of comparable needs and circumstances 2. Diffusion the transfer of culture traits from one society to another, through migration, trade, war or other contact. direct: when 2 cultures intermarry, wage war on, or trade with each other or when they watch the same TV programme indirect: when products and patterns move from population A to population C via population B without any firsthand contact between A and C. A core area of sociocultural systems that is particularly responsive to ecological adaptation: -the division of labour -the size and stability of local groups -and their distribution in space -and residence rules the seasonality of climate, availability of water, or the fertility of the soil would shape how many people could live in settlements, how permanent these could be, and how the population would organize their productive efforts. Material Culture: It is not easy to distinguish the members of our species from others given the information of animal behaviour: Communication is widespread if not universal among animals, especially mammals, A few primates in the laboratory can create and manipulate symbols Tool making in the animal kingdom is far from uncommon and tool use is ubiquitous Whether other animals are self-aware or have consciousness is controversial (it has its champions) It has also been argued that some nonhuman species are culture-bearers (at least in the sense that a group perpetuates, through learning, behaviour patterns not shared by other groups of that species). What might be most distinctive and significant about our species: human life consists of ceaseless and varied interactions among people and many kinds of things; Material culture (MC) or artefacts Artifacts (artefacts in Britain) come from the Latin arte, meaning skill, and factum, meaning something done, an indirect reference to a human being (an artificer)

An artefact is any material (as distinct from spiritual or mental) phenomenon that exhibits one or more properties produced by a given species. People employ artefacts for all undertakings, interposing them between every basic need e.g. food, shelter, defence, reproduction, and establishing and manipulating social relationships and its satisfaction. Artefacts are symbols and can explain much about society: religious beliefs, forms of government, manual dexterity, level of intelligence, artistic comprehension, available natural materials, structure of commerce, and scientific and emotional sophistication of the producing society. In Western societies, even the acquisition and consumption of vegetable foodstuffs directly involves many things: Farming implements and machines, pesticides and herbicides, trucks and warehouses, packaging materials, grocery display cases, bags, automobiles, cooking and serving utensils, silverware etc. Religious ceremonies cannot be practiced without appropriate paraphernalia: special buildings, lights or candles, icons, sacred scrolls, hymn and prayer books, and priestly vestments. Humans interact not with other humans per se but with artefacts and humans compounded with artefacts almost all communication and human behaviour involve artefacts. The artefacts include portable objects, structures, domesticated plants and animals, and modifications to the human body such as tattoos and styled hair. Human agency is either implicit or explicit: natural objects such as trees, fossils, or skeletons are usually excluded from definitions of MC on the grounds that they are not man-made or man-modified (e.g. food) artefacts. The use of the term material culture first encountered in English in the 19th c., the first reference to such a concept according to the OED made in 1843 by Prescott in reference to the material civilization of Mexico. Material culture (often referred to as a mirror in which a man can see himself), can be defined in various ways: MC the actions of manufacture and use, and the theories about the production, use, and nature of material objects; MC the ideas about objects external to the mind resulting from human behaviour; the ideas about human behaviour required to manufacture these objects MC artefacts and cultural landscapes (that people create according to traditional, patterned, and often tacit concepts of value and utility) which objectively represent a groups subjective vision of custom and order; MC the totality of artefacts in a culture used to cope with the physical world, to

facilitate social intercourse, to delight our fancy, and to create symbols of meaning MC the segment of humankinds biosocial environment that has been purposely shaped by people according to culturally directed plans. Material Culture Studies (MCS) may be defined as the study of how people use objects to cope with and interpret their physical world. The principal task of MCS is an attempt to know what can be known about and from the past and present creations of humankind. Several disciplines: -art, architectural, and decorative arts history -cultural geography -the history of technology -folkloristic -historical archaeology Evidential qualities more prominent in MC evidence than in documentary evidence: -evidential precedence MC predates verbal culture by several thousand years (toolmaking preceded the invention of writing). Historians mark stages of the early human history by the kind of objects people could make: the Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron Ages the cultures where thing s were first formed out of stone and then of metal. Artefacts wear out, break down, are damaged, destroyed or lost (wood rots, metal corrodes and stone crumbles), yet MC evidence directly embodies actual historical events (artefacts have the power to stabilize experience of the past;) -three-dimensionality is a nonverbal comprehension of the significance of the mass, scale and amplitude; -wider representativeness nonverbal data may provide a way of understanding the past cultural activities of a larger majority of non-literate people -an affective (nonrational but not irrational) mode of apprehension: we can engage another culture not with our minds (the seat of our cultural biases) but with our senses (fingertip acquaintance and fingertip knowledge of the MC) Common errors in MC studies: Randomness of data survival; historical explanations are based not on all that once was but only on surviving data (not necessarily representative of their makers and users); artefacts often come totally wrenched from their original historical and cultural contexts. Difficulty of access and verification: material culture evidence cannot be easily duplicated, microfilmed, published and made widely available to other scholars. Tendency towards progressive determinism: shown in museums, artefacts often promote a view of history as a story of success and achievement, neglecting the downside of human life Proclivity of synchronic interpretation a descriptive study of objects without

reference to time duration or cultural change. The material culture of everyday life acknowledges the physical object in all its materiality and encompasses the work of design, making, distributing, consuming, using, discarding, recycling, etc. But above all it focuses on how thing have gone through all those stages as part of the meditation process between people and the physical world. The House Of all categories of MC, architecture stands out as an artefact of great complexity, but also as the context in which most other material culture is used, placed and understood. In industrialized societies, most of what matters to the people is happening behind the closed doors of the private sphere. A house encompasses an array of different materials (furniture, fixture, ornaments, decor), collectively creating the dwelling experience that is greater than the sum of its parts. They are what transform our house into our home. The house is the objectification of a relationship (Levi-Strauss) that is marriage. Activities such as cooking, eating, drinking, bringing up children, visiting and reading have a profound influence on the material life and culture of households. Space is used in coherent ways with appropriate furniture and utensils for public and private activities, some of which, notably eating and drinking, are the occasion of social contacts. Their value is reflected in the utensils used and the introduction of new, decorated tablewares, changes in eating and drinking habits, and, in the wealthier households, separately furnished rooms for eating . Clothes and textiles a particularly intimate quality as they lie next to the skin and inhabit the spaces of private life. In the MC of everyday life textiles are an embodiment of self and group identity, particularly with reference to time in relation to age, generation and stages in the life cycle. Toys, the material artefacts of play (a free activity standing quite consciously outside ordinary life as being not serious but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly [absolutnie, zupelnie](Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens) ) are hypotheses about culture which raise questions: What ideas about life, play, children, etc. does a particular toy suggest? How was it made? How was it used? Why, if it is old, did it survive? How is it related to other objects used in play? On a more specific level, the status of an individual goods has inspired particular moral critiques: - goods have been criticised for undermining control of the self (such as alcohol, tobacco and other narcotics) - goods themselves may be morally acceptable, but the way in which they are produced (by non-free or sweated labour) may be the cause of moral and political complaint; - goods have been criticized when consumed by a particular section of the

community, such as by children. The Body The threshold [prg] between Nature and Culture, between the interior subjective self (the individual) and the exterior objective world (society). The basis for a different conception of knowledge: we know with our bodies, they authenticate experience: if there is any truth, it is the truth of the body The body is the source of the most potent symbols in human cultures (e.g. the apple on my eye) Even though now everything seems related to the body body-image, bodylanguage, body-consciousness, liberation of the body there are still some obstacle [przeszkody] in the study of the body: Puritan legacy with its inhibitions on speaking about sexuality, defecation, nudity and bodily display or decay. Dualistic models of culture vs. biology and body vs. spirit (the relative importance of mind and body varies historically and culturally: e.g. prior to the 19th c. in Europe no clear conception of mental illness, such symptoms being considered either a result of sin or possession, of physical excesses, or of birth defects; hysteria in women was ascribed to the womb uterus, Greek hystera moving around the body and getting too close to the brain) Biology must be understood as culturally and historically located, to grasp the social place of the body and the ways in which we experience ourselves as embodied. The expression of human biological functions and need is culturally shaped and socially organized: we have the social construction of the body, the social control and regulation of the body, together with individual self-surveillance, i.e. controlling ones body (care of the infant is mostly care of its body, the focus in particular on the process of defecation, the most intimate area of bodily management, with the issues of control ,toilet training involved). The body is not just made up of parts: the relative importance of parts and their relationship to the whole is culturally defined (left side vs. right side: e.g. Muslims strict codification; left-handed job; but z lewej nogi; above the waist vs. below the waist ). Bodies are bearers of various social meanings, e.g. class, and gender: there are observable anatomical differences between most male and female bodies, yet, prior to the 18th c. males and females were thought to have basically the same genitalia, with the difference that females were located inside and males outside the body. The aesthetic ideals for body shape (e.g. association of muscularity and masculinity) have core cultural values encoded in them.

Body art the humans body is the oldest vehicle of humanitys creative impulses (e.g. tattooing and piercing) Marking the human body may be also the oldest practice of religion: many ancient cultures inscribed the body with protective symbols and manipulated the body in rituals designed to communicate with gods and spirits. The permanent physical change incurred during an initiation rite tattooing, scarring or circumcision permanently transforms the initiates psyche, worldview and spirituality Body modification practices (e.g. Chinese foot-binding male domination of woman, Native Americans practices of shaping infants head Flat Heads) Body mutilation has long been part of non-Christian cultures as a positive mark of identity, while in many Western cultures permanently marking the body has been considered deviant or degrading, e.g. convicts. Still, many parents circumcise their male children for aesthetic or cultural reasons and do not consider it as an act of mutilation. Many individuals who tattoo, pierce and scar their bodies wish to express their individuality, to send a message of rebellion and affinity with marginalized groups (e.g. self-harming and self-degrading behaviour of the punk subculture). The history of womens fashion provides examples of women altering their physical being (in daily acts of self mutilation) in response to the fetishizing of their bodies. These actions (subtractive but performed to achieve greater beauty and perfection in the eye of the beholder) may also be interpreted as an individual initiating herself into socially acceptable being that is construed as a sexually mature adult. These include: tweezings, depilations, starvation diets, hair cuttings, hair permings, hair straightening, facial scrubs and acid abrasions, nail clipping and cuticle trimmings, liposuctions, excisions of bony tissue, breast jobs, hip jobs and nose jobs. In some belief systems mans body mediates between earthly and spiritual elements: by painting the body or donning a mask or costume the participant assumes a different role in preparation for communication with the spiritual world, ritual adornment not only transforms the body but enhances the ability of the participant to enter altered states of consciousness (ASC) and receive divine messages. In the days of slavery in America, Anglo-European Christians, appalled at the sensuousness of the religious experience of slaves, often banned singing, drumming, and dancing, rejecting the African-influenced beliefs and practices that incorporated humans, their bodies, and other profane objects, into the religious experience. Many contemporary religions (while still encouraging ritualistic fasting, symbolic baptism, and other uses of the body to augment the religious devotion) place more importance on organised churches, leaders and texts to convey religious doctrine and provide an avenue for participation and redemption.

Fasting a religious activity; Eating disorder behaviour a quasi religious activity: manifest a quest for quasispiritual purity and transcendence (like ascetics and saints attempting to attain spiritual elevation). Anorexia and bulimia may be viewed as masochistic attempts to establish autonomy or ritualistic attempts to transform the self. Along with marriage as a relationship and economic aspects of marital life, sexuality has become a major element in the way in which marital relationship is constructed and understood. (With My Body I Thee Worship); a change from thinking about sexual activity as procreation, to seeing it as recreation, increasing the sum of human happiness. Reproduction a form of production, the product being new human being, is a social process begins before conception, continues after birth For human reproduction to take place: -parents must have material and psychological support -pregnant woman and her foetus must be nourished and protected -nursing mother and her infant must be fed and cared for -a commitment must be made to rear the newborn from infancy and childhood to adulthood To prevent the erosion of their standard of living, people often limit population growth by using means of reproductive controls, such as infanticide and nonmedical abortion (many cultures do not regard children as humans until certain ceremonies, such as naming or hair cutting). After pregnancy reproduction regulated by direct or indirect infanticide or pedicide (killing of young children) Maltreatment of foetuses and young children is a common means of lowering reproductivity. Indirect abortion heavy work loads and meagre diets are imposed on pregnant woman Direct abortion starvation diets for pregnant women Indirect infanticide inadequate feeding and careless and indifferent handling Direct infanticide more or less rapid starvation, dehydration, exposure to the elements, suffocation Prolonged lactation amenorrhea (disruption of the menstrual cycle): -mothers must be suitably nourished -beyond 6 months anaemia in infants The Costs and Benefits of Rearing Children Costs: the extra food consumed during pregnancy the work forgone by pregnant women

the expenses involved in providing mothers mi9lk and other food during infancy and childhood the burden of carrying infants and children from one place to another in more complex societies, expenditures for clothing, housing, medical care and education the birth process itself is dangerous and often the life of mother is at risk (*+ postnatal depression) Benefits(contribution that children can make): food production family income in general (work at workshop) to take care and economic security of their parents children are also valued for their role in marital exchanges and intergroup alliances people have children for sentimental reasons With industrialisation, the cost of rearing children rose rapidly (child labour laws, compulsory education statutes) parents wait longer before they receive any economical benefits from their children. Work is no longer done by family members on family farm or in the family shops Sexuality The quest for sexual pleasure motivates much of human behaviour. Anthropologists use the term gender to denote meaning associated with culturally defined sex-based identities. -human males psychological preoccupation with sex -humans have no innate breeding season Family (a woman + her children) Domestic sphere: a dwelling space, shelter, residence or household, in which certain activities take place: -preparation of food -consumption of food -cleaning, grooming, teaching and discipling the young -sleeping -adult sexual intercourse Enculturation and education increasingly carried out in special nondomestic buildings (schools) by specialists (teachers) Marriage is a relationship established between a woman and one or more persons assures that a child conceived and born under certain approved circumstance- is accorded full birth rights Legitimacy Marriage is the licensing of parenthood (Bronisaw Malinowski) few peoples concern themselves whether a child is legitimate more important is who will have the right of controlling the childs future.

Matrilineality (father is always uncertain) vs. Partilineality the mother has greater access to sources of income than the biological father fathers access to sources of wealth and income depends on migration or absence from home for extended periods mother has the greater access to housing migration or higher mortality of males leads to a shortage of males available for marriage Incest- sexual intercourse between persons so closely related that they are forbidden by law to marry *Freud children and parents of the opposite sex have a strong sexual attraction towards each other endogamy exogamy Principal Forms of Human Marriage monogamy 1 spouse for the whole life serial monogamy 1 spouse, remarriage after his/her death or divorce polygamy more than 1 spouse at a time polyginy more than 1 wife at a time polyandry more than 1 husband at a time consensual marriage (common law marriage) The extended family a domestic group of siblings, spouses and their children or parents and married children Extended families control the productive, reproductive and sexual functions of their members. Individuals serve the interests of the group marriage seen in the context of group interests Matrifocal households mother-child domestic groups: girls marriedearly to much older men high rates of widowhoodwhile children are still young (also produced by war fare and political unrest) Nuclear family parents+ children

Food production Hunting and gathering/ foraging - the only mode of food production until end of Stone Age (ca 12,000 years ago). Organized into small groups called bands (20 to 50 people). Ecological and social factors: carrying capacity of the land, the number of people who can be supported by the available resources at a given level of food getting techniques, density of social relations- more people means a higher social density, more opportunities for conflict.

Band life essentially migratory accommodate places of residence to naturally available food sources. Movement done within a fixed territory. Long-term adjustments to resources must be made. In the long run, it may be more adaptive for a group to keep its numbers low infanticide, abortion, and the use of various herbal drugs which may interfere with fertility of conception. Farmers have available a variety of foods which can b e used as baby foods, which hunters and gatherers lack. In stead of nursing children for 3 or 4 years, mothers wean them earlier. Prolonged nursing of children does not completely eliminate ovulation, but it has a significant dampening effect. Moreover, prolonged nursing is often found in association with a taboo against sexual intercourse, shelters are temporary and possessions are few. most known hunting and gathering peoples unagressive more emphasis on cooperation than on competition. 3 crucial elements of human social organization: Sexual division of labour Hunting- universally male occupation. The tasks of women less dangerous, require less rapid and prolonged mobility. Food sharing on a regular basis is really a way of storing food for the future, hunters generosity gives him a claim of the future surpluses of other hunters. Importance of the camp as the centre of daily activity and the place where foodsharing actually occurs. Egalitarian society an important characteristic of the hunter-gatherer society is its egalitarianism. Hunters-gatherers are usually highly mobile and, lacking animal or mechanical means of transportation, they must be able to travel without any encumbrances, especially on foodgetting expeditions. Their material goods must be limited to the barest essentials, which include weapons that serve for hunting, fighting, building and toolmaking and cooking utensils, traps, and nets. There is little chance for the accumulation of luxuries or surplus goods, and the fact that no one owns significantly more than another helps to limit status differences. Age and sex are usually the only sources of important status differences. Pastoralism - Pastoralists are people who raise domesticated animals and who do not depend on hunting, gathering or the planting of their own crops for a significant portion of their diets. Pastoralists typically occupy arid grasslands and steppes where precipitation is too sparse or irregular to support rainfall agriculture and where water for irrigation is not available. If one feeds grain (wheat, barley or maize) to animals rather than to people And then eats the meat, much of the energy available in the grains will be lost. 2 basic types of pastoralists: transhumance those who move their livestock in a seasonal pattern in relation to seasonal changes in (grale) Nomadic pastoralists herd and people moving from one place to another migrations over vast distances (Mongols, Huns) Food production ward work of some members of the group could provide food for all, thus freeing certain people to devote their time to harvesting and digging tools, pottery for storage and cooking, clothing made of woven textiles and housing made of stone, wood or sun dried bricks were some of the results of this combination of

new needs and altered division of labour. Horticulture small communities of gardeners working with simple hand tools and using neither irrigation nor the plough. Horticulturists typically cultivate several varieties of crops together in small gardens they have cleared by hand. slash-and-burn Intensive agriculture techniques as irrigation, fertilizers and the wooden or metal plow pulled by harnessed draft animals to produce food on larger plots of land. Animals manure as fertilizer mixed farming. With the advent of the industrial era, soil fertility came to depend primarily on chemical fertilizers, eliminating the need for raising animals and crops on the same farm. Improved agricultural techniques higher crop yields- increased population an agricultural settlement may grow into a city: an entirely new way of life, intense specialization of labour. City dwellers must adapt to living and getting along with their fellow urbanities. Society becomes stratified and people are ranked according to the kind of work they do, or the family they are born into. Culinary culture attitudes and tastes people bring to cooking and eating. Theories: Functionalism foodways expressed or symbolised a pattern of social relations food-seeking activities fostered cooperation within the human group. Structuralism- taste is culturally shaped and socially controlled. The funcionalists look at food, the structuralists examine cuisine. Levi-Strauss culinary triangle relating the 3 poles of the raw, the cooked and the rotten (nature vs. culture) - Food categories encode social events- they express hierarchy, inclusion and exclusion, boundaries and transactions across boundaries. - Unlike specialized eaters, an omnivore can live on different foodstuffs and dietsand so to adapt to changes in its environment On the other hand, unlike specialised eaters, an omnivore cannot obtain all the nutrients it needs from one food; it has a need of some minimum variety. Developmentalism probably the first cooked food consumed by hominids were seeds and meat accidentally roasted and found in naturally occurring wildfires. Cooking opened up new food resources, broadening the range of the edible vegetable matter in particular available for human consumption On the other hand, the regular consumption of a wide range of cooked food most probably influenced the biology of the human digestive system in the long run. The control of fire in general applies even more to cooking: it became exclusively and universally a human skill requiring social organization and cultural transition. No human group eats everything of potential nutritional value available to it. They all have patterns of preference and aversion, but how are these to be explained? The inefficiency of meat-production compared with grain production as a means of generating nourishment for humans: if grain is consumed by cattle, 9 out of 10 of the calories in the grain and 4 out of 5 grams of protein are lost for human consumption. Once food supplies were more plentiful and reliable, the aristocratic overeating

stopped self-control more valued than the brute capacity to stuff social disapproval of obesity, for females especially, the social pressure towards lef restraint and ever thinner body. Religion (the word religion from relegere to read again or from religare to bind?) Religion: beliefs and behaviour patterns to control the area of the universe beyond control belief in supernatural beings and forces mans relation to that which he regards as holy (holy need not to be supernatural(no polytheistic religion recognizes a single divine ruler of the universe) or personal (there are religions, such as Hinayana Buddhism, in which beliefs in personal deities play no role at all)) Relation to the holy: worship (prayer, sacrifice, contemplation, magic, incantation) moral conduct right belief participation in religious institutions Every religion has some of those elements: rituals to perform formulas to recite tales to narrate objects to manipulate places to frequent avoid holy days to keep natural phenomena by which to predict the future charismatic leaders to follow truths to affirm a literature to ponder precepts to obey Religion-making characteristics: 1. Belief in supernatural beings (gods) A distinction between sacred and profane objects Ritual acts focused on sacred objects. A moral code believed to be sanctioned by gods. Characteristically religious feelings (awe, sense of mystery, sense of guilt, adoration) Prayer and other forms of communication with gods Worldview of the world and of the individual Organization of ones life based on the worldview A social group bound together by the above a church or a community of believers who share common symbols and practices and are held together.

Religion social functions: sanctions a wide range of conduct by providing notions of right and wrong (taboos) set precedents for acceptable behaviour serves to lift the burden of decision making from individuals and places the responsibility with the gods maintaining social solidarity serves education ritual ceremonies enhance learning of tribal lore Myth the basis of the worldview Cosmogonic myth the story of the first creation Christians are taught to regard the cross and the consecrated bread and wine with reference by being told of the Crucifixion and the Last Supper. Types of religion: Individualistic do-it-yourself religion Shamanistic shaman (in Tungus language) the part-time religious specialist consulted in times of stress and anxiety; diviners, curers, spirit mediums, magicians, psychologically predisposed toward hallucinatory experiences: shamanistic trance, possession. Communal no full-time religious specialists- groups (age grades, mens societies, clans or lineages) of non-specialists assume responsibility for regular or occasional performance of rituals deemed essential (e.g. Sun Dance of the Indians of the Plains) Communal rites 2 major categories : rites of solidarity (or intensification) participation enhances the sense of group identitiy; seasonal rituals annual ceremonies to seek favorable conditions surrounding such critical activities as planting and harvesting, e.g. funerary ceremonies social readjustment after the loss of the deceased rites of passage (separation-seclusion-return) celebrate the social movement of individuals; give communal recognition to the new relationships: reproduction; the achievement of manhood and womanhood; marriage; death totems objects identifying group (usually animal names and emblems); members of the group must refrain from harming or eating their totem. Ecclesiastical hierarchy of full-time specialists clergy or priests associated with and under control of a central temple. The more highly centralized the political system, the more highly centralized the ecclesiastical bureaucracy. Material support related to privileges of taxation (tithe). Supernatural beings:

-major deities (gods and goddesses) great but remote beings -nonhuman spirit beings, and -ancestral spirits (the number of a persons souls varies cross-culturally) Animism a belief in spiritual beings (Latin anima soul) other than ancestors, who are believed to animate all of nature Animatism belief in an impersonal life force in people, animals, and objects, which gives mana , the capacity to be powerful and successful Revitalisation movements attempts to change the society under politicaleconomic stress (e.g. Indian Ghost Dance) these movements are sometimes refered to as: nativistic, revivalistic, millenarian (from Millennium), or messianic (from Messiah) Magic belief that supernatural powers can be made to act in certain ways through the use of certain prescribed formulas: James Frazer separated magic from religion: Magic the course of nature determined by the operation of immutable laws acting mechanically. If participants think that they are in control of the forces governing events, feel certain about the outcome, and experience no need for humble supplication their beliefs and practices are magic. Religion the course of nature is variable, the conscious beings who control it can change its course for the benefit of the worshiper. When participants insecure inclined to supplicate and request favours and dispensations their beliefs and actions were essentially religious. Not all cultures approach their gods as supplicants. In many cultures, people try to intimidate, bribe, and lie to their gods. Frazer thought magic based on pseudoscience casual relationships- post hoc ergo propter hoc, also pars pro toto 2 principles: (a). sympathetic magic like produces like (b) the law of contagion (by contact qualities are assumed) Witchcraft (wizardry) [from OE witan to know comp. Polish wiedma with wiedzie] explanation for unwanted events Sorcery witchcraft for evil purposes (black magic vs. white magic) Divination learning the future (literally: learning the will of gods) tossing the coin, bibliomancy etc. Dimensions of Culture Much theorizing and research has been devoted to cultural difference, in an attempt to reduce the variety of its manifestations to a small set of certain variables, usually related to deep culture underlying values, worldviews and ways of social organization which facilitates differentiation of culture more fruitfully than on the basis of surface differences (dress or food). A number of dimensions of culture help

in differentiating national cultures: 1) Individualism-collectivism (IC) is defined by the extent to which individuals behaviours are influenced and defined by others: individualists prefer self-sufficiency collectivists stress their interdependent roles and obligations to the group Whereas: in individualistic societies loosely knit social frameworks people primarily operate as individuals or in their immediate families in collectivistic societies tight networks people operate as members of ingroups and outgroups The behaviours of persons in collectivistic culture are determined by cognitions that are related to the survival and benefit of their collective. A member of a collectivistic culture who identifies with the group may offer personal opinions by using the pronoun we when stating a personal opinion. Relational behaviour determining the relevance of others: for people in collectivistic cultures the relationship prevails over task for people in individualistic cultures the task prevails over the relationship In western civilization human beings have tended towards the self-celebration (positive or negative). In oriental thought another alternative is represented, that of harmony between man and nature (possible explanation of the lower heart-attack rates among unacculturated than acculturated Japanese-Americans). In Hostedes study (1982) of individualism in non-communist countries, the 9 most individualistic were: the US, Australia, the UK, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Italy, Belgium and Denmark (all western or European cultures 5 of the top are Anglo cultures, France 11th, Germany-15th). The 9 least individualistic were: Venezuela, Colombia, Pakistan, Peru, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Chile and Hong Kong (all oriental or South American cultures). Collectivists tend to: subordinate personal to collective goals be concerned about the results of their actions on members of their ingroups; share resources with ingroup members feel involved in the lives of ingroup members feel interdependent with ingroup members Individualists give priority to personal goals over the goals of collectives. Collectivists are willing to fights and die to maintain the integrity of the ingroup usually the family, yet tribe, coworkers, co-religionists, and members of the same political and social collective can also function as important ingroup. When the state is under threat, it becomes the ingroup. Whereas the people in collectivistic cultures may suppress both positive and negative emotional displays that are contrary to the mood of the group because maintaining the group is a primary value, people in individualistic cultures are encouraged to express emotions because individual freedom is of paramount value.

Child-rearing parents are unlike in collectivistic and individualistic cultures: Parents in collectivistic cultures stress obedience, reliability, proper behaviour Parents in individualistic cultures stress self-reliance, independence and creativity. Exposure to other cultures(e.g. through travel or through social heterogeneity) increases individualism: the child becomes aware of different norms and has to choose his or her standard of behaviour. Competition tends to be interpersonal in individualistic and intergroup in collectivistic cultures: Conflict frequently found: in family relationships in individualistic cultures between families in collectivist cultures Collectivists are not as effective in meeting strangers as are individualist: manipulation and exploitation of outgroups is common in collectivistic cultures. When competing with outgroups, collectivists are more competitive than individualists even under conditions when competitiveness is counterproductive. Conflicts arise in all cultures; however, there are cultural differences in what people perceive as cause of conflict In LC, individualistic cultures, people usually interpret the source of conflicts as instrumental in nature people can argue over task oriented issues and remain friends In HC, collectivistic cultures, people see conflict arising from expressive sources, because the person and the issue are not separated, it is difficult to have the open disagreement without one or both parties loosing face. Dealing with conflict: people in individualistic cultures prefer direct style of such as dominating, controlling, and/or solution-orientation people in collectivistic cultures prefer indirect styles of dealing with conflicts that allow all parties to preserve face, they tend to use obliging and smoothing styles of conflict resolution or avoid the conflict altogether. An impact of IC on the nonverbal behaviour: (1)People from individualistic cultures are relatively remote or distant proximically Collectivistic cultures are interdependent, and, as a result, they work, live, play and sleep in close proximity to one another. Hunters and gatherers lived apart in individ. nuclear families. In agricultural societies the interdependent extended family began to live in close proximity in large family of tribal units. Urban-industrial societies returned to the individ., nuclear families, and lack of proximity to ones neighbours, friends and co-workers. (2)Kinesic behaviour is synchronized in collect. cultures where families work together, movements, schedules, and actions need to be highly coordinated. In urban cultures, family members often do their own thing, working and playing, eating and sleeping on different schedules.

(3)People in individualistic cultures smile more that in collectivistic cultures; -individualists are responsible for their relationships and their own happiness, whereas -collectivists regard compliance with norms as primary value and personal or interpersonal happiness as secondary value. In individualistic cultures people exchange compliments more frequently than in collectivistic cultures: they meet people easily and are able to cooperate with them even if they do not know them well. In collectivistic countries where traditional social ties (betw. extended family members) continue to exist, people have less of a need to make friendships: ones friends are predetermined by the social relationships into which one is born. However, in the more individualistic countries, affective relationships, not socially predetermined, must be acquired by each individual personally (4)The song-and-dance styles of a country are related to its level of social cohesion and collectivism: collectivistic cultures show both more cohesiveness in singing and more synchrony in their dance style than do individualistic cultures (rock dancing, emphasizing separateness and doing your own thing, evolved in the individualistic cultures such as those in the UK and the US) 2)Masculinity/femininity (MAS) Masculine traits strength, assertiveness, competitiveness and ambitiousness Feminine traits affection, compassion, nurturance and emotionality. High-MAS cultures endorse: assertiveness, competition and aggressive success, Low-MAS cultures prefer: modesty, compromise and cooperative success HMAS societies reward financial and material success with social prestige and status, and attribute strong character and spiritual values to high achievers. In LMAS societies, a high standard of living is believed to be a matter of luck, birth or destiny. Countries with HMAS show high levels of stress. In HMAS culture the ratio of women in technical and professional jobs is low, the segregation of the sexes in higher education is high. The 9 countries with the highest MAS scores (most MAS first): Japan, Austria, Venezuela, Italy, Switzerland, Mexico, Ireland, Great Britain, Germany. The 9 countries with the lowest MAS scores: Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Chile, Portugal, Thailand. Most countries are more feminine (i.e. nurturant, compassionate) than the US, and people of both sexes in the US frequently seem loud, aggressive and competitive by world standards.

3)Power Distance PD is defined by the degree of separation between people of various social statuses; PD is the tendency to see a large difference between those with power and those without power: Low PD cultures endorse egalitarianism High PD cultures endorse hierarchies High Power Distance Index (HPDI) culture power and influence are concentrated in the hands of few. In HPDI societies relations between unequals are formal, information flow is formalised and restricted (collectivists tend to be HPDI). In Low Power Distance Index (LPDI) societies relations are open and informal, information flows are functional and unrestricted. The 9 countries with the highest PDI (highest first): the Philippines, Mexico, Venezuela, India, Singapore, Brazil, Hong Kong, France, Colombia The 9 countries with the lowest PDI (lowest first): Austria, Israel, Denmark, New Zealand, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Switzerland: European, middle-class democracies located at high latitudes. Latitude and climate are major forces in shaping cultures: in colder climate cultures have to be more tolerant and less autocratic to ensure cooperation and survival; technology is needed. PDI affects the nonverbal behaviour of a culture: HPDI cultures (e.g. India and its rigid caste system) may severely limit interaction (Indias untouchables) Kinesic behaviour differs: in HPDI countries more body tension shown by the subordinates who also smile often in an effort to appear polite and to appease superiors. People in LPDI countries are unaware that vocal loudness may be offensive to others, the vocal tones of Americans perceived as noisy, exaggerated and childlike. 4)High Context and Low Context communication In High Context Cultures (HCCs) (China, Japan and Korea, also Southern and Eastern Mediterranean People Greeks, Turks, Arabs) people rely heavily on the overall situation to interpret messages the explicitly spoken messages can be elliptical; most of the information either in the physical context or internalised in the person. Nonverbal communication (NonVerbCom) provides the context for all communication, but people from HCCs are particularly affected by contextual cues: facial expression, tensions, movements, speed of interaction, location of the interaction. People from HCCs are perceived as nondisclosive, sneaky and mysterious. In Low-Context Cultures (LCC) (the Swiss, Germans, North Americans and Scandinavians) people rely more on the active exchange of overt, explicit, verbal content of messages: communicated information is vested in the coded, explicit, transmitted part of the message: people from LCCs are perceived as excessively talkative, belabouring the obvious, and using redundancies. LCCs are concerned with

specifics, details, and precise time schedules. LCCs, particularly the men, rely less on NonVerbCom. People in HCCs adopt a role-orientated style, emphasising the social roles that the participants hold: work meetings in eastern countries are very formal by Western standards; interaction is formal and ritualistic. People in LCCs use a personal style, emphasising personal identity over social position. As role relationships and status differences are less important, communication is less formal and often more intimate. 5)Uncertainty avoidance (UA) the extent to which a culture prefers to avoid ambiguity and the way in which it resolves uncertainty: High UA cultures prefer rules and set of procedures to contain the uncertainty. In high-UA societies, families, groups and organizations tend to be closed to outsiders, to stress compliance and obedience, to punish error and non-conformity, and to reward conformity, loyalty and attention to detail. Low-UA cultures tolerate greater ambiguity and prefer more flexibility in their responses. Low-UA societies tend to accept outsiders at all levels, stress personal choice and decision making, reward initiative, team play and risk taking; stress the development of analytical skills. Countries highest on UA are Greece and Portugal (Southern European) and Guatemala nad Uruguay (South American). The 6 lowest on UA are 4 small nations (Hong Kong Ireland, Jamaica, Singapore) and 2 Scandinavian countries. The UK is low (7th from the lowest), so is the US at 11th, Germany is about halfway and France is 13th from the highest. Worldview Religion plays an important role in creating a world picture and in relating it to the ethos. Ethos and worldview are mutually supportive. All humans hold worldviews and modes of thought. Fundamental to all worldviews are abstract beliefs about human nature. The World view of a people is their way of looking at reality. It consists of basic assumptions and images that provide a more or less coherent, though not necessarily accurate, way of thinking about the world. The senses can only receive information which is compatible with physical and structural aspects of the nervous system. The world as dogs perceive it is quite different from that of humans human and canine nervous system process information differently (dogs rely on smell to a much greater extent than do humans world smell) The first requirement for a worldview is the presence of an entity discernibly distinct from its environment the Self. A worldview comprises images of self and of all that is recognised as not-Self, plus ideas about relationships between them. The Self an entity discernibly distinct from its environment whose presence is the first requirement for a world view.

The particular solution to who am I? problem that every human group must solve functions as a core cultural area, influencing both individual psycho-sociological mechanisms and social practices and institutions. The concept of the Self consists of 2 aspects: (1)Awareness of Self as distinct from surroundings (2)The notion of relationship between Self and surroundings The Self may be coterminous with: the body (e.g. Western view) or a group such as the family or the tribe (African and Asian view) Corresponding to a body-bounded self may be a name (as in the West). One major distinction among aspects of the self is between: the private self an assessment of the self by the self (e.g. I am introverted, I am honest I will buy X ) the public self - an assessment of the self by the generalised Other (e.g. People think I am introverted, People think I will buy X) the collective self an assessment of the self by a specific reference group (e.g. family, co-workers, tribe, scientific society), for instance my family thinks I am introverted, My co-workers believe I will buy X The selves are likely to be complex: -the private self in families which urge finding yourself -the public self in cultures where families emphasize what other people will think about you -the collective self in cultures where specific groups are emphasized during socialization (e.g. remember you are a family remember you are a Christian) 2 construals of Self independent and interdependent Construals of the self can be dramatically different across cultures: -in US standing out and asserting ones self is a virtue (It is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease) -in many other parts of the world (Japan, China, Korea, Poland?) standing out often leads to being punished (the nail that sticks up shall get pounded down) In contemporary, secularised, Western, urban, white middle-class cultures the self is conceived of as an autonomous bounded entity, and there is an assumption of the inherent separateness of individuals. It is important to be unique, to express the self, to realize and actualise the inner self, to promote ones own goals. Under this independent construal of self, individuals tend to focus on their own internal attributes their own preferences, traits and abilities. By contrast, many Asian cultures neither assume nor value such an overt separateness among people, instead emphasizing what may be called the fundamental connectedness of human beings. The primary normative task is to adjust oneself so as

to fit in and maintain the interdependence among individuals. From this interdependent construal of self, individuals tend to focus on their interdependent status with other people and strive to meet the duties, obligations, and social responsibilities. Americans are socialised to believe that they are independent, autonomous, and free from social influence. Further, they come to believe that they have preferences and distinctive attributes and that they must express them. As a consequence Americans are motivated to feel unique and special, and to experience positive self-feelings, and when this happens, they feel satisfied with their lives. In contrast, Japanese, rather than trying as Americans to feel good about themselves, are socialised to be interdependent, connected and concerned with others, and to be constantly aware of relationships. Positive feelings attributed to the inner self are not primary satisfaction of life. Self enhancement and self-effacement Self-enhancement seems highly pervasive in American culture: Americans tend to see themselves in a positive light successes are attributed to factors such as ability and effort, that are internal to the self, whereas failures are attributed to factors, such as task difficulty and absence of good luck, that are relatively unstable over time and external to the self. This works to protect or enhance self-esteem Self-effacement: the Japanese tend to attribute their success to the factors that were either unstable over time, external to the self, or both (such as the ease of task, luck, and the mental or physical shape of the self on that particular day). Moreover, they tend to explain their failures primarily by a lack of their own effort a factor that was internal to the self. Self effacement may be seen as a tactical self-presentation designed to convince others that one is modest a desirable trait in Asian cultures. There may be differences in the meaning of happiness or general satisfaction in life, which may derive primarily from ones recognition that one has adequately performed the culturally sanctioned task of: -independence (in the US, general happiness more highly correlated with good feelings based on individual achievement than those based on close interpersonal relationships); or -interdependence (in Japan there was no correlation between general happiness and good feeling derived from individual or personal achievement) The core cultural ideas of a given society give rise to a variety of customs, practices, institutions, rules, norms of the society: -to appreciate the natural rights of each individual (e.g. The Declaration of Independence guarantees certain inalienable rights: life, liberty and pursuit of happiness); an array of legal statutes protecting individual rights. -the capacity to make ones own choice: in North America it is a commonplace at a party that a host will instruct her guests, Help yourself! (the Japanese host would do his best preparing and offering what he sees the best possible treat for the guest)

PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 21