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Culture is the patterns of learned and shared behavior and beliefs of a particular social, ethnic,
or age group. It can also be described as the complex whole of collective human beliefs with a
structured stage of civilization that can be specific to a nation or time period. Humans in turn use
culture to adapt and transform the world they live in.
"Petty apartheid": sign on Durban beach in English, Afrikaans and Zulu (1989)
The concept of Culture vs. culture becomes more complex when it comes to how the two terms
are misinterpreted and misused. Originally the overlap of the two concepts had a positive effect,
especially during colonial times; it helped spread the idea that vulnerable seemingly primitive
and uncivilized cultures had some intrinsic value and deserved protection from other more
dominating cultures. But there are drawbacks to this mentality, as it assumes first that culture is a
static thing that it can be preserved, unchanged by the changing people and times it runs into. It
also assumes that the people accept at face value and do not wish to change their patterns or
ways of life. If people then do change, often they are criticized by member from within and
outside their own culture for not valuing authenticity and tradition. This relates to the Culture
vs. culture in that anthropologys focus and appreciation of Culture and how it develops
differently can be twisted when talking about Cultural relativism or human rights. Appreciation
and defense of Culture does not imply blind tolerance to all aspects of all cultures. A pertinent
example of this would be Female Genital Cutting and how as an aspect of little c culture, it can
be examined and judged a violation of human rights. This does not however, diminish an
anthropologists appreciation for the ability of the human being to develop Culture.
An example of how defense of culture has been misused is in apartheid South Africa, where the
white supremacist government justified the oppression of black Africans, or the bantu peoples
because their aim was a higher Bantu culture and not at producing black Europeans. They
argued that not race but culture was the true base of difference, the sign of destiny. And cultural
differences were to be valued. In such cases, the abuse of the term is clear, in that they were
using it as a basis for unequal treatment and access to services such as education.
Levels of culture
Familial culture
Familial culture is how you express culture as a family through traditions, roles, beliefs, and
other areas. Many aspects can influence a family culture such as religion, and the community
around you. Religion can strongly influence family culture, which can be demonstrated by the
Catholic religion in many Hispanic countries. Most Hispanic cultures practice Catholic beliefs
and within a family these beliefs are practiced to different degrees. For example, one family may
go to the catholic mass every week while some may only go once a month. This can all depend
on the standards and cultural norms for a given community. Every family is different, and every
family has its own culture.
Familial culture is also passed down from generation to generation and this means that it is both
shared and learned. It is shared because as a family grows, new generations are introduced to
traditional family practices and then it becomes a routine to that new generation. Familial culture
is learned by means of enculturation which is the process by which a person learns the
requirements of the culture that he or she is surrounded by. With enculturation an individual will
also learn behaviors that are appropriate or necessary in their given culture. The influences of
enculturation from the family direct and shape the individual.
joining the Army. This long standing tradition of serving in the armed forces is an important
aspect of familial culture because it shows the connection of the generations of the royal family
of Great Britain through the years.
Micro or Subculture
Micro or Subculture- distinct groups within a larger group that share some sort of common
trait, activity or language that ties them together and or differentiates them from the larger group.
A micro or subculture is also not limited on how small it can be. It could be defined similarly to a
clique. An example of this could be Mexican-Americans within the U.S. society. They share the
same language, but they are found in a larger whole. This is similar the subculture of an African
American, they are fully accepted in the American culture but are also capable of also
maintaining a individual smaller culture too. An example of a micro-culture would be the
Japanese hip hop genba (club site) that is becoming more and more popular throughout Japanese
cities.[2] Although rap started in the United States, it has created its own unique appearance and
style in the Japanese youth culture today. The physical appearance of rappers may be the same to
those in the States, however the content of the music differs along with the preservation of
Japanese traditions.
Cinco de Mayo dancers greeted by former Pres. George W. Bush."The holiday, which has been
celebrated in California continuously since 1863, is virtually ignored in Mexico."[3]
Cultural universals
Cultural universals ( which has been mentioned by anthropologists like George Murdock,
Claude Levi-Strauss, Donald Brown and others) can be defined as being anything common that
exists in every human culture on the planet yet varies from different culture to culture, such as
values and modes of behavior. Examples of elements that may be considered cultural universals
are gender roles, the incest taboo, religious and
healing ritual, mythology, marriage, language, art, dance, music, cooking, games, jokes, sports,
birth and death because they involve some sort of ritual ceremonies accompanying them, etc.
Many anthropologist and socialists with an extreme perspective of cultural relativism deny the
existence or reduce the importance of cultural universals believing that these traits were only
inherited biologically through the known controversy of nurture vs. nature. They are mainly
known as "empty universals" since just mentioning their existence in a culture doesn't make them
any more special or unique. The existence of these universals has been said to date to the Upper
Paleolithic with the first evidence of behavioral modernity.
Residents of Vanuatu making fire. The use of fire for cooking is a human cultural universal
Dance is a great example of a cultural universal because it exists in every culture as form of
expression, social interaction, or presented in a spiritual or performance setting. Traditional
dances found in Mexico are quite different from those found in the United States. American style
dancing includes Flat Foot Dancing, Hoofing, Buck Dancing, Soft Shoe, Clogging, Irish SeanNs Dance, and Irish Jig. Because these forms of dance are not commonly found on stage, in the
media, or taught in the dance schools, it has received minimal attention and its practice has
significantly decreasing compared to its past popularity. Mexico on the other hand had a
traditional style of dance called Ballet Folklorico which reflects different regions and folk music
genres. These dances are widely known and are constantly being taught in schools and performed
during festivities such as Cinco de Mayo.
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