Essential Outcome 2: The Concept Of Culture

Culture is such a dynamic term, that it is hard to define it to a single definition. Basically though, culture is WHO we are. It defines everything we do, from our living styles, to our thoughts about each other, to what we eat, how we dress, everything! A good example is that in our culture, we have lots of fast food places that serve burgers, and we love them, and don’t think twice about eating them. However, in other cultures, such as those in India, where the cow is sacred, they view our consumption of cow meat as barbaric and cruel. We could flip that around the other way as well. An example? In our culture, we view dogs as man’s best friend, and a great loving pet. In some other cultures (maybe even India?), dog is a delicacy, and people love to eat it. We as Americans view that as wrong, gross, and disgusting, and maybe even as animal cruelty. Heck, we can go to jail for even kicking a dog here, and over in other countries they cook them and eat them and have no consequences. Thus, we have cultural differences.

Culture to me is something that is a part of us, and that is where enculturation comes into play. Enculturation pretty much is how we “learned” our culture, and put it into practice. It is what we learn is “right and wrong” in our culture, and how we learn the proper way or fashion to do things. Some of enculturation you know you are learning, and some you just learn and don’t even realize it. For example, we were talking about the elevator etiquette. Usually parents don’t go around telling their children, “Ok, now, when we get into the elevator, make sure to face the door ok?” Instead, we just observe the other people facing the door, and we follow suit. That would be one that we just instinctually learned. I believe that most of our enculturation comes from observing the others that are around us. Some of it is learned by language yes, but mostly observations.

Explicit and tacit culture are basically two different ways of thinking about culture. Something that is tacit in our culture helps shape the way that we act and behave, and can be expressed through objects. And again going back to the enculturation, and how some of it is learned without us even knowing it; as is tacit culture. As soon as we can think about something, and analyze it, it becomes explicit. For example, traffic jams. Cars and roads and transportation all play a huge role in our culture. But why do traffic jams occur? It is because too many people are heading the same direction at around the same time, thus causing congestion and traffic backup. Now, because I was able to think about that and process it, it is not tacit, because I know it is going on, and what is causing it. Mostly everything we do in our everyday lives can be considered tacit. Say for example, putting clothes on. We usually don’t think twice about putting on clothes before heading out the door, as it has been a cultural norm for us since we were little kids. And because we don’t think about that, it is considered tacit. To me, that is now explicit though, because I thought about it and typed it in this response.

Cultural events are made up of three main elements: Cultural knowledge, cultural practice, and cultural artifacts. Now, a cultural event may include more than these three things, but it must include those three at least.

There are a few main elements of cultural knowledge. Values, or what people within a culture consider to be right or wrong, whether it be actions, words, anything of that matter. A Norm is another big part, as they basically run society. It is a rule that is within a society that the people follow. Beliefs and world views are also part of it. They are basically ideas and concepts that need no explanation, as well as how the society views the world and what is going on around them. Symbols and desires are a part of it too. Symbols are signs that stand for other things, while desires tie into norms, values, and most everything else on this list. Knowledge is obviously an abstract idea, and not something you can actually see yourself.

Cultural practices are very complex. Now, yes it’s obvious that the way we act and behave can be considered a practice, but there are also more complex roots to that. Like Dr. Archer said, even speech can be a practice of its own. Or maybe perhaps thought and intuition are practices as well. So it goes beyond just what we do and can branch out into what we think as well.

Cultural artifacts can also be very simple or very complex in nature. They are the result of human actions. Obvious examples, such as a television set, are artifacts, but so are some not-so-obvious things, such as T.V. channels. Technically, that is an artifact. Although it seems like an abstract sort of thing, that just goes along with the television, a channel is its own entity and can thusly be considered an artifact of its own.

Anthropologists look for the three main elements in analyzing cultural events. A great example provided by Dr. Archer would be American football. All three elements are indeed present in American football. It has knowledge built right into it, obvious artifacts such as the football itself, football helmets, etc, and practices, maybe such as the plays that are called, or the creation of new plays.

Another example of my own could be a school. It has a hierarchical system, with the principal at the top, and the students at the bottom. So ultimately, what the principal decides to do will impact everyone down the line, all the way to the student. So, you could say that the principal, as the head of the school, would examine his cultural knowledge, choose what is right or wrong in his/her opinion, and act upon that (which is also practices). Artifacts could be the results of the principal’s actions. Say for example, there was a change in school policies, and so the principal decided to print out a newsletter to give to the teachers to hand out to the students. The newsletter could be considered an artifact that was created from the cultural knowledge and practices of the principal.

A great example including all of these elements from the assigned course material would have to be the anthropologist traveling on the commuter train to Chicago. One of the first things he noticed was that most of the people on the train were reading something, which could be considered a cultural behavior. He said that the reading was a cause of the many cultural artifacts that were around us, including the newspapers, books, tickets, and billboards. Cultural knowledge is what is embedded deeply within the subject. In the book, it talks about what the people needed to know in the first place in order to do that behavior, which was reading. They would have to know a language, how it is used in the context of reading, all the grammar rules, that they were supposed to read left to right, that a period was the end of a sentence, etc. So by sitting back and observing his surroundings, and the behavior of the people around him, he was able to successfully analyze the cultural event and break it down into its three main subcategories.