The anthropological studies of Cultural Ecology and Environmental Anthropology represents differing schools of thoughts when it comes to understanding the “making” of “culture”. Nevertheless, both Cultural Ecology and Environmental Anthropology implement the ideology of “nature”, consisting facets of landscape, geography, and the environment as the focal methodology to investigate the construction of what we know as “culture”. In this case, pioneers of Cultural Ecology such as Leslie White develop their understanding of how the physical environment directly affects the production of cultural systems and its adaptive strategies through technology advancements (White 1943: pg. 335). On the other hand, advocates of Environmental Anthropology …show more content…
343-347). To understand this hierarchical progression, White suggested that the technological component is the determinant factor that leads to social organization and develop adaptive ideologies of individuals in the group to better survive in their environment (White 1943: pg. 343-347). For example, White would suggest that cultural beliefs, practices and even societal roles can be ascertained through how a particular society build the material means of a house through the invention of technology such as “the balloon frame” or the type of wood they use to build house pillars (Cronon 1991: pg 46 -54). As opposed to White’s materialist approach, Julian Steward’s idea of Cultural Ecology was influenced by Boas’ idealist approach, introducing the idea of how human thoughts and ideologies are the determinant factor on the ways they became adaptive towards their environment. This can be examined through the potlatch tradition practiced by the natives of Pacific Coast, where distributing their goods and belongings as their cultural traditions were encouraged amongst people in the group (Orlove 1980: pg. 237). In this case, Steward would suggest that potlatch traditions were developed through mutual ideologies amongst people in the group to …show more content…
Based on the premise of Leslie White’s ideas, the relationship between the production of “culture” and what we know as “nature” seemed to be reduced and understood into one strict formula addressing the utilization of technology onto environment as the independent variable, where the production of cultural materials, beliefs, practices, were derived from this particular factor (Wardlow 2015: Lecture Notes). This is a flawed argument, because it tends to disregard and ignore facets of human free-will, and their cultural ideas that may have contributed into progressing their skills to adapt to their environment and produce cultural materials, beliefs and practices in the first place. Moreover, White’s hierarchical progression of favoring technology as the foundation of cultural progression, and imposing categories such as technology, social and ideology as separate domains gives a false differentiation and disregard their possibilities of influencing one another (Wardlow 2015: Lecture Notes). Similar critique was given towards Julian Steward’s Cultural Ecology perspective, as the idea of cultural practices and beliefs being constructed solely to adapt to their respective environment and judge on its efficiency to determine the cultural progression is
Jared Diamond, author of the Pulitzer Prize Winning, National Best Selling book Guns, Germs and Steel, summarizes his book by saying the following: "History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves." Guns, Germs and Steel is historical literature that documents Jared Diamond's views on how the world as we know it developed. However, is his thesis that environmental factors contribute so greatly to the development of society and culture valid? Traditions & Encounters: A Brief Global History is the textbook used for this class and it poses several different accounts of how society and culture developed that differ from Diamond's claims. However, neither Diamond nor Traditions are incorrect. Each poses varying, yet true, accounts of the same historical events. Each text chose to analyze history in a different manner. Not without flaws, Jared Diamond makes many claims throughout his work, and provides numerous examples and evidence to support his theories. In this essay, I will summarize Jared Diamond's accounts of world history and evolution of culture, and compare and contrast it with what I have learned using the textbook for this class.
...ctive, 2nd ed. (1971). The unique capacity for symboling that distinguishes humans from primates is discussed by Leslie A. White, "The Symbol: The Origin and Basis of Human Behavior," in his Science of Culture, 2nd ed., pp. 22-39 (1969); Ernst Cassirer, An Essay on Man: An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture (1944, reprinted 1974); and Terence Dixon and Martin Lucas, The Human Race (1982). The many conceptions of culture are discussed in A.L. Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn, Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions (1952, reprinted 1978). See also Leslie A. White and Beth Dillingham, The Concept of Culture (1973); and Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (1973, reissued 1975). The history of theory and method in social and cultural anthropology is traced in Fred W. Voget, A History of Ethnology (1975).
The culture of a community invariably determines the social structures and the formation of a society. Developed over time, culture is the collection of beliefs and values that a group of people maintain together. Culture is never constant, and thought to be continually renewed over years as new ideas and concepts become mainstream. It ranges from how people live, day to day topics for conversations, religion, and even entertainment. It is analogous to guidelines, or the rulebook of the said group of people. Society, on the other hand, emanates from the social structure of the community. It is the very institutions to which create a regulated and acceptable form of interaction between peoples. Indeed, culture and society are so perversely intertwined in a
James P. Spradley (1979) described the insider approach to understanding culture as "a quiet revolution" among the social sciences (p. iii). Cultural anthropologists, however, have long emphasized the importance of the ethnographic method, an approach to understanding a different culture through participation, observation, the use of key informants, and interviews. Cultural anthropologists have employed the ethnographic method in an attempt to surmount several formidable cultural questions: How can one understand another's culture? How can culture be qualitatively and quantitatively assessed? What aspects of a culture make it unique and which connect it to other cultures? If ethnographies can provide answers to these difficult questions, then Spradley has correctly identified this method as revolutionary.
In this research I will discuss the anthropological theorists of Clifford Geertz and of Julian Steward in regards to their ideas of culture, the environment and specifics related to each theorist ideas such as meaning and behavior. A brief overview of their respective backgrounds will be given to frame the discussion and add context to Geertz and Stewards perspectives .Furthermore, this paper will connect the ways other theorists have influenced Geertz and Steward in shaping their own understanding of culture and theories related to culture. And ultimately compare and contrast the two perspectives to each other.
In his essay, “What is Culture?”, Kluckhohn explains the differences and similarities amongst world’s peoples. To support his explanation of the differences and similarities he provides the concept of culture. It is difficult to give this concept a precise definition because the word “culture” is a broad term. Kluckhohn allows the reader to understand the concept of culture by providing examples of cultural differences along with some anthropological evidence to support his views.
Processual Archaeology, was a movement in the archaeological field that began in the 1960‘s and changed the course of archaeology forever. Anthropologists such as Julian Steward were absolutely influential on many archaeologists and anthropologists during the early 1960s with his theories of cultural ecology which established a scientific way of understanding cultures as human adaption to the surrounding environment (Steward, 1955: 36-38). It was approaches such as Stewards that led eventually led to a rejection of culture-historical approaches to the archaeological record and propelled the ideas of cultural evolution and its reaction with the environment. This approach to cultural systems was essentially a rejection of the culture-historical approach of determinism by suggesting that the environment influences culture but is not a deterministic feature and that both culture and the environment were two separate systems that are dependent on each other for change (Steward, 1955: 36).
In Clyde Kluckhohn's passage, adapted from his book, Mirror for Man, we are given an illumination of anthropology on the concept of culture. He explains that culture is not only derived by "the way we are brought up," but also personal past experiences and the biological properties of the people concerned. As humans we have learned to adapt to our own personal surroundings and have conditioned ourselves and our life styles to revolve around such surroundings by the most comfortable means possible.
It analyzes similarities and differences in various cultures and societies. Culture is learned and affects our perception of the world throughout our life. Overtime, a sense of cultural superiority is formed amongst individuals who are constantly exposed to their own culture. Anthropology can help eliminate culturally based biases, also known as ethnocentrism. It is a common practice we all in engage in when evaluating other cultures, however, by practicing anthropology this allows us to learn about other cultures by placing themselves into the cultural environment allows us to learn the traditions and customs by experience. Marjorie Shostak`s study of the !Kung people revealed that they organized themselves differently than Western cultures, which included solving conflicts with discussion, communal behavior, and basic living traditions. Moreover, by interviewing and living in this cultural environment, Shostak was able to empathize with the !Kung people and she also considered that all humans share an emotional life, which is important when studying the history of our human
Cultural anthropology has taught me a lot in such a short time. This class has been very eye opening to me and has made me think more about the different cultures around me and just how important it is to learn about them. One of the things I have learned is how religion is related to culture. Culture is behaviors of a community such as the food they make, the music they listen to, and the rituals they take part in. This can be very similar to religion because a culture is based off of their religious beliefs. Some cultures do not eat pig because it is against their religious beliefs. Some cultures listen to particular songs because it is based off of their religious beliefs. Another thing cultures relate closely to is languages. Without language
Cultural anthropology known as the comparative study of human societies and cultures and their development. Cultural anthropology is also known as the study of human cultures, their beliefs, practices, values, ideas, technologies, economies and other domains of social and cognitive organization. Cultural anthropology studies how human cultures are shaped or shape the world around them and it focus a lot on the differences between every person. Human societies has been culturally involved throughout generations because of human development and advanced. The goal of a cultural anthropology is to teach us about another culture by collecting data about how the world economy and political practices effect the new culture that is being studied. However, cultural anthropology has gave us a understanding of world affairs and world problems, the way to interpret the meaning of social actions by putting them in as much context as possible, and a deeper insight of humankind-at all times, in all places and of yourself as part of a culture.
Culture may be defined as the sum totaltotal of non-biological activities of a people. For anthropologists like Marvin Harris (1974). Culture is directly related to concrete material conditions of existence. It is a set of altitudinal and behavioral tools as well as a map of adapting to one’s environment. Culture is thus essentially adaptive. Following the concept of cultural relativism espoused by Margaret Mead (1968) it is the view of this article that culture must be seen asbe specific and valid in particular circumstances with value judgement as to its relative significance to other groups, even within the same nation-state or society. The point that is therefore being made is that there are some particularities of culture that characterize
Cultural studies closely concentrate on how a certain phenomenon connects to matters of ideology, race, social class and/or gender. Cultural studies expresses concern with everyday life practices and the meaning behind everything. One of the main aims within Cultural Studies is to go deeper with what is known to be natural to society and strong beliefs to society; there will be examples of everyday life practices such as the things we’ve naturally known because society has created meaning to it such as trees, PMS and the biological determinism society once believed to be natural, these examples will show how and why it is important to critically interrogate these practices.
Boas, F. (1930). Anthropology. In, Seligman, E. R. A. ed., Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences. Macmillan: New York.
Culture. As a society, we’re surrounded by it every day, whether we are aware of it or not. It affects what we do each day and how it lives our lives as everyone, everywhere has their own culture, their own set of beliefs and traditions that shape them, their actions, and the environment around them. Because of cultures large role in the lives of people, culture also has a large role in human geography. But there are lot of questions surrounding culture, like what exactly is culture, why are their differences in culture and what arises from those differences, and how exactly does culture interact with society to shape someone’s worldview? It is in this essay I will be answering these questions.