Unit Three: Human Culture and Ties

That Connect Society

3.1. Conceptualizing Culture: What

Culture is and What Culture isn't
 Definition of Culture
• The term culture is not used with consistent meanings. It is
used with various meanings in common-sense.
• A widely accepted and the more comprehensive definition of
culture was provided by the British anthropologist Edward B.
Tylor.
• He defined culture as “a complex whole which includes
knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other
capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of
society”.
• B. Malinowski has defined culture ―as cumulative creation of
man".
• Combining several of these definitions, we may define culture
as the common way of life shared by a group of people. It
includes all things beyond nature and biology.
 3.2 Characteristic Features of Culture
a) Culture Is Learned: Culture is not transmitted genetically; it is
acquired through the process of learning or interacting with
one‘s environment.
• Enculturation is defined as the process by which an individual
learns the rules and values of one‘s own culture.
• b) Culture Is Shared: For a thing, idea, or behavior pattern to
qualify as being cultural it must have a shared meaning by at
least two people within a society.
• for a society to operate effectively, the guidelines must be shared
by its members.
 c) Culture Is Symbolic

• A symbol is something verbal or nonverbal, within a particular

language or culture that comes to stand for something else.
• There would be no obvious, natural, or necessary connection
between the symbol and what it symbolizes.
• Many symbols are powerful and trigger behaviors or emotional
states.
• Eg. the designs and colors of the flags of different countries
represent symbolic associations with abstract ideas and
concepts of nation, freedom etc.
• d) Culture Is All-Encompassing: Culture encompasses all
aspects, and when we talk about a particular people‘s culture,
we are referring to all of its man and woman- made objects,
ideas, activities whether those of traditional, old time things of
the past or those created lately. Culture is the sum total of
human creation.
 e) Culture Is Integrated..
• Cultures are not haphazard collections of customs and beliefs.
• A culture is a system, change in one aspect will likely generate
changes in other aspects. For example change in production
technology may bring change in life styles of the society and
ideologies.
• A good way of describing this integrated nature of culture is by
using the analogy between a culture and a living organism.
• The physical human body comprises a number of systems, all
functioning to maintain the overall health of the organisms,
(such system as the respiratory system, the digestive system,
the skeletal system, excretory system, the reproductive system,
and lymphatic system.)
 f) Culture Can Be Adaptive and Maladaptive
• Humans have both biological and cultural ways of coping with environmental
stresses.
• The ability to adapt to any of the ecological conditions, makes humans
unique. adaptive behaviour that offers short-term benefits to particular
subgroups or individuals may harm the environment and threaten the
group's long term survival.
Eg. Automobiles permit us to make a living. But the chemical emitted form the
by-products of such "beneficial" technology create new problems (increase
air pollution, deplete the ozone layer, and contribute to global warming.)
• Overconsumption and pollution appear to be maladaptive in the long run.
g) Culture is Dynamic: There are no cultures that remain completely static year
after year. Culture is changing constantly as new ideas and new techniques
are added as time passes modifying or changing the old ways. This is the
characteristics of culture that stems from the culture‘s cumulative quality.
 3.3 Aspects/Elements of Culture
• Two of the most basic aspects of culture are
material and nonmaterial culture.
• Material culture: Material culture consists of
human-made objects such as tools, furniture,
automobiles, buildings, dams, roads, bridges, and ,
the physical substance which has been changed and
used by man. It is referred to as civilization.
• Non – Material Culture: Non-material culture
consists of the words the people use or the language
they speak, the beliefs they hold, values and virtues
they cherish, habits they follow, rituals and practices
that they do and the ceremonies they observe.
 Values
• Values are the standards by which members of
a society define what is good or bad, beautiful
or ugly. Values are a central aspect of the non-
material culture of a society and are important
because they influence the behavior of the
members of a society.
• Beliefs: Beliefs are cultural conventions that
concern true or false assumptions, specific
descriptions of the nature of the universe and
humanity‘s place in it.
 Norms
• Norms are shared rules or guidelines that define how people
ought to behave under certain circumstances. Norms are
connected to the values, beliefs, and ideologies of a society.
Norms vary in terms of their importance to a culture, these are:
• a) Folkways: are norms guiding ordinary usages and conventions
of everyday life. Eg. not leaving your seat for an elderly people
inside a bus/taxi. They may result in a person getting a bad look.
• b) Mores: are much stronger norms than are folkways. Mores
are norms that are believed to be essential to core values and
we insist on conformity. Eg. a person who steals, rapes, and kills
has violated some of society‘s most mores. People who violate
mores are severely punished, although punishment for the
violation of mores varies from society to society. Punishment
may take the form of ostracism, vicious gossip, public ridicule,
exile, loss of one‘s job, physical beating, imprisonment, etc.
 3.4.Universality, Generality and Particularity of Culture
• 1.Universality: Universals are cultural traits that span across
all cultures. Most are biological that distinguish us from
other species
• Eg. long period of infant dependency, year-round sexuality,
complex brain.
• Social universals: Family, Incest taboo, exogamy (marriage
outside one‘s group).
• 2.Generality: cultural traits that occur in many societies but
not all of them. Eg. farming and nuclear family.
• 3. Particularity: Trait of a culture that is not widespread. Eg.
all people become hungry but the food sources defined as
edible vary across cultures, i.e. what is appealing to eat in
one society may be considered disgusting in another ( eg.
donkey meat in Ethiopia).
 Ethnocentrism, Cultural Relativism and Human Rights
A. Ethnocentrism
• Ethnocentrism refers to the tendency to see the
behaviors, beliefs, values, and norms of one's own
group as the only right way of living and to judge
others by those standards.
• Our own group is the centre or axis of everything, and
we scale and rate all others with reference to it.
• Our ethnocentrism can prevent us from understanding
and appreciating another culture.
• The positive aspect of ethnocentrism has to do with
the protection that it can provide for a culture.
 B. Cultural relativism
• The concept of cultural relativism states that cultures
differ, so that a cultural trait, act, or idea has no
meaning but its meaning only within its cultural
setting.
• Cultural relativism suspends judgment and views
about the behavior of people from the perspective
of their own culture.
• A culture has to be studied in terms of its own
meanings and values.
• Cultural relativism describes a situation where there
is an attitude of respect for cultural differences
rather than condemning other people's culture as
uncivilized or backward.
 Cultural relativism..

Respect for cultural differences involves:

• Appreciating cultural diversity;
• Accepting and respecting other cultures;
• Trying to understand every culture and its elements in
terms of its own context and logic;
• Accepting that each body of custom has inherent dignity
and meaning as the way of life of one group which has
worked out to its environment, to the biological needs of
its members, and to the group relationships;
• Knowing that a person's own culture is only one among
many; and
• Recognizing that what is immoral, ethical, and acceptable
in one culture may not be so in another culture.
 C. Human rights
• Many anthropologists are uncomfortable with the
strong form of cultural relativism that suggests that
all patterns of culture are equally valid. What if the
people practice slavery, violence against women,
torture, or genocide?
• Human rights: rights based on justice and morality
beyond and superior to particular countries,
cultures, and religions.
• Human rights include the right to speak freely, to
hold religious beliefs without persecution, and to
not be murdered, injured, or enslaved or
imprisoned without charge. Such rights are seen as
inalienable.
 3.6 Culture Change

Culture change can occur as a result of the following

mechanisms:
i. Diffusion: is the process by which cultural elements are
borrowed from another society and incorporated into the
culture of the recipient group.
ii. Acculturation: is the exchange of cultural features that
results when groups have continuous firsthand contact.
iii. Invention: the process by which humans innovate,
creatively finding solutions to problems are a third
mechanism of cultural change.
iv. Globalization : The term encompasses a series of
processes, including diffusion and acculturation, working to
promote change in a world in which nations and people are
increasingly interlinked and mutually dependent.
 3.7 Ties That Connect: Marriage, Family and Kinship

• Marriage: Marriage is a permanent legal union between a man

and a woman. It is an important institution without which the
society could never be sustained.
• Almost all known societies recognize marriage.
• Rules of Marriage: Societies have rules that state whom one can
and cannot marry.
• The prohibitions on mating with certain categories of relatives is
known as incest taboo.
• The most universal form of incest taboo involves mating between
members of the immediate (nuclear) family: mother-sons, father-
daughters, and brother-sisters.
• For political, religious, or economic reasons, members of the royal
families among the ancient Egyptians, Incas and Hawaiians were
permitted to mate with and marry their siblings, although this
practice did not extend to the ordinary members of those societies.
 Mate Selection: Whom Should You Marry?
• In a society one cannot marry anyone whom he or she
likes. There are certain strict rules and regulations.
a. Exogamy: This is the rule by which a man is not allowed to
marry someone from his own social group. Such
prohibited union is designated as incest. Incest is often
considered as sin.
b. Endogamy: A rule of endogamy requires
individuals to marry within their own group
and forbids them to marry outside it. Religious
groups such as the Amish, Mormons, Catholics,
and Jews have rules of endogamy. Castes in
India and Nepal are also endogamous.
 Whom Should You Marry?...
• c. Preferential Cousin Marriage: A common form of
preferred marriage is called preferential cousin marriage
and is practiced in one form or another in most of the
major regions of the world. Kinship systems based on
lineages distinguish between two different types of first
cousins, these are:
• Cross Cousins: are children of siblings of the opposite sex-
that is one‘s mother‘s brothers‘ children and one‘s father‘s
sisters‘ children.
• Parallel Cousins: is when marriage takes place between
the children of the siblings of the same sex, it is called
parallel cousin marriage.
• Children of siblings of the same sex, namely the children
of one‘s mother‘s sister and one‘s father brother.
 Whom Should You Marry?....

d. The Levirate and Sororate: this is when a

person marries the husband or widow of a
deceased kin.
• The levirate: is the custom whereby a widow is
expected to marry the brother (or some close
male relative) of her dead husband.
• The sororate: which comes into play when a
wife dies, is the practice of a widower‘s
marrying the sister (or some close female
relative) of his deceased wife.
 Number of spouses

Societies have rules regulating whom one may/may not marry;

• They have rules specifying how many mates a person
may/should have.
• Monogamy: the marriage of one man to one woman at a time.
• Polygamy, i.e., marriage of a man or woman with two or more
mates.
• Polygamy can be of two types: Polygyny: the marriage of a man
to two or more women at a time.
• Polyandy: the marriage of a woman to two or more men at a
time.
• Marriage of a man with two or more sisters at a time is called
sororal polygyny.
• When the co-wives are not sisters, the marriage is termed as
non-sororal
 Economic Consideration of Marriage
• Economic consideration of marriage may take place either
before or after the marriage and can be divided into three
categories:
• 1) Bride Price/wealth, 2) Bride Service and 3) Dowry
• 1. Bride Price: It is also known as bride wealth, is the
compensation given upon marriage by the family of the groom
to the family of the bride.
• 2. Bride Service: This is when the groom works for his wife‘s
family. Bride service was practiced by the Yanomamo, a people
living in the low- lands of Venezuela.
• During this time, the groom lives with the bride‘s parents and
hunts for them.
• 3. Dowry: A dowry involves a transfer of goods or money in the
opposite direction, from the bride's family to the groom‘s
family.
 3.7.1.5 Post-Marital Residence

• Where the newly married couple lives after the marriage

ritual is governed by cultural rules, which are referred to as
post-marital residence rule.
• Patrilocal Residence: the married couple lives with or near
the relatives of the husband‘s father.
• Matrilocal Residence: the married couple lives with or near
the relatives of the wife.
• Avunculocal Residence: The married couple lives with or near
the husband‘s mother‘s brother.
• Ambilocal/Bilocal Residence: The married couple has a choice
of living with relatives of the wife or relatives of the husband
• Neolocal Residence: The Married couple forms an
independent place of residence away from the relatives of
either spouse.
 3.7.2 Family
• Family is the basis of human society and is the most important
universal. There are two fundamentally different types of family
structure:
the nuclear family and the extended family
• 1. The Nuclear Family: Consisting of husband and wife and their
children.
• 2. The Extended Family
• takes the form of a married couple living with one or more of their
married children in a single household or homestead and under the
authority of a family head.
• Functions of Marriage and Family
• Family performs certain specific functions which can be summarized as
follows:
• 1. Biological Function
• 2. Economic Function
• 3. Social Function
• 4. Educational and Socialization Function
 3.7.3 Kinship

• Kinship is the method of reckoning relationship. In any

society every adult individual belongs to two different
nuclear families. The family in which he was born and
reared is called “family of orientation”.
• The family to which he establishes relation through
marriage is called “family of procreation‟. A kinship
system is a structured system of relationships where
individuals are bound together by complex interlocking
and ramifying ties. The relationship based on blood ties
is called “consanguineous kinship”, and the relatives of
this kind are called “consanguineous kin”.
The desire for reproduction gives rise to a socially or legally
defined marital relationship, called “affinal relationship”,
and the relatives so related are called “affinal kin‟.
 3.7.4 Descenta6y

• Descent refers to the social recognition of the biological

relationship that exists between the individuals. The rule of
descent refers to a set of principles by which an individual traces
his descent. There are three important rules of decent:
• 1. Patrilineal descent When descent is traced solely through the
male line. it is only the sons who continue the affiliation.
• 2. Matrilineal descent: When the descent is traced solely through
the female line. Only females acquire the succession and
inheritance.
• 3. Cognatic Descent
• In some societies individuals are free to show their genealogical
links either through men or women.
• Some connected with the kin group of father and others with the
kin group of mothers. no fixed rule to trace the succession and
inheritance; any combination of lineal link is possible in such
societies.
 3.8 Culture areas and culture contact
• Culture areas refers to a cluster of related cultures occupying a
certain geographical region. In the context of Ethiopia, in relation to
subsistence, there are plough culture, Enset culture area, and
pastoral societies‘
culture area.
• A. Plough culture area: Plough culture area represents those parts
of the country where agriculture is predominantly the means by
which subsistence is eked out.
• B. Enset culture area : Enset culture area, on the other hand, covers
a vast region in the southern part of country. Enset cultivating
regions of the present day SNNPRS such as the Guraghe, Sidama
and Gedeo areas constitute enset culture area.
• C. Pastoral culture area: Pastoral culture area is found in the low
land areas covering a large section of the Afar in the northwest,
Somali in the southeast and Borena of southern of Ethiopia.

End of unit three