I. The Concept of Culture Revisited

A. Sociocultural anthropology: the study of how human beings organize their lives as members of society, and the ways in which they make these lives meaningful as cultural individuals
B. Tylor's definition of culture: "Culture, or civilization, taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society" (Primitive Culture, 1871).

 

II. The Contributions of "Culture"

A. Rejected biological or genetic determinism

1. Reaction against evolutionary notions of society as struggle for survival that reflects genetic superiority
2. Culture is not due to genetics, but is due to environmental and historical conditions

B. Promoted cross-cultural understanding and communication

1. Boas = "genuis of a people," preserve potlatch
2. Malinowski = "native's point of view"
3. Mead = learn from Samoa so that we can raise our children in ways consistent with our values
4. travestis = limitations of either/or sex and gender models
5. Farmer = biomedicine may not address all aspects of bodily experience, focuses too much on individual physical body. How deal with social or political body and context of vulnerability to disease?
6. Cultural relativism promotes global harmony

C. Appreciate cultural differences, particularly as they seem threatened by globalization
D. Anti-imperialist, anti-racist, egalitarian, humanitarian

 

III. Problems with the Concept of Culture

A. Moral relativism
B. Timeless, enduring, traditional
C. Essentializing
D. Ignores contestation
E. Self-perpetuating

 

IV. The Culture of Poverty: An Example of the Anthropological Misuse of the Concept of Culture

A. Oscar Lewis: 1960s research among poor in Mexico City and Puerto Rico
B. Culture of poverty: rejection of dominant culture

1. drop out of school
2. apathy
3. drugs and alcohol
4. criminal behavior
5. hate politics and mistrust government
6. disorganized, matrifocal family life
7. children take to the streets

C. Lewis's central argument = poverty leads to adaptive strategies that produce a culture of poverty that reproduces the condition of poverty
D. Political impact of culture of poverty

1. Johnson administration: 1960s War on Poverty
2. Head Start

E. Problem: shared values notion blames poverty on the poor's culture, but causes of poverty are socioeconomic

 

V. Post-modern Approaches to Culture

A. Culture = partial, contested, constantly changing
B. Lila Abu-Lughod: write against culture

1. Problems of "culture"

a. the "other"
b. anthropologists make cultural differences seem self-evident
c. the "other" becomes inferior because defined by culture, not individuality

2. Solution: resist generalizations, tell stories
3. Goal: to "suggest that others live as we perceive ourselves living -- not as automatons programmed according to 'cultural roles' or acting out social roles, but as people going through life wondering what they should do, making mistakes, being opinionated, vacillating, trying to make themselves look good, enduring tragic personal losses, enjoying others, and finding moments of laughter" (27).

C. Mary Steedly: write around culture

1. Not using the term culture is liberating
2. Focus on social moments, ways in which people try to make sense of things, choices

D. Culture as dominant mode of explanation in America: culture of materialism, culture of hopelessness, culture of drugs, cultural differences
E. Lessons to take from anthropological discussion of culture

1. Like "gender" and "kinship," "culture" is laden with assumptions
2. People see themselves as members of cultures and this shapes behavior
3. Three questions for 21st century exploration of culture that view culture as a process:

a. How we conceive of ourselves as cultured beings
b. How these conceptions shape our behavior
c. How these conceptions change according to time and circumstance

 

For more information, contact:  aleshkow@holycross.edu