culture:

A system of knowledge, beliefs, patterns of behavior, artifacts, and institutions that are created, learned, and shared by a group of people.

Characteristics of Culture
Every culture is socially learned, shared, based on symbols, integrated, and dynamic. A careful study of these characteristics
helps us to see the importance and the function of culture itself.

Culture Is Learned

Culture > not thru genes but thru > enculturation > social interaction thru which ppl learn their culture >
conscious learning and unconscious learning

Situational learning > trial and error > adjust your behavior acc to ur experience > cost ^ risk ^try food >may b u
don’t like it

Human > social learning > from one another > jaise qasim ne behave kia wse main kru ga is situation main > so
no direct experience

Human learn = class mates, parents , teachers, media, friends , family

Social animals also learn = wolf learn hunting strategy from by observing other pack member

Culture Is Symbolic

Direct observation not mandatory > observe by understanding symbols thru our linguistic and mental capacity >
symbols = sound, gesture , mark and other sign linked to something else

Symbols > verbal or non-verbal

Verbal > zruri ni k symbol or is k mtlb k drmyan koi connection ho > ddog >bark > dog in English , german but
chien , hund or mbwa in other language

Non verbal > flags , mark < sign < mcdonald golden arch > holy water = roman Catholicism >water = symbol
and holy = symbolizes though water is no more holier thank milk , blood but holy water is associated with
particular meaning for catholics > aab zam zam

. Every con- temporary human population has the ability to use symbols and thus to create and maintain cul-
ture. Our nearest relatives—chimpanzees and gorillas—have rudimentary cultural abilities. However, no other
animal has elaborated cultural abilities—to learn, to communicate, and to store, process, and use information—
to the extent that Homo has.

Culture Is Integrated
cultures are not haphazard collections of cus- toms and beliefs. Cultures are integrated, pat- terned systems. If
one part of the system (e.g., the economy) changes, other parts change as well. For example, during the 1950s,
most Amer- ican women planned domestic careers as home- makers and mothers. Most of today’s college
women, by contrast, expect to get paid jobs when they graduate.

Jaise Eco change > social change > late marriage , living together and divorce
Culture train individual to learn core values and then share it across others

For instance, the work ethic and individual- ism are core values that have integrated American culture for
generations. Different sets of dominant values influence the patterns of other cultures.

Culture Is Shared

We Learn culture by observing our surroundings .shared beliefs , values , memories by our parents and then we
learn them and then it will pass on to next generation by us

Consider a simple American example of endur- ing shared enculturation. As children, when we didn’t finish a
meal, our parents may have re- minded us of starving children in some foreign country, just as our grandparents
might have done a generation earlier. The specific country changes (China, India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia,
Somalia, Rwanda—what was it in your home?). Still, American culture goes on transmitting the idea that by
eating all our brussels sprouts or broccoli, we can justify our own good fortune, compared to a hungry child in
an impoverished or war-ravaged country.

Culture Is Dynamic
All cultures are, of necessity, dynamic, but some are far less so than others. When a culture is too rigid or static and fails to
provide its members with the means required for long-term survival under changing condi- tions, it is not likely to endure.
On the other hand, some cultures are so fluid and open to change that they may lose their distinctive character.

For a culture to be dynamic, it has to be relevant. The whole point of culture is for the older
generation to transfer their culture and traditions to the younger generation. If the younger
generation thinks these customs are “old school” and not cool, culture stops being relevant. To be
relevant the culture has to adapt and change with times. This is how the new generation would
absorb the culture and make it suit its tastes. Otherwise culture would become obsolete.

For example, Mongols love their deels. These long dresses for both men and women are practical
and match nomadic setting.

Traditional deels continue to be popular. But for deel to be dynamic it has to be relevant and
adjust to demands of the new generation.

Culture Can Be Adaptive and Maladaptive

humans have both bio- logical and cultural ways of coping with environ- mental stresses. Besides our biological
means of adaptation, we also use “cultural adaptive kits,” which contain customary activities and tools. Al-
though humans continue to adapt biologically, reliance on social and cultural means of adapta- tion has
increased during human evolution.

In this discussion of the adaptive features of our cultural behavior, let’s recognize that what’s good for the
individual isn’t necessarily good for the group. Sometimes adaptive behavior that offers short-term benefits to
particular individu- als may harm the environment and threaten the group’s long-term survival. Economic
growth may benefit some people while it also depletes resources needed for society at large or for fu- ture
generations (Bennett 1969, p. 19). Despite the crucial role of cultural adaptation in human evolution, cultural
traits, patterns, and inven- tions also can be maladaptive, threatening the group’s continued existence (survival
and re- production). Air conditioners help us deal with heat, as fires and furnaces protect us against the cold.
Automobiles permit us to make a living by getting us from home to workplace. But the by- products of such
“beneficial” technology often create new problems. Chemical emissions increase air pollution, deplete the ozone
layer, and contribute to global warming. Many cultural patterns, such as overconsumption and pollu- tion,
appear to be maladaptive in the long run.
Functions of Culture
Polish-born British anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski argued that people everywhere share certain biological and
psychological needs and that the ultimate function of all cultural institutions is to fulfill these needs (see Anthropologist of
Note).

Others have marked out differ- ent criteria, but the idea is basically the same: A culture cannot endure if it does not deal
effectively with basic challenges. It has to equip members of a society with strat- egies for the production and distribution of
goods and services considered necessary for life. To ensure the bio- logical continuity of the group, it must also offer a social
structure for reproduction and mutual support. Further, it has to provide ways and means to pass on knowledge and
enculturate new members so they can contribute to their community as well-functioning adults. Moreover, it must facilitate
social interaction and provide ways to

avoid or resolve conflicts within their group as well as with outsiders.

Because a culture must support all aspects of life, as indicated in our barrel model, it must also meet the psy- chological and
emotional needs of its members. For example, every culture provides its members with certain customary ideas and rituals
that enable them to think creatively about the meaning of life and death. Many cultures even make it possible for people to
imagine an afterlife. Invited to sus- pend disbelief and engage in such imaginings, people find the means to deal with the
grief of losing a loved one and to face their own demise with certain expectations.

In Bali, for instance, Hindu worshipers stage spectacu- lar cremation rituals at special places where they burn the physical
remains of their dead. After a colorful procession with musicians, the corpse is carried to a great cremation tower, or wadah,
representing the three-layered cosmos. It is then transferred into a beautifully decorated sarcopha- gus, made of wood and
cloth artfully shaped in the form of an animal—a bull when the deceased belonged to the island’s highest Hindu status group
(“caste”) of priests and lawgivers (Brahmanas), a winged lion for the second highest status of warriors and administrators
(Satrias), and a half-fish/half-elephant for the next status of merchants and traders (Wesias).

After relatives and friends place their offerings atop or inside the sarcophagus, a Hindu priest sets the structure on fire. Soon,
the body burns, and according to Balinese Hindu belief, the animal sarcophagus symbolically guides the soul of the deceased
to Bali’s “mother” mountain Gunung Angung. This is the sacred dwelling place of the island’s gods and ancestors, the place
to which many Balinese believe they return when they die. Freed from the flesh, the soul may later transmigrate and return in
corporeal form. This belief in reincarnation of the soul allows the Balinese to cope with death as a celebration of life.