Characteristics of Culture, Race and Ethnicity - Assignment Example

Anthropology 1. Define and discuss the major characteristics of culture. Provide examples from your personal life and experiences to illustrate your discussions. Culture is the way of living of certain community. It is therefore the shared and learned norms, beliefs and behavior of a community of interacting human beings (Gezon, 2011). The following are characteristics of culture: It is shared by the interacting group to transmit their values and beliefs. For instance, the use of language as a form of communication which transmit the expectations of the society. It is learned in that enculturation is the better way of explained is learned. For example, people of certain society learn to understand and apply certain norms, beliefs and expectations of the society. It is symbolic in that way of communication uses symbols to identify the given norms, values, traditions and actions of the people. It is patterned and integrated in that is aligned by specific dimension of social such as political and economic activities. These norms must be followed for the survival of the community. It is adaptive and compulsory in that adaption to culture is an evolutionary process that shapes the social life of people in a given society. In addition, people usually consider harmonious relationship with other groups. For instance, violation of values and norms has specific sanctions. 2. Define, compare, and contrast race and ethnicity. Discuss the origin and history of each term, and discuss its social implications today. Race can be defined as biological subspecies comprising of more or different people with anatomical traits or features that differentiates it from other races. On the other hand, ethnicity is defined as selected cultural features used to categorize people into groups considered to be significantly distinct from others. Ethnicity involves a loose group of people with less or no cultural traditions in common while race involves a strong and integrated group with common cultural traditions (Huntington, 2001). Race is biological and that it has caused societal discrimination. For instance, African Americans in the U.S.A were discriminated and looked down upon. On the other hand, ethnicity evolved as a result of shared traditions, values and customs. Ethnicity has resulted in conflicts due to struggle over scarce resources in different countries such as Sudan. 3. Compare and contrast the three modes of food production strategies. Discuss the relationship between the natural environment and food production strategies. Foraging is the first mode of food production for survival of humans. It is the act of hunting wild animals and gatherings fruits for food. Cultivation is also form of food production strategy which involves the process of growing plants on arable land. In this case, water, seeds and land are essentials for crop growing. Lastly, there is industrial production which specializes in production and manufacturing of goods. This mode of production relies on machinery to support the industry. The relationship between environment and food production is intertwined in that healthy environments and ecosystem provides good platform for growth of plants while on the other hand, susceptible environment would lead to poor food production (Brockerman, 2011). 4. Compare arranged marriages to love marriages. What purpose does each serve in a culture? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Illustrate your discussions with specific examples. Arranged marriages entails a practice in which someone other than those getting married makes the selection of the party to be married or wed thus avoiding courtship process. They exist in Indonesia and China and in countries where Buddhism and Islam is predominant. In cultures where dating is not common, arranged marriages plays a vital role thus bringing together people who might not have met. In such cultures, arranged marriages is perceived as the norms, traditions and accepted by people of that society. For arranged marriage, the risk of incompatibility is diminished since it assumes that the two people are perfectly matched and they belong to same culture. Furthermore, the idea of divorce is unthinkable since the married couple comes from similar background and share common perception of family and marriage. There are some disadvantages of arranged marriages in that there is no room to make up one’s own mind. When marriages are arranged, it does not give an opportunity for the married couples to make their own mind about who to marry (Gezon, 2011). In addition, love takes second priority in that the married couple uses their head to decide not with heart. On the other hand, love marriages are the legal marriage for two people who love and care for each other. Love marriage leads to exchange of culture between two groups. For instance, a Bantu marrying a Nilote would lead to exchange of norms and values of the two groups such as the art of circumcision may be borrowed from the Bantu by the Nilote. The following are advantages of love marriages: married couple gets to spend with someone who cares, they enjoy life together without having to compensate for someone and they have dependable partner no matter where you are. There are disadvantages of love marriages in that couples get bored with each other as soon as they enter the marriage as they have been sleeping with each other. The element of divorce is possible due to conflicting cultures. 5. Define the concept of sustainability and discuss its importance in today's global economy. Use specific examples to illustrate your discussion. Sustainability is the concept used to define economic and social stability in that the environment of the world has to be sustaining in order for it to thrive. The human population is growing at high rate that makes resource sustenance impossible. Sustainability would encourage increased economic growth favorable for human adaption. For instance, if resources are not well managed, they will get diminished thus causing troubles to human survival. But, a sustainable environment encourages good utilization of resources enough to sustain human population (Brockerman, 2011). 6. What would your world be like if you were unable to experience any external sensory stimulation? Be sure to include vision, hearing, taste, touch, smell, pain, and the role of culture in your discussion. External sensory stimulation is vital since it enables people to see, hear, feel, touch and taste. Therefore, lack of external stimulation the body would not adapt to the environment thus making life difficult since the person is unable to manage sensory stimuli. In this case, some cultures would lead people to denounce intake of some foods as they are believed to be the cause of misfortune such as lack of sense of touch. 7. Discuss how sleep and psychoactive drugs affect perception Sleep affects perception in that lack of sleep inhibits brain activity due to overworking thus leading to loss of conscious and awareness. Psychoactive drugs alter consciousness thus leading to blurred vision and lack of awareness. In addition, they inhibit brain activity thus leading to drowsiness and relives anxiety (Cohen, 2011). References Brockerman, J. (2011). Culture: Leading scientists explore societies, art, power, and technology. Virginia: Herper Perenial. Cohen, E.W. (2011). Uppers, Downers, all arounders: Physical and mental effects of psychoactive Drug, 7th ed. New York: Cns Productions. Gezon, L. (2011). Culture. New York: McGraw-Hill. Huntington, P.S. (2001).Culture matters: How values shape human progress. New York: Basic Books. Read More