How Culture affects Anthropology - Essay Example

How Culture affects Anthropology   Abstract The notion "culture" probably is one of the most frequently used notions in anthropology as it's completely impossible to separate the two notions "human being" and "culture". Few experts will call in question the thought that the notion of culture, from the anthropological point of view, is on the leading place among the crucial notions of contemporary American thought. Its wide-spreading and universality is equal to those of multi-purpose notions of physics, medicine and biology. Trying to generalize we often mechanically use the phrase "in our culture" thus confirming that this notion has become an integral part of any human being. Every society has a distinguishing culture therefore it has a unique cognitive structure of thoughts and world as well as distinctive rules of moral values and ethics. Thus investigation and analyzing of culture provide anthropologists with fundamental knowledge about the nature of a human and helps to answer the most frequently asked questions about how we different are and how we similar are. Anthropology in its turn helps us to analyze how culture affects every part of human life and society. One of the key aims of anthropology is to comprehend and analyze culture patterns of life and give meaning to people's lives. While comparing the cultural practices of various peoples, anthropologists create and develop a general comprehension of what it means to be human. Anthropological investigation may be of a great help for us while studying internal logic of another society. Besides it the investigating of culture in anthropology which shows us that there are no there are no superior or inferior cultures as all cultures are meaningful when placed in their own socio-cultural context. How Culture affects Anthropology Culture and society are different notions. If culture is a system of learned behavior perceptions and patterns, society is a group of interacting beings.  So animals also have societies. Though it is one of the prerogatives of human societies the ability to interact directly or indirectly with each other.  And one human society is distinguished from another one in terms of shared traditions and expectations. Despite the difference between human societies and cultures, they are closely interrelated because culture is created and transmitted to others in a society.  Cultures are not the product of separate individuals.  They are the permanently developing products of people interacting with each other.  Cultural patterns such as language and politics are useless except if they are not engaged in the interaction of people.  If you were the only human on earth, language or government would of no effect (Bernard, 1998, p. 14). The notion "culture" can be interpreted many different ways.  Some understand it as an opportunity to insight into a high-quality literature, art, music. Each science has its own understanding of culture. Cultural dimensions of logic, values and aesthetics are indeed of a great concern for philosophers. Social workers and people concerned themselves with the practical problems of minority groups also use this notion as a part of their stock in trade. Important research in medicine and in nutrition is oriented in cultural terms. On the other hand for anthropologists the notion "culture" generally means the full range of learned human behavior patterns (Bernard, 1998, p. 27).  The term was first used in this meaning by the English anthropologist Edward B. Tylor.  He defined culture as a complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.  Of course, it is possessed and created not only by men but by women as well. The decisive term in this definition is "acquired." This underlines the feature that, as humans, we are not born with culture itself, but with the ability for culture. That is what we learn it, through our interactions and communication with other people in general. We practice the fundamental constituent of this learning in our childhood, but the process of cultural learning takes place throughout all the life (Kroeber, 1952, p.84). When we realize that culture is learned, we have the opportunity to comprehend the concept of cultural difference. Although all people possess the ability to learn culture, the cultural contents which they have to learn in fact i.e. the particular language, manners, values, modifies from one society to another. Consequently, though having culture is a major distinctive feature of being a human, there are many various cultures and, hence, diverse ways of being a human, for example, the Chinese way, the Cherokee way etc. In addition to the difference from one another, human cultures are integrated as well. The diverse elements of a given culture e.g. its system of economy, political structure and organization, values of religion, etc., do not appear accidentally but are systematically linked to each other. It is possible to examine this cultural integration only by investigating separate cultures in detail (Kibbee, 1991, p.32). Anthropological analysis of cultures is aimed at comprehending and analyzing the diversity and integration of human cultures. Such investigating includes a kind of thinking like reading a detective story. First of all you are provided with a range of incoherent characters, events and circumstances appears, like a puzzle with some of the pieces missing. Then, as the story goes on (the anthropological investigation continues) the missing pieces are found and the way to fit them together becomes evident. Thus, we are able to understand the logic of culture. But anthropological analysis paradoxically improve the result as if you get to know more about the astonishing variety of cultures, you simultaneously appreciate how among the immeasurably various values, beliefs, customs you find those ones which belong to fundamental human qualities (Crehan, 2002, 92). Studying culture anthropologists investigate functioning of societies of different people determined by culture. Such an approach differ on the one hand from the physical description of races which is the issue of physical anthropology an don the other hand from philosophic anthropology which deals with feature of people determined by the person's nature itself. For the purposes of investigating culture anthropologists use methods of such sciences as ethnography, archeology, history, structural linguistics, study of folklore, sociology, philosophy of culture, psychology, besides they apply mathematical tools and specially developed procedures like filming or peculiar methods of interviewing (Bernard, 1998, p. 31). These are anthropologists who have developed and further the notion of "culture" as a meaningful scientific concept whish they use to fulfill the main purposes of their science: to describe the existing cultures (languages, traditions, social norms, patterns of behavior, physiology etc.), cultural interaction, dynamics of the cultures. Using some fundamentals of sociology anthropologists investigate institutional settings and their cultural functions from the point of view of dynamics of the whole and the parts, self-organization and adaptation and also try to define a structure which is the basis of a wide specter of social phenomena. Anthropologists in the light of culture may decide some philosophical matters like the influence of a language on a process of thinking or the connection of the culture with a human's system of values. Besides anthropologists describing some separate systems of filiation and power structures of different human societies may work out and develop the understanding of the nature of social links and power itself (Kroeber, 1952, p. 213). Through the prism of anthropology culture is considered in its integrity as a collection of characteristic features of any society that helps to distinguish it from the others which may be on the same level of development, exist in the similar nature conditions and have the same religion and political institutions. Thus cultural features are organized and classified in the framework involved the system of values and prevalent dominants. Comparable and similar elements of culture form patterns which determine the behavior and the process of thinking. Such a behavioral complex is passed on from generation to generation by education, imitation and adaptation to the existence in a certain social environment. In such a way culture is represented as a basis of society functioning. Investigating different aspects of culture starting with, for example, motor activity (organization of movements) and finishing with ideas, norms of conduct and customs are acquiring while learning anthropologists decide a problem of interpretation of social-cultural distinctions and defining that peculiar system of features which characterizes behavior and guiding lines of life of every society (Crehan, 2002 p. 97). Among the fundamental aims of anthropology in its cultural investigation is to get free from ethnocentrism to refrain any assessment and from subjective interpretation in order to achieve scientific objectivity analyzing phenomena of a particular culture from its own point of view. Such an approach give anthropology the opportunity to show us that there are no superior or inferior cultures as all cultures become meaningful and significant when we place them in their own socio-cultural context (Kibbee, 1991, p. 25). Summary Culture and society are different notions. If culture is a system of learned behavior perceptions and patterns, society is a group of interacting beings. Despite the difference between them, they are closely interrelated because culture is created and transmitted to others in a society. Anthropologists define culture as a complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. Such a definition let us to conclude that humans, we are not born with culture itself, but with the ability for culture. That is what we learn it, through our interactions and communication with other people in general. When we realize that culture is learned, we have the opportunity to comprehend the concept of cultural difference. In addition to the difference from one another, human cultures are integrated as well. Studying culture anthropologists investigate functioning of societies of different people determined by culture. Such an approach differ on the one hand from the physical description of races which is the issue of physical anthropology an don the other hand from philosophic anthropology which deals with feature of people determined by the person's nature itself. For the purposes of investigating culture anthropologists use methods of many sciences such as ethnography, archeology, history, structural linguistics, study of folklore, sociology etc. These are anthropologists who have developed and further the notion of "culture" as a meaningful scientific concept whish they use to fulfill the main purposes of their science: to describe the existing cultures, cultural interaction, dynamics of the cultures. Through the prism of anthropology culture is considered in its integrity as a collection of characteristic features of any society that helps to distinguish it from the others which may be on the same level of development, exist in the similar nature conditions and have the same religion and political institutions but it doesn’t divide cultures into the best and the worst ones. Conclusion One of the main concerns of anthropology is how culture affects every aspect of human life and society. Regardless of the problem studied, the aim of anthropology is to comprehend and analyze culture patterns and to give meaning to people's lives. Comparing the cultural features of various people, anthropologists create a general understanding of what it is to be a human. Anthropology has developed and furthered the notion "culture" as a significant scientific concept. Anthropologists dispute that culture is "human nature," and that all people have an ability to classify experiences, symbolically encode classifications and teach it to others. Since humans gain culture through learning, people who live in different places or under other different circumstances may develop various cultures. Anthropologists have also draw our attention to the fact that through culture people can adapt to the environment in ways other than genetic ones, so people living in different environments will often have different cultures Anthropologists try to understand the internal logic of another society through the prism of culture. It helps outsiders to understand behaviors that may seem senseless. Besides anthropologists avoid "ethnocentrism," the tendency to explain strange customs of other societies on the basis of preconceptions derived from one's own cultural background. Moreover, the same process helps us to see our own society from another standpoint. References Bernard, H. (1998) Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology. Walnut Creed, Ca., AltaMira Press, Crehan, K. (December 2002). Gramsci, Culture and Anthropology. (pp. 84-172) Kroeber, A., Kluckhohn C. (1952). Culture. A critical review of concepts and definitions. Cambridge. Kibbee, J. (1991). Cultural Anthropology: a Guide to Reference and Information Sources. Englewood, Co. Libraries Unlimited,. Read More