Unit Two

Human Culture and Ties

that Connect
Conceptualizing Culture: What Culture is and
What Culture isn't
 “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” (Edward B.
Tylor )
 B. Malinowski has defined culture “as cumulative

creation of man". He regarded culture as the handiwork of

man and the medium through which he achieves his ends.
 Robert Bierstedt says, “Culture is the complex whole that

consists of everything we think and do and have as

members of society.”
Definition of culture…
 Culture therefore, is moral, intellectual and spiritual
discipline for advancement, in accordance with the
norms and values based on accumulated heritage.
Culture is a system of learned behavior shared by and
transmitted among the members of the group.
 Culture is a collective heritage learned by individuals

and passed from one generation to another. The

individual receives culture as part of social heritage
and in turn, may reshape the culture and introduce
changes which then become part of the heritage of
succeeding generations.
 Characteristic Features of Culture
Culture Is Learned
 Culture is not transmitted genetically rather; it is acquired through the process

of learning or interacting with one’s environment. More than any other species
human relies for their survival on behavior patterns that are learned. Human
have no instinct, which genetically programmed to direct to behave in a
particular way. This process of acquiring culture after we born is called
enculturation.
 Enculturation is specifically defined as the process by which an individual

learns the rules and values of one’s culture.

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.
 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. In order for a society to
operate effectively, the guidelines must be shared by its members. Without shared
culture members of a society would be unable to communicate and cooperates and
confusion and disorder world result.
 Culture Is Symbolic:
 Symbolic thought is unique and crucial to humans and to cultural learning. A
symbol is something verbal or nonverbal, within a particular language or culture
that comes to stand for something else. There need be no obvious, natural, or
necessary connection between the symbol and what it symbolizes.
 Culture Is All-Encompassing
 Culture encompasses all aspects, which affect people in their everyday lives.
Culture comprises countless material and non-material aspects of human lives.
Thus, when we talk about a particular people’s culture, we are referring to all of
its man- 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: intellectual, technical, artistic, physical, and moral; it is the complex
pattern of living that directs human social life, and which each new generation
must learn and to which they eventually add with the dynamics of the social world
and the changing environmental conditions.
Culture Is Integrated:
 Cultures are not haphazard collections of customs and beliefs. Instead, culture

should be thought as of integrated wholes, the parts of which, to some degree, are
interconnected with one another. When we view cultures as integrated systems, we
can begin to see how particular culture traits fit into the whole system and,
consequently, how they tend to make sense within that context.
 A culture is a system, change in one aspect will likely generate changes in other

aspects. 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, including among others, such system as the respiratory system, the
digestive system, the skeletal system, excretory system, the reproductive system,
and lymphatic system.
Culture Can Be Adaptive and Maladaptive:
 Humans have both biological and cultural ways of coping with environmental

stresses. Besides our biological means of adaptation, we also use "cultural

adaptive kits," which contain customary activities and tools that aid us.
 People adapt themselves to the environment using culture. The ability to adapt

themselves to practically any ecological condition, unlike other animals, makes

humans unique.
 Aspects/Elements of Culture
Material culture
 Material culture consist of man-made objects such as tools, implements,

furniture, automobiles, buildings, dams, roads, bridges, and in fact, the

physical substance which has been changed and used by man. It is
concerned with the external, mechanical and utilitarian objects. It
includes technical and material equipment. It is referred to as civilization.
Non – Material culture
 The term ‘culture’ when used in the ordinary sense, means ‘non-material

culture’. It is something internal and intrinsically valuable, reflects the

inward nature of man. 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. It also includes our customs and tastes,
attitudes and outlook, in brief, our ways of acting, feeling and thinking.
Some of the aspects of non-material culture listed as follows:
Values:
 Values are the standards by which member of a society define what is good or

bad, beautiful or ugly. Every society develops both values and expectations
regarding the right way to reflect them.
 Values are a central aspect of the nonmaterial 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. Values are
generalized notions of what is good and bad; beliefs are more specific and, in
form at least, have more content. “Education is good” is a fundamental value in
American society, whereas “Grading is the best way to evaluate students” is a
belief that reflects assumptions about the most appropriate way to determine
educational achievement.
Norms
 Norms are another aspect of nonmaterial culture. Norms are shared rules or

guidelines that define how people “ought” to behave under certain

circumstances. Norms are generally connected to the values, beliefs, and
ideologies of a society.
Norms vary in terms of their importance to a culture, these are:
a) Folkway: Norms guiding ordinary usages and conventions of
everyday life are known as folkways. Folkways are norms that
are not strictly enforced, such as not leaving your seat for an
elderly people inside a bus/taxi. They may result in a person
getting a bad look.
b) Mores: 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. A person who steals, rapes, and
kills has violated some of society’s most important mores.
People who violate mores are usually severely punished, although
punishment for the violation of mores varies from society to
society. It may take the form of ostracism, vicious gossip, public
ridicule, exile, loss of one’s job, physical beating, imprisonment,
commitment to a mental asylum, or even execution
Evaluating Cultural Differences
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.
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.
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.
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, acceptable,

etc, in one culture may not be so in another culture.

 Human rights
 Human rights: rights based on justice and morality beyond and superior to
particular countries, cultures, and religions. The idea of human rights
challenges cultural relativism by invoking a realm of justice and morality
beyond and superior to the laws and customs of 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 (nations
cannot abridge or terminate them) and international (larger than and
superior to individual nations and cultures). A doctrine of universal human
rights, which emphasizes the rights of the individual over those of the
community, would condemn such killings.
 Anthropologists respect human diversity. Most ethnographers try to be
objective, accurate, and sensitive in their accounts of other cultures.
However, their objectivity, sensitivity and a cross-cultural perspective got
nothing to do with ignoring international standards of justice and morality.
 Culture Change
Culture change can occur as a result of the following Mechanisms:
Diffusion: The source of new cultural elements in a society may also be
another society. The process by which cultural elements are borrowed from
another society and incorporated into the culture of the recipient group is
called diffusion.
Diffusion is direct when two cultures trade with, intermarry among, or wage
war on one another.
Diffusion is forced when one culture subjugates another and imposes its
customs on the dominated group.
Diffusion is indirect when items or traits move from group A to group C via
group B without any firsthand contact between A and C. In this case, group
B might consist of traders or merchants who take products from a variety of
places to new markets. Or group B might be geographically situated between
A and C, so that what it gets from A eventually winds up in C, and vice
versa. In today's world, much international diffusion is indirect-culture
spread by the mass media and advanced information technology.
Acculturation: Is the exchange of cultural features that
results when groups have continuous firsthand contact.
The cultures of either or both groups may be changed by
this contact. This usually happens in situations of trade or
colonialism. In situations of continuous contact, cultures
have also exchanged and blended foods, recipes, music,
dances, clothing, tools, and technologies.
Invention is the process by which humans innovate,
creatively finding solutions to problems is a third
mechanism of cultural change. Faced with comparable
problems and challenges, people in different societies have
innovated and changed in similar ways, which is one reason
cultural generalities exist.
 Globalization
 The term globalization 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. Promoting such linkages are economic and political forces,
as well as modem systems of transportation and communication. Due
to globalization, long-distance communication is easier, faster, and
cheaper than ever, and extends to remote areas. The mass media help
propel a globally spreading culture of consumption. Within nations
and across their borders, the media spread information about products,
services, rights, institutions, lifestyles, and the perceived costs and
benefits of globalization. Emigrants transmit information and
resources transnational, as they maintain their ties with home
(phoning, faxing, e-mailing, making visits, and sending money). In a
sense such people live multilocally-in different places and cultures at
once. They learn to play various social roles and to change behavior
and identity depending on the situation.
Ties That Connect: Marriage, Family and Kinship
 MARRIAGE
 Marriage is a social process that creates new relationships by
transforming the status of the participants, stipulates the degree of
sexual access the married partners may have to each other, positions
children, and creates relationships between the kin of the partners.
 Sociologist define marriage as a socially support union involving two or
more individuals in what is regarded as a stable, enduring arrangement
typically based at least in part on a sexual bond of some kind.
 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.
 Marriage may be defined as a socially acknowledged and approved
sexual union between two adult individuals. When two people marry,
they become kin one another; the marriage bond also, however, connects
together a wider range of kins people. Parents, sisters, brothers and other
blood relatives become relatives of the partner through marriage.
 Whom Should You Marry?
 Cultural expectations define appropriate potential marriage partners.
 People are sometimes expected to marry within religious communities, to

marry someone who is ethnically or racially similar or who comes from a

similar economic or educational background.
 Cultural norms, and often laws, identify people as suitable or unsuitable

marriage partners.
 Some of these forms of mate selection include:
 Endogamy: This is a marriage practice of selecting mates only from within

one’s own social group, especially from one’s own ethnic group.
 Exogamy: This is mate selection outside one’s social group or ethnic group.
 Hypergamy: A marriage between a high class man and a low class woman

in society.
 Hypogamy: Marriage between a high class woman and a low class man.
 Homogamy: Mate selection based on similar characteristics between couple

such as; educational, religious and race affiliation.

 Types of marriage
 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.
 In rural areas of India, for example, people are expected to
marry someone of the same caste (endogamy) but from a
different village (exogamy). On the one hand, the logic of
endogamy is that people of similar position pass along their
standing to their offspring, thereby maintaining the traditional
social hierarchy. Exogamy, on the other, builds alliances and
encourages cultural diffusion.
There are some definite reasons for which practice of exogamy got
approval. They are:
 A conception of blood relation prevails among the members of a

group. Therefore, marriage within the group-members is

considered a marriage between a brother and sister
 Attraction between a male and female gets lost due to close

relationship in a small group.

 There is a popular idea that a great increase of energy and vigor is

possible in the progeny if marriage binds two extremely distant

persons who possess no kin relation among them.
 Kottak claimed also that exogamy has adaptive value, because it

links people into a wider social network that nurtures, helps, and
protects them in times of need pushing social organization
outward, establishing and preserving alliances among groups.
B) Endogamy: A rule of endogamy requires individuals to
marry within their own group and forbids them to marry
outside it.
Endogamy limits marriage prospects to others of the same age,
race, religion, or social class. Religious groups such as the
Amish, Mormons, Catholics, and Jews have rules of endogamy,
though these are often violated when marriage take place
outside the group. Castes in India and Nepal are also
endogamous. “Indeed, most cultures are endogamous units,
although they usually do not need a formal rule requiring
people to marry someone from their own society”.
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: When marriage takes place between the children
of the siblings of the same sex, it is called parallel cousin marriage.
are children of siblings of the same sex, namely the children of
one’s mother’s sister and one’s father brother. The mate may come
either from one’s father’s brother’s children or mother's sister’s
children.
D) Levirate and Sororate
 The levirate- is the custom whereby a widow is expected to marry
the brother (or some close male relative) of her dead husband.
Usually any children fathered by the woman’s new husband are
considered to belong legally to the dead brother rather than to the
actual genitor. Such a custom both serves as a form of social
security for the widow and her children and preserved the rights of
her husband’s family to her sexuality and future children.
 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. In the event that the deceased
spouse has no sibling, the family of the deceased is under a general
obligation to supply some equivalent relative as a substitute. For
example, in a society that practice sororate, a widower may be
given as a substitute wife the daughter of his deceased wife’s
brother.
E) Gift or Charity Marriage
 In this kind of marriage, parents give out one of their
young daughters as a gift to their friends or patrons
without any consideration as a demonstration of
friendship, honor and total loyalty. In some African
societies, the chiefs or kings enjoyed this honor and
prerogative among subjects.
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
 Sororal polygyny: Marriage of a man with two or more sisters
at a time. When the co-wives are not sisters, the marriage is
termed as non-sororal polygyny.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Polygamy marriage
 Having two/more wives is often seen as a sign of
prestige.
 Having multiple wives means wealth, power, & status

both for the polygnous husband, wives and children.

 It produces more children, who are considered valuable

for future economic and political assets.

 Economic advantage: It encourages to work hard (more

cows, goats..) for more wives

 The Drawbacks of Polygyny: Jealousy among the co-

wives who frequently compete for the husband’s

attention.
 Economic Consideration of Marriage
Most societies view as a binding contract between at least the
husband and wife and, in many cases, between their respective
families as well. Such a contract includes the transfer of certain
rights between the parties involved: rights of sexual access, legal
rights to children, and rights of the spouses to each other’s economic
goods and services. Often the transfer of rights is accompanied by
the transfer of some type of economic consideration. These
transactions, which may take place either before or after the marriage
can be divided into three categories:
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.
BRIDE SERVICE When the groom works for his wife’s family, this is known as
bride service.
DOWRY A dowry involves a transfer of goods or money in the opposite direction,
from the bride's family to the groom’s family.
 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.
 Duolocal or Natolocal: In this marital residence pattern, couples are
required to reside separately. This means that both husband and wife stay
in their families of orientation or in their different apartments and only visit
each other.
 FAMILY
Family
Family can
can be
be defined
defined as
as the
the smallest
smallest group
group of
of individuals
individuals who
who see
see themselves
themselves as
as
connected to one another.
connected to one another.

Family
Family is
is a
a group
group of
of people
people related
related by
by ancestry,
ancestry, marriage
marriage or
or other
other committed
committed sexual
sexual
relationship,
relationship, or
or adopted
adopted and
and live
live together,
together, form
form an
an economic
economic unit,
unit, and
and rear
rear their
their children.
children.

Family is a social group whose members are related either through common ancestry or
marriage and are bound by moral and economic rights and duties.

Family
Family is
is the
the basis
basis ofof human
human society.
society. It
It is
is the
the most
most important
important primary
primary group
group in
in society.
society.
The family, as an institution,
The family, as an institution, is universal.
is universal. It
It is the most permanent and most pervasive of
is the most permanent and most pervasive of
all
all social
social institutions.
institutions.

•• TheThe family
family is
is a
a group
group of
of people
people related
related or
or connected
connected by
by bloodline,
bloodline, marriage
marriage rite
rite or
or adoption
adoption
•• They
They share
share common
common residency.
residency. They
They live
live together.
together.
•• They
They share
share sentiments
sentiments of
of oneness.
oneness. They
They view
view themselves
themselves as
as a
a unit.
unit.
•• They
They share
share values
values and
and responsibilities.
responsibilities. Perform
Perform caretaking
caretaking services
services for
for others
others especially
especially the
the
very young.
very young.
 Types of family
Cultural anthropologists have identified two fundamentally different types
of family structure-the nuclear family and the extended family.
The Nuclear Family:
Consisting of husband and wife and their children, the nuclear family is a
two-generation family formed around the conjugal or marital union. Even
though the unclear family to some degree is part of a larger family
structure, it remains relatively autonomous and independent unity.
The Extended Family
In societies based on extended families, blood ties are more important
than ties of marriage. Extended families consist of two or more families
that are linked by blood ties. Most commonly, this 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.
 Types of Family According to Authority
and Power Structure
 Patriarchal Family: In this kind of family structure, decision
making authority and power lies in the hands of the man whether be
it a nuclear family, single family or an extended family. Male headed
households are obtainable in most societies; and in absence of the
man, the eldest son becomes the leader of the household.
 Matriarchal Family: This is a female headed family. Here authority
is vested on the woman, resulting especially where the man or
husband of a woman has died, or when the men desert their wives.
 Egalitarian Family: This describes an arrangement in the family
where power and decision-making authority are equally distributed
between the husband and wife. Due to education, skills, paid
employment for women, women emancipation programmes in recent
times, women now share equal authorities with men in the family as
they jointly contribute to the family welfare etc.
 Functions Marriage and Family

 Family performs certain specific functions which can be mentioned

as follows:
 Biological Function: The institution of marriage and family serves
biological (sexual and reproductive) function.
 Economic Function: Marriage brings economic co-operation
between men and women and ensure survival of individuals in a
society.
 Social Function the institution of marriage brings with it the creation
and perpetuation of the family, the form of person to person relations
and linking once kin group to another kin group.
 Educational and Socialization Function: The burden of
socialization (via processes of enculturation and education) of new
born infants fall primarily upon the family. In addition, children learn
an immense amount of knowledge, culture, values prescribed by
society, before they assume their place as adult members of a society.
KINSHIP
 kinship is a network of relations expressed in ties of obligations, claims
to resources, statutes, property rights, duties, power, privileges,
authority and obedience, social security, mutual assistance and sexual
behavior
 Kinship ties are connections between individuals, established either
through marriage or through the lines of descent that connect blood
relatives (mothers, fathers, siblings, offspring, etc.).
 Kinship includes the terms, or social statuses, used to define family
members and the roles or expected behaviors family associated with
these statuses. Kinship encompasses relationships formed through
blood connections (consanguineal), such as those created between
parents and children, as well as relationships created through marriage
ties (affinal), such as in-laws. Kinship can also include “chosen kin,”
who have no formal blood or marriage ties, but consider themselves to
be family. Adoptive parents, for instance, are culturally recognized as
parents to the children they raise even though they are not related by
blood.
 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 other family to which he establishes
relation through marriage is called ‘family of procreation’. A
kinship system is neither a social group nor does it correspond
to organized aggregation of individuals. It is a structured
system of relationships where individuals are bound together
by complex interlocking and ramifying ties.
 kinship could be derived from four principles;
 Blood or consanguinity
 Marriage or affinity
 Adoption and
 Ritual or fiction
 DESCENT
Descent
refers to the social recognition of the biological relationship that exists

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. In almost all societies kinship connections are very
significant. An individual always possesses certain obligations towards his kinsmen and
he also expects the same from his kinsmen. Succession and inheritance is related to this
rule of descent. There are three important rules of decent are follows;
Patrilineal descent When descent is traced solely through the male line, it is called
patrilineal descent. A man’s sons and daughters all belong to the same descent group by
birth, but it only the sons who continue the affiliation. Succession and inheritance pass
through the male line.
Matrilineal descent When the descent is traced solely through the female line. It is
called matrilineal descent. At birth, children of both sexes belong to mother’s descent
group, but later only females acquire the succession and inheritance. Therefore,
daughters carry the tradition, generation after generation.
Cognatic Descent In some society’s individuals are free to show their genealogical
links either through men or women. Some people of such society are therefore
connected with the kin-group of father and others with the kin group of mothers. There
is no fixed rule to trace the succession and inheritance; any combination of lineal link is
possible in such societies.