ANTHR110 Lecture : Being Cultural.pdf
8 Dec 2013
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Document Summary
Years ago, we used to have more trouble introducing the concept, because people tended to think of the other meaning of culture, i. e. , high culture, esp. art, music, refinement. One hears of corporate culture, academic culture, the culture of just about anything. Culture concept arose, mostly in 19th century, as way to talk about systematic nature of human thought and action. Previously, many explanations of human actions and thought were put in terms of environmental determinism. Why do people in alps believe in witches?---because of the thin mountain air. Why are people in latin america or indonesia inferior to us. Their hot, unchanging climate doesn"t challenge them like our cold winters do. The famous essayist montesquieu said northerners were brave, vigorous, insensitive to pain, weakly sexed, intelligent, and drunkards. Another frenchman of the enlightenment said northerners faithful, loyal to government, cruel, undersexed. Southerners were malicious, crafty, wise, expert in science but bad in government.
