ANT 2000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Clifford Geertz, Ethnocentrism, Cultural Rights
Document Summary
British anthropologist, sir edward taylor, proposed that cultures-systems of human behavior and thought- obey natural laws and therefore can be studied scientifically. He defines culture as a complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. Enculturation: the process by which culture is learned and transmitted across the generations. Symbols: something verbal or nonverbal that stands for something else. Every person begins immediately, through a process of conscious and unconscious learning and interaction with others, to internalize, or incorporate, a cultural tradition through the process of enculturation. Culture can also be transmitted through observation. Anthropologist also accepts a doctrine named in the 19th century as the psychic unity of man . This means that although individuals differ in their emotional and intellectual tendencies and capacities, all human populations have equivalent capacities for nature. Leslie white defined culture as dependent upon symboling.
