SA 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Unintended Consequences, Cultural Assimilation, Potlatch

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Sociology and Anthropology
• Course: SA 101
• Professor: Bascom Guffin

Document Summary

Culture = situational, fluid, and ever-changing entities. Can have various meaning sto diff ppl and can be used for detrimental and beneficial purposes. Issues and concerns that have developed from the use of the concept of culture" to identify certain ppl and their practices, land, property and rights. When faced w political, economic, and cultural colonization, cultural or economic upheaval or oppression, reclaiming one"s culture (whatever it may be to them) is a serious matter. Notions of cultural renewal and revival refer to ability and efforts of individuals and communities to change or renew their culture according to their needs. Acknowledges the role of human agency in cultural change and the ways that ppl make new meaning of their world. British colonialists and their ethnographic notion of progress put indig ppls on a path to cultural assimilation which drove collectors to want to preserve the cultures before they became extinct.