ANTH 3240 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Jared Diamond, Menopause, Sexual Selection

• School: York University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 3240
• Professor: Lynda Mannik

Document Summary

Cultural anthropology= find out about others to know yourself better. Culture= blue print for your life, learned, shared values, beliefs and rules that structure peoples thinking and behavior. 4 features of culture: learned--> we continuously learn about our culture through our lifetimes, more concentrated in childhood and teen years. Enculturation: learning to be a member of a specific cultural group, learn it through experience and direct direction. Constantly learning: largely communication through symbols and symbolic meaning--> words, visual images, (cid:272)lothi(cid:374)g et(cid:272, shared system-> all shared se(cid:374)se of (cid:448)alues, thi(cid:374)gs (cid:449)e should/should(cid:374)"t do. Ca(cid:374) (cid:271)e (cid:272)o(cid:373)pli(cid:272)ated: subject to change and cause change. Our culture does(cid:374)"t ha(cid:448)e (cid:272)o(cid:374)trol o(cid:448)er us (cid:894)it does i(cid:374) so(cid:373)e (cid:449)a(cid:455)s, (cid:449)e follo(cid:449) (cid:272)ultural rules(cid:895) (cid:449)e also (cid:272)a(cid:374) resist our own culture, deconstruct it. If you stop doing the behavior, the rules of the culture change. We are not slaves to our culture, we all resist certain aspects, we don"t all follow along.