ANTH 002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Moe Williams, Cultural Relativism, Ethnocentrism
7 May 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
Anth 002
msowae@gopasadenaedu
Moe Williams
Cultural Anthropology
● How is culture learned?
○ To be considered cultural, it must be learned as well as shared
○ Human’s learn from each other
○ Language helps us learn rapidly
● Learned behaviors:
○ belief, attitude, value, ideal. Individual variation is the source of new culture
○ If only one person does a certain thing, that represents a personal habit
● Controversies about the concept of culture
○ Should the concept of culture refer to just the rules or ideas behind behavior or
should it also include the behaviors or the products of behavior, as is our choice
here. Some believe culture has a life of its own
● Cultural constraints:
○ Norms are the rules about what is an acceptable behavior according to social
scientists
● Cultural constraints are of two types:
○ Direct:
■ more obvious, like not wearing clothing in public
○ Indirect:
■ like speaking a language no one understands
○ Attitudes that hinder the study of cultures
○ People who judge other cultures solely in terms of their own culture are
ethnocentric, they hold an attitude called ethnocentrism
○ Both ethnocentrism and glorification of other cultures hinder effective study
● Cultural Relativism
○ The idea that a society’s customs and ideas should be described objectively and
understood in the context of that society’s problems and opportunities.
Anthropologists differ in their interpretations
● Human rights and relativism:
○ is it possible to create a universal standard. Relativism can be a tool for change,
could persuade
● Describing a culture
○ Understanding what is cultural involves two parts:
■ Separating what is shared from what is individually variable, and
understanding whether common behaviors and ideas are learned
● Ideals:
○ how people ought to feel and behave. In anthropology, ideal cultural traits
● Mode or modal response:
○ most frequently encountered response in a given series of responses.
● Frequency distribution:
○ the distance observed
Document Summary
To be considered cultural, it must be learned as well as shared. Individual variation is the source of new culture. If only one person does a certain thing, that represents a personal habit. Should the concept of culture refer to just the rules or ideas behind behavior or should it also include the behaviors or the products of behavior, as is our choice here. Some believe culture has a life of its own. Norms are the rules about what is an acceptable behavior according to social. More obvious, like not wearing clothing in public scientists. Indirect: like speaking a language no one understands. Attitudes that hinder the study of cultures. People who judge other cultures solely in terms of their own culture are ethnocentric, they hold an attitude called ethnocentrism. Both ethnocentrism and glorification of other cultures hinder effective study.
