Understanding Culture
Understanding Culture
The biggest challenge the social scientists face is reaching a consensus over the definition of culture. Among sociologists ad anthropologists, debate has raged for several academic generations about the proper definition of the term “culture”. Ralph Linton (1945), an American anthropologist said that culture is 'the sum total of knowledge, attitudes and habitual behavior patterns shared and transmitted by the members of a particular society '.[1] Ward Goodenough (1957), another pioneer in anthropology stated that culture is 'the pattern of life within a community, the regularly recurring activities and material and social arrangements characteristic of a particular group '.[2] Since the seminal work of Clifford Geertz (1973), the older definition of culture as the entire way of life of people, including their technology and material artifacts, or that as everything one needs to know to become a functioning member of a society, has been gradually displaced in favor of defining culture as the publicly available symbolic forms through which people experience and express meaning.[3] Though culture is a very powerful tool for human survival, but yet on the other hand it is a very fragile phenomenon. Culture constantly undergoes change and can be easily lost because it exists only in the minds of individuals. Our written languages, governments, buildings, traditions and other man-made things are merely the bi-products of culture. They are not culture in themselves. For this reason, archaeologists can not excavate culture, like they do for the other man-made things. All they can do is dig up the bi-products of culture, such as the broken pots and other artifacts of ancient people, which are only material remains that reflect cultural patterns of a society. There are very likely three layers or levels of culture that are part of a person 's learned behavior patterns and perceptions. Firstly it is the body of cultural traditions that
The biggest challenge the social scientists face is reaching a consensus over the definition of culture. Among sociologists ad anthropologists, debate has raged for several academic generations about the proper definition of the term “culture”. Ralph Linton (1945), an American anthropologist said that culture is 'the sum total of knowledge, attitudes and habitual behavior patterns shared and transmitted by the members of a particular society '.[1] Ward Goodenough (1957), another pioneer in anthropology stated that culture is 'the pattern of life within a community, the regularly recurring activities and material and social arrangements characteristic of a particular group '.[2] Since the seminal work of Clifford Geertz (1973), the older definition of culture as the entire way of life of people, including their technology and material artifacts, or that as everything one needs to know to become a functioning member of a society, has been gradually displaced in favor of defining culture as the publicly available symbolic forms through which people experience and express meaning.[3] Though culture is a very powerful tool for human survival, but yet on the other hand it is a very fragile phenomenon. Culture constantly undergoes change and can be easily lost because it exists only in the minds of individuals. Our written languages, governments, buildings, traditions and other man-made things are merely the bi-products of culture. They are not culture in themselves. For this reason, archaeologists can not excavate culture, like they do for the other man-made things. All they can do is dig up the bi-products of culture, such as the broken pots and other artifacts of ancient people, which are only material remains that reflect cultural patterns of a society. There are very likely three layers or levels of culture that are part of a person 's learned behavior patterns and perceptions. Firstly it is the body of cultural traditions that
Bibliography: Banks, J.A., Banks, & McGee, C. A. (1989). Multicultural education. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Geertz, Clifford. (1973). Religion As a Cultural System. In The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books. Itard, Jean-Marc-Gaspard (1962). The Wild Boy of Aveyron. New York: Meredith Company. Linton, Ralph 1945, The cultural background of personality. New York, Appleton-Century Ralhan, Om Prakash (2002), "Indian National Congress", Encyclopaedia of Political Parties, New Delhi: Anmol Publications [3] Swindler Ann 2001, Talk of Love:How Culture Matters. The University of Chicago Press [4] Ralhan, Om Prakash (2002), "Indian National Congress", Encyclopaedia of Political Parties, New Delhi: Anmol Publications [5] Geertz, Clifford. (1973). Religion As a Cultural System. In The Interpretation of Cultures. Pp. 87-125. New York: Basic Books. [6] Banks, J.A., Banks, & McGee, C. A. (1989). Multicultural education. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. [7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_of_Aveyron [8] Itard, Jean-Marc-Gaspard (1962)