Transcript CULTURE AND BELIEFS

CULTURE AND BELIEFS
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What is culture, and what
are its components?
What external factors
influence culture? How?
Are cultures permanent?
Why are human beings
gregarious?
How do we know how
we’re supposed to
behave?
How do we acquire our
culture?
CULTURE AND BELIEFS
Culture is a way of life shared between a group of people.
It’s components include:
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Religion / beliefs
Behaviour
Values
Attitudes
Traditions
Customs
Language
Appearance
Aesthetics
Morality
Roles
WHAT IS CULTURE?
Aesthetics:
Appearance
Beliefs
and
religion
art / design /
literature
Roles
A person’s culture
Morals
Traditions /
customs
Values
Language
Attitudes
AQA Humanities GCSE
Power and Democracy
Global Inequality
Environmental
Issues
Morals
Aesthetics
Appearance
People and
Work
Culture
Language
Values
Attitudes
Roles
Traditions / customs
Prejudice and
Persecution
Conflict and
Cooperation
Patterns of
Family Life
CULTURE AND BELIEFS
External influences
that help to shape
culture include:
• The environment
• Wealth
• Technology
CULTURE AND BELIEFS
Cultures are not
usually permanent. If
they are not able to
adapt to changing
circumstances they
may well die out.
Think of British
culture’s adaptation
over the centuries.
CULTURE AND BELIEFS
Human beings are, as individuals,
weak. Early in our evolution we
learned the advantages of:
• Working together (co-operation)
• Understanding what is expected
of us (norms)
• Communication
• Trust
Also, as children we conform to our
parents’ expectations in exchange
for the love and protection we need
to survive. This stays with us as we
mature.
CULTURE AND BELIEFS
We know what to do to fit into our
culture because we learn its NORMS.
One who fits in with their culture is,
therefore, called NORMAL.
Most norms are not written down
(except for rules and laws).
We never stop learning norms in our
lifetime.
We are encouraged to stick to the
norms of our culture through positive
sanctions. If we break norms we
may suffer negative sanctions.
Sanctions vary according to a
culture’s values.
CULTURE AND BELIEFS
Socialisation is the lifelong
process, often unconscious,
through which we learn our
culture.
Our primary socialisers are our
parents, particularly our mothers
in this culture.
What is learned in the first five
years of life is thought to have
more longlasting effect on us
than anything we learn in the
rest of it.
HOW DO WE ACQUIRE
OUR CULTURE?
Family
Education
Religious
group
Leaders e.g.
government
Workplace
A person’s culture
Also through:
• Peer pressure
• Role models
Mass media
• Laws
• Observation
CULTURE AND BELIEFS
Secondary socialisers
include:
• Our other relatives
• Our peer groups
• Education
• Work
• Religious organisations
• The mass media
CULTURE AND BELIEFS
Nature or Nurture?
When studying culture we want to be scientific in our
reasoning, but it is difficult to set up experiments like in
science! It is not practical and it is immoral.
We have to look for case studies to provide evidence to back
up explanations. Look at the following three groups of case
studies which provide conflicting evidence in answer to the
question:
How do we acquire our culture?
• cases that suggest we are born with our cultural
behaviour
• children who grew up with little or no mixing with
others
• children who grew up with unusual socialisers
The available evidence
• Sets of twins who were brought up separately
• Research into brain activity
• children who grew up with little or no socialisation
• children who grew up with unusual socialisation
How convincing do you find this evidence?
CULTURE AND BELIEFS
The Case for Nature
The Uncanny Twins
The Brain
Some evidence for “Nature”
http://cmgm.stanford.edu/biochem118/Projects/2003/Redden.pdf
Some evidence for “Nature”
Some evidence for “Nature”
Brain Lateralisation
• Corpus Callosum
– Large band of neural fibers that
connects the two brain hemispheres
• The two sides of our brains serve
different functions (lateralized or
specialization of tasks):
– Left hemisphere: Language, math,
logic
– Right hemisphere: spatial abilities,
face recognition, visual imagery,
musical and artistic abilities,
emotional tasks.
• This is the case for almost all
righthanders (about 95%) and about
half of lefthanders
Play the split brain experiments game at:
http://nobelprize.org/medicine/educational/split-brain/index.html
and read the explanation. What do we learn about nature and behaviour ?
• http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/jugg.
html for juggling and the brain
• http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/femc
on.html for male female differences
CULTURE AND BELIEFS
Cases for nurture
http://www.feralchildren.com
See also booklet stories of Anna, Isabel, Patrick, the Gazelle
boy and others.
See also our video for modern accounts
So, do we acquire culture through nature or nurture?
FERAL CHILDREN VIDEO
WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?
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Russian girl 1983. Parents alcoholic. Oxana lived in kennel with
dogs.
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affected her speech and behaviour
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Boy found in the wild in SW France in 19th century. When
found he was described as “savage” and “snarling”. Not human?
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Doctor attempted to re-socialise Victor as a human. Gave
him lots of love and affection. Made him feel he
belonged.
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Established 2 key tests for becoming human:
 Empathy. He passed  .Evidence:
 Language. Tried but  failed. Evidence
FERAL CHILDREN VIDEO
3.
The Indian Wolf-Girls
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In a modern version of the Romulus and Remus story, two
young girls were discovered under the care of a she-wolf in
1920, in Godamuri, India. The girls were taken to an orphanage
in Midnapore (now part of Orissa). The children, Kamala, aged
eight and Amala, aged 18 months, behaved exactly like small
wild animals. They slept during the day and woke by night. They
remained on all-fours, enjoyed raw meat, and were given to
biting and attacking other children if provoked. They could smell
raw meat from a distance, and they had an acute sense of sight
and hearing. The youngest child, Amala, died one year later, but
Kamala lived for nine years in the orphanage until she died of
illness at the age of 17. Kamala did acquire a small vocabulary,
but she remained very different to other children until the time of
her death.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A269840/
FERAL CHILDREN VIDEO
4. Chimpanzee experiment in USA
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Evidence that early isolation damaged them for life.
5. American urban feral child (Jeanie)
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For 13 years kept in dark at night and strapped to a
potty during day. Mother and brother forbidden to
talk to her.
How she was when found:
Progress made
Limitations
CONCLUSIONS RE EVIDENCE IN ANSWER TO
QUESTION POSED….
CULTURE AND BELIEFS
Glossary. What do these terms mean?
• Culture
• Mechanical solidarity
• Subculture
• Insider
• Multicultural
• Outsider
• Monocultural
• Adaptation
• Cultural diversity
• Interaction
• Ethnocentrism
• Conflict
• Xenophobia
• Co-operation
• Cultural relativism
• Norm
• Organic solidarity
• Socialisation
• Socio - economic
• Anthropology
CASE STUDIES
• Amish Culture
• Culture in Britain
AMISH CULTURE
http://members.aol.com/KermesArt/
The Amish today
http://www.amishphoto.com/galleryindex2.htm
http://www.amish-heartland.com/?topic=-Amish+Culture
THE AMISH CULTURE
• Introduction
• What would it be like if you
had never watched
television? If you didn't own a
CD player? What would your
home be like if you didn't own
a telephone? How would your
parents go to work if they
didn't have a car?
• Welcome to the world of the
Amish - a people rich in
history and culture!
http://www.berksiu.k12.pa.us/webquest/Wandell/
AMISH HISTORY
• THE “NEW WORLD”
• QUAKERS
• WILLIAM PENN
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16TH AND 17TH
CENTURY EUROPE:
REFORMATION
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RELIGIOUS
PERSECUTION
What makes the Amish
culture work?
• http://www.ainglkiss.com/sermon/
• http://www.eastbuc.k12.ia.us/00_01/Ami/ami_intro.htm
• http://www.holycrosslivonia.org/amish/ami
shfaq.htm#how
How true was the portrayal of the
Amish in the movie Witness?
• The movie, Witness, portrayed Amish lifestyle
fairly accurately in what was shown, but it
portrayed a very limited segment of Amish
lifestyle. The Amish people have had a lot of
reservations about Witness. The plot seemed to
be inconsistent with the lifestyle and culture of
the Amish. It was filmed in the geographical area
of the Amish, but not on an Amish farm. The
actors and actresses in the movie were not
Amish
What is the effect of contact
between the Amish and other
cultures?
• Amish as a tourist attraction
http://www.padutchcountry.com/my_pa_du
tch/map_visitors_guide.asp
• http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/n
rms/amish.html
CULTURE IN BRITAIN
England?
Britain?
British Isles?
We are all immigrants?
Study the sources about culture in Britain since the Celts arrived.
Answer the questions. Before you do, here is some guidance to help you
do well.
Working with sources:
 Language
 Analysis
 Interpretation
 Evaluation
What are we looking for in a good answer. Some examples.
FIND OUT ABOUT CULTURE IN BRITAIN HERE
www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/
England, Britain, United Kingdom, British
Isles? Some confusion here?
Over the past 2000 years many ethnic groups have occupied
what is loosely known as The British Isles.
Great Britain = England + Wales + Scotland.
A “British” identity was only created in 1707 with the Union of
England, Wales and Scotland.
England is represented by the flag
of St. George. England first acquired
this in 1194. England had already
defeated and “absorbed” Wales by
the time England was united with
Scotland in 1707, so its own flag with
a dragon on it was not included!
Scotland is represented by
the flag of St. Andrew
The union flag of 1707.
The United Kingdom today, however, is
Great Britain + Northern Ireland. The
whole of Ireland was “incorporated” in
1801, when the flag of St. Patrick was
included.
Today it is only 6 of the counties in
Northern Ireland which are represented
in the modern union flag, by the flag of
St. Patrick.
AN ENGLISH CULTURE?