2 Learning and Understanding Culture all culture is learned transmitted socially people learn their culture by growing up in it enculturation process whereby culture is transmitted from one generation to the next our enculturation includes teaching us the norms cultural rules for behavior appropriate to other s identities small argues that babies learn cultural values such as in dependence work patterns and attitudes about our bodies through variations in holding co sleeping breastfeeding playing cultural relativism belief that we should understand other s cultural practices on their own terms cultural anthropology tries to look at both your own and unfamiliar cultures as both an outsider and an insider emic perspective held by members of the group etic perspective held by outsiders through their own ideas and concerns culture shock arising in part over uncertainty about what is culturally appropriate and often including moral or aesthetical disgust towards aspects of a foreign culture ethnography background study fieldwork writing involves participant observation method interviewing an ethnographic monograph is a text exploring aspects of a culture cultural analysis cultural group particularist approach involves extensive study of all aspects of one particular comparative approach involves comparing parallel features between two or more cultures culture includes how you dress how you walk how what and when you eat how you think about yourself other people and the whole world the objects you come in contact with how you spend your time how you observe important occasions like life events and holy days culture is everything you know by the time you re twelve culture is necessary people need a shared system of meanings values symbols and understandings to be able to predict and interpret one another s behavior it enables us to live with other people culture is integrated anthropologists recognize the need to study the interrelationship of many aspects of human life holism the view that cultures are holistic systems and to understand the whole culture one must study all its interconnected parts culture is conservative some aspects of culture usually aspects fundamental to the social order like ideas about gender and family tend to be rather conservative changing either very slowly through time or more rapidly under special circumstances such as a societal revolution yet culture is always changing culture aspects like fashion or slang change rapidly cultures are always in motion there is no such thing as an unchanging pristine culture is learned no culture is biologically inherited little kids aren t disgusted by anything disgust reactions are learned culture is normative as part of our enculturation we learn appropriate behaviors and ideas for our age gender social context etc when we stray from these norms temporarily or habitually we are often subject to social sanctions negative influence from others which encourage us to behave more normally subculture rules may differ from the dominant culture culture is shared culture makes interpersonal communication mutual understanding and coordinated action possible however individual members of a culture do not all share the exact same mental map in all societies different categories of people have different experiences of their culture and may have expertise in different areas of cultural knowledge culture is often invisible taking the form of expectations assumptions beliefs ex idea of god idea of harmony idea of knowledge culture is multiple culture is ideational identities culture is material humans constantly make their culture material by shaping objects to reflect their ideas and their needs these objects are called artifacts culture is embodied in our physical selves has concrete implications for people s social standing and opportunities health access to food and other resources etc culture is connected to power both the structures of a given culture and the differential relationships there is no set number of cultures in the world however it is also not useful to call any social grouping a culture or subculture a culture subculture should be defined as the way of life some group of people which is sufficiently distinctive to be interesting enough to study