ANTH 210 Lecture 4 Outline of Last Lecture 1 Limitations of Cultural Relativism 2 Female Genital Cutting Terminology Outline of Current Lecture 1 Challenge of Cultural Relativism 2 Ethnology of culture 3 Universality 4 Generality 5 Cultural Change Mechanisms 6 Challenge to Cultural Relativism 7 Globalization 8 Ethnographic Research Current Lecture Challenge of Cultural Relativism Human rights justice and morality beyond and superior to the laws and customs of particular countries cultures and religions Cultural rights rights of a group to preserve its culture language and economic base Indigenous intellectual property rights conservation of each society s core beliefs knowledge and practices Ethnology of culture universality generality and particularity o psychic unity of man all human populations have equivalent capacities for culture people can learn any cultural tradition Cultural universals features found in every culture Cultural generalities features common to several but not all human groups Cultural particularities features unique to certain cultural traditions Universality Universality o biologically based universals long period of infant dependency year round sexuality complex brain that enables people to use symbols languages and tools o Social universals Life in groups some kind of family Cultural generality o Nuclear family kinship group consisting of parents and children Cultural Change Mechanisms Diffusion patterns of cultural borrowings ideas and things o Has gone on throughout human history o Can be direct between two adjacent cultures or indirect across longdistance medium e g mass media information technology Acculturation o The process of the exchange of cultural features that results when groups come into continuous firsthand contact Independent invention o Process by which human innovates creatively finding solutions to problems o Comparable inventions in different societies result in cultural generalities Ex the independent invention of agriculture in both the middle east and Mexico Globalization The accelerating interdependence of nations in a world system linked economically and through mass media and modern transportation systems Forces of globalization international commerce and finance travel and tourism transnational migration the mass media and high tech information flows ETHNIGRAPHIC RESEARCH participant observation Fieldwork where most observe rather than participate rapport used to refer to the notion that you need a good working relationship with the research population Which allows them to act normal around you Non interference not allowed to interfere with the culture