Culture - Culture: definition

5 important questions on Culture - Culture: definition

What are the two essential processes of culture?

Learning and sharing. 
Our biological behavior and our genetically inherited instincts are not cultures, since these are not learned. 
Our individual idiosyncratic behaviors are not culture, since they aren ot shared. 

Name the two types of culture.

- Non-material culture
- Material culture: all man-made objects and materials. 

What are the elements of non-material culture?

- Values: include desirable ends as well as desirable means to those ends. 
- Norms: do's and don'ts guides (unwritten rules of behavior)
- Rituals: utilitarian and symbolic rituals. 
- Customs: ways of doing things, sometimes a custom can be a ritual. 
- Myths: stories that express some key values of a society.
- Knowledge, science and technology: basis of beliefs on which we base our actions. 
- Laws: norms with legal actions. 
- Arts: music, painting, literature. 

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What is the difference between enculturation and acculturation?

Enculturation is learning one's own culture (happens during childhood).  
Acculturation is learning a new culture (when we migrate to a new society or make friends with people from other cultures). 

What are the six characteristics of culture?

- Culture is learned
- Culture regulates society
- Culture makes living more efficient
- Culture is adaptive
- Culture is environmental
- Cultures are hierarchical

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