lesson 1 notes and stuff culture

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Washington State University *

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Anthropology

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Apr 3, 2024

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Practice Quiz for Characteristics of Culture No. of Questions= 13 INSTRUCTIONS: To answer a question, click the button in front of your choice. A response will appear in the window below the question to let you know if you are correct. Be sure to read the feedback. It is designed to help you learn the material. You can also learn by reading the feedback for incorrect answers. 1. Which of the following statements is true concerning human evolution? a) The first humans evolved in the cold temperate regions of the world because of the need to develop culture for survival in those areas. b) Culture is necessary for survival in the complex industrialized nations, but it is not in small societies that live by hunting and gathering wild foods. c) Culture is an adaptive mechanism for humans. 2. Compared to what it was before the end of the last ice age (about 10,000 years ago), the rate of human culture change is now _______________ . a) faster b) slower c) about the same 3. Which of the following statements is true? a) The fact that cultural evolution can occur faster than biological evolution has altered the effect of natural selection on humans. b) People are pre-adapted by their genes to acquire particular cultures. c) none of the above 4. All human cultures evolve over time. Which of the following things is most responsible for this? a) culture is an adaptive mechanism b) culture is instinctive c) culture is cumulative 5. Approximately 8,000-10,000 years ago, our ancestors invented agriculture. Which of the following things was a consequence of this development? a) a more controllable and dependable food supply b) the creation of villages, towns, and ultimately cities

c) the emergence of new kinds of political systems. d) all of the above 6. Which of the following is a likely consequence of cultural evolution? a) culture loss b) better health c) greater intelligence d) all of the above 7. Culture change occurs as a result of ________________ . a) diffusion b) invention c) both of the above d) neither of the above 8. Ethnocentrism refers to the fact that _________________ . a) some cultures are actually better than others b) people usually believe that their way of life is superior, and they are somewhat condescending or even hostile toward other cultures c) the technologically simpler societies usually feel that their cultures are inferior 9. When anthropologists study other societies, they need to suspend their own culture-based judgments. What is this kind of approach called? a) cultural relativity b) ethnocentric c) diffusion 10. The Masai people live in ______________ . a) South America b) Australia c) Africa 11. Which of the following statements is true? a) People usually are unconscious of their culture in their daily lives. b) There are always a few people in small-scale societies who know all of their culture. c) In most societies, boys and girls are taught the same things about their culture. 12. Which of the following statements is true?

a) The range of permissible ways of dressing and acting as a man or woman are relatively unlimited in traditional Moslem societies. b) It is likely that there still are some societies existing in total cultural isolation from the outside world. c) Cultures usually allow a range of permissible behavior patterns. 13. The break-up of the former empire of the Soviet Union into largely ethnic based nations is an example of ___________ . a) globalism b) tribalism c) none of the above Characteristics of Culture In order to better understand culture, it is useful to closely examine its characteristics and their ramifications. In this section of the tutorial, you will learn about the specific advantages that culture gives our species. You will also learn about culture's limitations and shortcomings. Culture Is An Adaptive Mechanism The first humans evolved in tropical and subtropical regions of Africa about 2.5 million years ago. Since then, we have successfully occupied all of the major geographic regions of the world, but our bodies have remained essentially those of warm climate animals. We cannot survive outside of the warmer regions of our planet without our cultural knowledge and technology. What made it possible for our ancestors to begin living in temperate and ultimately subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere after half a million years ago was the invention of efficient hunting skills, fire use, and, ultimately, clothing, warm housing, agriculture, and commerce. Culture has been a highly successful adaptive mechanism for our species. It has given us a major selective advantage in the competition for survival with other life forms. Culture has allowed the global human population to grow from less than 10 million people shortly after the end of the last ice age to more than 6.5 billion people today, a mere 10,000 years later. Culture has made us the most dangerous and the most destructive large animal on our planet. It is ironic that despite the power that culture has given us, we are totally dependent on it for survival. We need our cultural skills to stay alive.

Expanding human geographic range into new environmental zones made possible by the evolution of culture (The ranges during later time periods include those of earlier periods) Over the last several hundred thousand years, we have developed new survival related cultural skills and technologies at a faster rate than natural selection could alter our bodies to adapt to the environmental challenges that confronted us. The fact that cultural evolution can occur faster than biological evolution has significantly modified the effect of natural selection on humans. One consequence of this has been that we have not developed thick fat layers and dense fur coats like polar bears in the cold regions because our culture provided the necessary warmth during winter times. Culture is learned Human infants come into the world with basic drives such as hunger and thirst, but they do not possess instinctive patterns of behavior to satisfy them. Likewise, they are without any cultural knowledge. However, they are genetically predisposed to rapidly learn language and other cultural traits. New born humans are amazing learning machines. Any normal baby can be placed into any family on earth and grow up to learn their culture and accept it as his or her own. Since culture is non-instinctive , we are not genetically programmed to learn a particular one. Successful cultural technology for adapting to very cold winter environments

Every human generation potentially can discover new things and invent better technologies. The new cultural skills and knowledge are added onto what was learned in previous generations. As a result, culture is cumulative . Due to this cumulative effect, most high school students today are now familiar with mathematical insights and solutions that ancient Greeks such as Archimedes and Pythagoras struggled their lives to discover. Cultural evolution is due to the cumulative effect of culture. We now understand that the time between major cultural inventions has become steadily shorter, especially since the invention of agriculture 8,000-10,000 years ago. The progressively larger human population after that time was very likely both a consequence and a cause of accelerating culture growth. The more people there are, the more likely new ideas and information will accumulate. If those ideas result in a larger, more secure food supplies, the population will inevitably grow. In a sense, culture has been the human solution to surviving changing environments, but it has continuously compounded the problem by making it possible for more humans to stay alive. In other words, human cultural evolution can be seen as solving a problem that causes the same problem again and again. The ultimate cost of success of cultural technology has been a need to produce more and more food for more and more people. Parallel Growth of the Human Population and Cultural Technology The invention of agriculture made it possible for our ancestors to have a more controllable and, subsequently, dependable food supply. It also resulted in settling down in permanent communities. This in turn set the stage for further developments in technology and political organization. The inevitable result was more intensive agriculture, new kinds of social and political systems dominated by emerging elite classes, the first cities, and ultimately the industrial and information revolutions of modern times. City life brought with it the unexpected consequence of increased rates of contagious diseases. Large, dense populations of people make it much easier for North American children informally learning the culture of their parents

viruses, bacteria, and other disease causing microorganisms to spread from host to host. As a result, most cities in the past were periodically devastated by epidemics. Agriculture based ancient city (Thebes, Egypt) Modern post-industrial city (New York) The rate of cultural evolution for many human societies during the last two centuries has been unprecedented. Today, major new technologies are invented every few years rather than once or twice a century or even less often, as was the case in the past. Likewise, there has been an astounding increase in the global human population. It is worth reflecting on the fact that there are people alive today who were born before cell phones, computers, televisions, radios, antibiotics, and even airplanes. These now elderly individuals have seen the human population double several times. The world that was familiar to them in their childhood is no longer here. It is as if they have moved to a new alien culture and society. Not surprisingly, they often have difficulty in accepting and adjusting to the change. The psychological distress and confusion that accompanies this has been referred to as future shock . Cultures Change All cultural knowledge does not perpetually accumulate. At the same time that new cultural traits are added, some old ones are lost because they are no longer useful. For example, most city dwellers today do not have or need the skills required for survival in a wilderness. Most would very likely starve to death because they do not know how to acquire wild foods and survive the extremes of weather outdoors. What is more important in modern urban life are such things as the ability to drive a car, use a computer, and understand how to obtain food in a supermarket or restaurant. The regular addition and subtraction of cultural traits results in culture change. All cultures change over time --none is static. However, the rate of change and the aspects of culture that change varies from society to society. For instance, people in Germany today generally seem eager to adopt new words from other languages, especially from American English, while many French people are resistant to it because Tool of modern technology

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