Unilineal Cultural Evolution

Sociology is the study the different aspects of humanity and society. It encompasses a very broad and varying range of topics. It can be studied on a large world-wide scale spanning across several countries, which is called Macrosociology. It can also be studied on a small scale looking at only individual families or neighborhoods, which is called Microsociology. Not only does it peer into humans’ interactions with each other but examines why they act the way they do. It considers the environment, as well as how access to different luxuries can contribute to the people that we become. In this fascinating field there are three primary views on exactly what the fundamental driving force behind society is. Symbolic Interactionalism, the belief that symbols and the meaning that they are given, define how we will perceive life, in this philosophy these meanings are influenced by society and the events of individual lives. Functional Analysis, views society as any other organism, in this theory all parts of the whole must work together cohesively to function. Conflict theory takes a somewhat opposite view than Functionalism, this perspective suggests that rather than wanting to work in unison, society’s underlying motive is a power struggle for resources. Over the course of this paper the reader will explore these different perspectives.

Theories have been composed and exposed by various philosophers to clarify their reasoning about the mind. Dualism, Behaviorism, and Identity Theory, are well-known theories supported by well-written explanations. A modern theory, Functionalism provides ample insight to the main problem philosophers deal with, the mind/body problem.

Malinowski’s Functionalism: “humans have a set of universal biological needs, and that customs developed to fulfill those needs.” Focusing on the individual and satisfying the basic seven needs which included nutrition, reproduction, bodily comforts, safety, movement, health, and growth.

Have you ever wondered why do we do things that we do? Why do we act in a certain way? What compels us to follow a path or formulate habits? One perspective among many others is the sociocultural perspective. A sociocultural perspective is an approach to understand why humans behave the way they do. It seeks to understand human behavior and personality development by examining the influence of rules of social groups on individuals who are members of those social groups. Sociocultural approach is an emerging topic that looks at the important contributions that society makes to an individual. The sociocultural approach is based on the assumption that our personalities, beliefs, attitudes and skills are learned from others. It refers to a point of view that is built upon the idea that society and culture are major factors that influence personalities. This approach believes that people are heavily influenced by their social environment. What makes and defines us as individuals is the application of sociocultural approach. For example, if you look outside the window and see a man talking to a tree, what conclusions will you draw? You may think the man is a lunatic and needs some kind of medication. But would your opinion change if you knew that the man was Native American and Native Americans believe in a spiritual philosophy that trees can speak if you listen to them. So you see, the context of culture makes a huge difference in how you ascertain someone’s behavior and that’s

Ruth Benedict’s anthropological book, Patterns of Culture explores the dualism of culture and personality. Benedict studies different cultures such as the Zuni tribe and the Dobu Indians. Each culture she finds is so different and distinctive in relation to the norm of our society. Each difference is what makes it unique. Benedict compares the likenesses of culture and individuality, “A culture, like an individual, is a more or less consistent pattern of thought or action” (46), but note, they are not the same by use of the word, “like.” Benedict is saying that figuratively, cultures are like personalities. Culture and individuality are intertwined and dependent upon each other for survival.

In this paper I will begin by defining personal culture and national culture. After, I will then elaborate my own personal and national culture. I will continue to talk about the subject with the person that I have chosen for my cultural group, my mother, and I will identify her personal and national culture. Lastly, I will talk about my own personality and how it has a connection with my own natural culture; knowing this is important, it lets us know who we are, and how we act with people who are from different cultures.

The central object of Mead’s study, Coming of Age in Samoa (1928), was to determine whether or not:

The story I choose to review was about Maurice Rowland, and Miguel Alvarez they both worked at Valley Springs manor assisted living home, Marice was a cook , and Miguel was a janitor. In October the company decided to shut down, and this left many of the elderly residents with nowhere to go. I choose this story because I am a nursing assistant at Bethany Village. I could not imagine leaving so many elderly people abandon and hopeless! I think what these two did was absolutely amazing! they spent three days taking care of these residents, and doing anything from giving them baths, and changing them, to administering their medications. I believe this story falls best under functionalism because both of these men fall under a category of contributing

Functionalism is a consensus perspective, whereby society is based on shared values and norms into which members are socialised. For functionalists, society is seen as a system of social institutions such as the economy, religion and the family all of which perform socialisation functions.

Functionalism is seen as a macro-scale approach to society; it sees society as a whole rather than looking at parts of it. Due to this, functionalism sees society as a body (organic analogy), all the institutions work together to make society. This is particularly useful when observing society in order to understand the way in which it functions and the way in which all the institutions (organic analogy: organs within the body) work together to sustain society as a whole. Functionalism being a macro-scale approach is therefore seen as a strength as it allows functionalist sociologists to observe society, and its institutions, as a whole.

For the purposes of this piece, culture is defined as “the full range of human patterned experience” as described by Cole (1996) cited in Gla ̆veanu & Jovchelovitch (2017, p.113). This chapter also provides a description of the importance culture plays in psychological research.

Margaret Mead’s book “Coming of Age in Samoa” is an anthropological study of a “primitive” group of people under completely different cultural conditions than people of western society, namely America. She chose to study a group of adolescents in the South Sea Island of Samoa, a place where one might study a people: “Whose society has never attained the complexity of our own.” Mead attempts to determine whether or not the experience of turbulence and difficulty during the time of puberty and adolescence was universal, based mostly on biological changes, or were those experiences mostly influenced by environment and culture.

Functionalist theory is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology. It can be argued that the functionalist theory has made a significant contribution to the study of society. It originates from the work of Emile Durkheim who suggests that social order is possible and society remains stable due to the functioning of several institutions. Everything has a specific function in society and society will always function in harmony. The main institutions studied by functionalism are the family, the education system, religion and crime and deviance.

Functionalism is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology which explains how social order is possible or how society remains relatively stable.

Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1962) identify over 150 scientific definitions of the concept of culture. Indeed, many authors have tried to define culture and this is why there are so many definitions and that a unique one is hard to find. First of all, Kroeber and Kluckholn (1952) assume that culture is a suite of patterns, implicit and explicit, “of and for behaviour acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artefacts” (p.47). Later, Hofstede adds that culture is “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one category of people from another” (Hofstede, 1991, p.51). This definition is the most widely accepted one amongst practitioners. For Winthrop (1991), culture is the distinctive models of thoughts, actions and values that composed members of a society or a social group. In other words,