ANTHROPOLOGY – derived from the Greek words anthropos for “human” and logos for

“study” if we take literally, the study of humans. (Gary Ferraro, 2001)

Anthropology – is the study of people – their origins, their development, and
contemporary variations, wherever and whenever they have been found on the face of
the earth. The subject matter of anthropology includes fossilized skeletal remains of
early humans, artifacts and other material remains from prehistoric and historic
archaeological sites, and all of the contemporary and historical cultures of the world.
They are concerned with humans, both past and present, as well as human behavior
patterns, thought systems, and material possessions.

ANTHROPOLOGY – is the study of humankind – of ancient and modern people and

their ways of living. ( Marvin Harris and Orna Johnson, 2000)

ANTHROPOLOGY – is the scientific and humanistic study of the human species. It is

the exploration of human diversity in time and space. ( Conrad Phillip Kottak, 2000)

HOLISM (Ferraro)
First, the anthropological approach involves both biological and sociocultural aspects of
humanity. That is, anthropologists are interested in people’s genetic endowment as well
as what people acquire from their sociocultural environment after birth. Second,
anthropology has the deepest possible time frame, starting with the earliest beginnings
of humans several million years ago right up to the present. Anthropology is holistic to
the extent that it studies all varieties of people wherever they may be found. And finally,
anthropology studies many different aspects of human experience. To illustrate, a
cultural anthropologist who is conducting direct-participant-observation fieldwork may be
collecting data on a wide variety of topics, including family structure, marital regulations,
house construction, methods of conflict resolution, means of livelihood, religious beliefs,
language, space usage, and art.

ARCHAEOLOGY – (Kottak) reconstructs, describes, and interprets past human

behavior and cultural patterns through material remains. At sites where people live or
have lived, archaeologists find artifacts, material items that humans have made or
modified, such as tools, weapons, camp sites, and buildings. Plant and animal remains
and ancient garbage tell stories about consumption and activities. Archaeologists are
best known for studying prehistory, that is, the period before the invention of writing, they
also study the cultures of historical and even living peoples.

Archaeology examines the material remains of past cultures left behind on or below the
surface of the earth. Without the findings of archaeology, we would not be able to
understand the human past, especially where people have not left any books or other
written records. ( Harris and Johnson )

Archaeology ( Ferraro) The study of the lifeways of people from the past through
excavating and analyzing the material culture they leave behind. The purpose of
archaeology is to understand cultural adaptations of ancient peoples by at least partially
reconstructing their cultures.
Archaeologists work with three types of material remains : artifacts, features and
ecofacts. Artifacts are objects that have been modified by humans and that can be
removed from the site and taken to the laboratory for further analysis. Tools,
arrowheads, and fragments of pottery are examples of artifacts. FEATURES are made
or modified by people, but they differ in that they cannot be readily carried away.
Archaeological features include such things as house foundations, fireplaces and post
holes. Ecofacts are the third type of physical remainsused by archaeologists. These
include objects found in the natural environment (such as bones, seeds, and wood) that
were not made or altered by humans but were used by them.

By studying the bits and pieces of material culture left behind the archaeologist
seeks to determine how the people supported themselves, whether they had a notion of
an afterlife, how roles were allocated between men and women, whether some people
were more prominent than others, whether the people engaged in trade with neighboring
peoples, and how lifestyles have changed through time.

The focus on biological variation unites five special interests within Physical
Anthropology :

1. Human evolution as revealed by the fossil record (paleoanthropology).

2. Human genetics.
3. Human growth and development.
4. Human biological plasticity (the body’s ability to change as it copes with stresses,
such as heat, cold, and altitude).
5. The biology, evolution, behavior, and social life of monkeys, apes, and other
nonhuman primates.

OSTEOLOGY – the study of bones

PALEOANTHROPOLOGISTS – is the one who examines skulls, teeth, and bones, to
identify human ancestors and to chart changes in anatomy over time.
PALEONTOLOGIST – is a scientist who studies fossils
PALEOANTHROPOLOGIST – one who studies the fossil record of human evolution.
PALEOANTHROPOLOGISTS often collaborate with archaeologists, who study artifacts,
in reconstructing biological and cultural aspects of human evolution. Fossils and tools
provide information about the habits, customs, and life styles of the ancestral humans
who used them.

PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY – also called biological anthropology connects the other

anthropological fields to the study of animal origins and the biologically determined
nature of Homo sapiens Physical anthropologists seek to reconstruct the course of
human evolution by studying the fossil remains of ancient human and humanlike
species. They also seek to describe the distribution of hereditary variations among
contemporary human populations and to sort out and measure the relative contributions
to human life made by heredity, the natural environment, and culture.

PRIMATOLOGY – Study of social life and biology of monkeys, great apes, and other
primates
HUMAN PALEONTOLOGY – Search for and study of fossil remains of early human
species and their ancestors.
FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY – Identification of victims of murders and accidents;
establishing identity of criminals
POPULATION GENETICS –Study of hereditary differences in human populations.

PHYSICAL VARIATIONS AMONG HUMANS – Although all humans re members of the

same species and therefore are capable of interbreeding, considerable physical variation
exists among human populations. Some of these differences are based on visible
physical traits, such as the shape of the nose, body stature, and color of the skin. Other
variations are based on less visible biochemical factors such as blood type or
susceptibility to diseases.

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY – (Kottak) is the study of human society and culture, the
subfield that describes, analyzes, interprets, and explains social and cultural similarities
and differences. To study and interpret cultural diversity, cultural anthropologists engage
in two kinds of activity: ethnography (based on fieldwork) and ethnology (based on
crosscultural comparison).
ETHNOGRAPHY – provides an account of a particular community, society, or culture.
During ethnographic fieldwork, the ethnographer gathers data that he or she organizes,
describes, analyzes, and interprets to build and present that account, which may be in
the form of a book, article, or film. Traditionally, ethnographers have lived in small
communities and studied local behavior, beliefs, customs, social life, economic activities,
politics, and religion.
ETHNOLOGY – examines, interprets, analyzes, and compares the results of
ethnography – the data gathered in different societies. It uses such data to compare and
contrast and to make generalizations about society and culture. (Kottak)

Ethnography
1. Requires field work to collect data.
2. Often descriptive.
3. Group/community specific
Ethnology
1. Uses data collected by a series of researchers.
2. Usually synthetic.
3. Comparative/cross-cultural

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION
1. Urban Anthropology – Anthropologists in recent decades have examined a
number of important topics, including descriptive accounts of urban ethnic
neighborhoods, rural urban linkages, labor migration, urban family and kinship
patterns, social network, urban stratification, squatter settlements,
homelessness, racial discrimination, poverty, unemployment, crime, and health,
cocktail waitresses, street gangs, drug addicts, alcoholics, and prostitutes.
2. Educational Anthropology – Many contemporary studies are not confined to
the classroom, but rather follow students in their homes and neighborhoods,
because learning must be viewed within the wider cultural context of family and
peers.
3. Medical Anthropology – which studies biological and sociocultural factors that
affect health and illness.
4. Economic Anthropology – which studies how goods and services are
distributed through formal and informal institutions.
5. Psychological Anthropology – which is concerned with how culture affects
personality, child rearing, emotions, attitudes, and social behavior.
6. Ecological Anthropology – which considers the interaction between
environment and technology to study human adaptation and change.
7. Political Anthropology – which focuses on political integration, stratification,
methods of conflict resolution, leadership, and social control.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS - The branch of the discipline that studies human
speech and language is called Anthropological Linguistics. Although humans are not
only species that have systems of symbolic communication, ours is by far the most
complex form. In fact, some would argue that language is the most distinctive feature of
being human, for without language we could not acquire and transmit our culture from
one generation to the next.

HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS – Deals with the emergence of language in general and

how specific languages have diverged over time. Some of the earliest anthropological
interest in language focused on the historical connections between languages. For
example,19th century linguists working with European languages demonstrated
similarities in the sound systems between a particular language and an earlier parent
language from which the language was derived. In other words, by comparing
contemporary languages, linguists have been able to identify certain language families.
More recently, through such techniques as GLOTTOCHRONOLOGY, linguists can now
approximate when two related languages began to diverge from each other.

DESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTICS – is the study of sound systems, grammatical systems,

and the meanings attached to words in specific languages. Every culture has a
distinctive language with its own logical structure and set of rules for putting words and
sounds together for the purpose of communicating. In its simplest form, the task of the
descriptive linguist is to compile dictionaries and grammars for previously unwritten
languages.

ETHNOLINGUISTICS – is the branch of anthropological linguistics that examines the

relationship between language and culture. In any culture, aspects that are emphasized
are reflected in the vocabulary of that culture’s language. Moreover, ethnolinguists
explore how different linguistic categories can affect how people categorize their
experiences, how they think, and how they perceive the world around them.

SOCIOLINGUISTICS - examines the relationship between language and social

relations. For example, sociolinguists are interested in investigating how social class
influences the particular dialect a person speaks. They also study the situational use of
language – that is, how people use different forms of a language depending on the
social situation they find themselves in at any given time. To illustrate, the words, and
even grammatical structures, a U.S. college student would choose when conversing with
a roommate would be significantly different from the linguistic style used when talking to
a grandparent, a priest or a personnel director during a job interview.
For much of the 20th century, anthropological linguists have performed the
invaluable task of documenting the vocabularies, grammars, and phonetic systems of
the many unwritten languages of the world.

APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY
1. Development Anthropology
2. Cultural Resource Management
3. Forensic Anthropology
4. Study of Linguistic Diversity in Classrooms
GENERAL ANTHROPOLOGY
1. Cultural Anthropology
2. Archaeological Anthropology
3. Biological or Physical Anthropology
4. Linguistic Anthropology

THE PRACTICING OR APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY – refers to the application of

anthropological data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve
contemporary social problems. More and more anthropologists from the 4 subfields now
work in such “applied” areas as public health, family planning, and economic
development.
APPLIED MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGISTS, have served as cultural interpreters in
public health programs, which must fit into local culture and be accepted by local people.
APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGISTS – also apply their skills in studying the human
dimension of environmental degradation (e.g.,deforestation, pollution.
FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGISTS – work with the police, medical examiners, the
courts, and international organizations to identify victims of crimes, accidents, wars, and
terrorism. From skeletal remains they may determine age, sex, size, race, and number
of victims. Applied physical anthropologists link injury patterns to design flaws in aircraft
and vehicles.

FUNCTIONALISM

The principal advocate – Bronislav Malinowski (1884 – 1942)

Culture can be understood by how it serves human biological and psychological needs;
emphasis on the individual.

Immersion is necessary in order to understand the culture of society from their

perspective. The practice of “Participant-Observation” is imperative to accomplish this
approach. It explains that all cultural traits serve the needs of the individual society. It
provides for the “basic needs” of the members of the group. All cultural traits therefore
serve to provide for these “basic needs” to the members such as nutrition, reproduction
and bodily comfort that give rise to satisfying the derived needs.
An illustration of such would be that, the cultural traits that satisfy the basic needs for
food give rise to the derived or secondary need for cooperation in the food collection or
production.
 Through direct fieldwork, anthropologists seek to understand how the
parts of contemporary cultures work for the well-being of the individual
and the society.
 Society is like a biological organism with all of the parts interconnected
 With this high level of integration, societies tend to be in a state of
equilibrium; a change in one part of the system brings change in other
parts.
 Empirical fieldwork is essential.
 The existing institutional structure of any society contains indispensable
functions without which the society could not continue.

STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM – The principal advocator Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-

Brown (1881-1955) said that the primary function of different elements of culture is to
keep the entire social system (the structure of society) in a steady state, or to maintain
social equilibrium, that is, of the group rather than the individual.
Structural – Functionalism
Perhaps patterned after the aforementioned principles, Arthur Reginald
Radcliffe Brown based his theory on human social behavior as it exists to maintain a
society’s social structure rather than develop it to satisfy individual needs. The social
structure of a society is that total network or its existing social relationships.

CULTURAL MATERIALISM
 Material conditions determine human thoughts and behavior
 Theorists assume the viewpoint of the anthropologist, not the native
informant
 Anthropology is seen as scientific, empirical, and capable of generating
causal explanations.
 Cultural materialism de-emphasizes the role of ideas and values in
determining the conditions of social life.
 Marvin Harris and the cultural materialists see the material constraints as
the primary causal factors accounting for cultural variations. Mental
Constraints which include such human factors as values, ideas, religion,
and aesthetics. Material Constraints include such universal needs of
producing food, technology, tools, and shelter.
 The need to create and develop things necessary for man was the
centerpiece of this theory. Marvin Harris emphasized the relevance of the
material inadequacies to produce food, clothing, shelter, machines and
equipments and even the functions performed in human reproduction as
those that affect humans. The organic thoughts and behavior of humans
was the focus of this theory.

NEO-EVOLUTIONISM – (Leslie White, 1900-1975) Culture evolves as the amount of

energy harnessed per capita per year increases or as the efficiency of the means of
putting energy to work is increased.
According to White’s neoevolutionism, culture evolves when people are able to
increase the amount of energy under their control. For most of human prehistory, while
people were hunters and gatherers, the major source of energy was human power. But
with the invention of agriculture, animal domestication, the steam engine, the internal
combustion engine, and nuclear power, humans have been able to dramatically increase
the levels of energy at their disposal. To illustrate, the daily average energy output for a
healthy man is a small fraction of a horsepower per day; the amount of energy produced
from a kilo of uranium in a nuclear reactor is approximately 33 billion horsepower! For
White, the significant equation was C = E X T, where C is culture, E is energy, and T is
technology. Cultural evolution, in other words, is caused by advancing levels of
technology and a culture’s increasing capacity to “capture energy”

POSTMODERNISM – Instead of the ethnographer being the sole authority,

postmodernists call for a more collaborative approach to the study of culture. Written
ethnography should consist of multiple authors, creating a dialogue between the
anthropologist and the people being studied. This call for dialogue rather than
monologue goes further than the attempts of the ethnoscientists to describe the culture
using native categories (emic approach). Rather, it involves relinquishing sole
authorship to include the voice of the research subjects themselves. Postmodernists
contend that only through this dialogical process will meaning and interpretation emerge.

Interpretive Anthropology – led by Clifford Geertz, is a major force in postmodernism.

Rather than searching for general propositions about human behavior, Geertz and the
interpretive anthropologists take a more descriptive approach by examining how the
people themselves interpret their own values and behaviors. Cultures can best be
understood by listening and recording the ways in which the natives explain their own
customary behavior. Thus, like ethnoscientists, interpretive anthropologists are strongly
wedded to the emic, rather than the etic, approach to the discipline. According to
Geertz, the job of the anthropologist is not to generate laws or models that will predict
human behavior, for they tend to ignore the complexity and living qualities of human
cultures. Rather, Geertz would have Anthropology concentrate on cultural description,
literature, folklore, myths, and symbols.

POSTMODERNISM IN BRIEF
 Postmodernism called on Anthropologists to switch from cultural
generalization and laws to description, interpretation, and the search for
meaning.
 Ethnographies should be written from several voices – that of the
anthropologist along with those of the people under analysis.
 Postmodernism involves a distinct return to cultural relativism

In His love,

PROF. GRACE Q. MACASAET

C U L T U R E

Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals, law,
custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”
The condition of culture among the various societies of mankind, in so far as it is capable
of being investigated on general principles, is a subject apt for the study of laws of
human thought and action. (Sir Edward Burnett Tylor 1871/1958, p.1)

Culture is the knowledge, language, values, customs, and material objects that are
passed from person to person and from one generation to the next in a human group or
society. (Ferraro)

CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE :
1. CULTURE IS LEARNED - Every person begins immediately, through a process of
conscious and unconscious learning and interaction with others, to internalize, or
incorporate, a cultural tradition through the process of enculturation. Sometimes culture
is taught, directly, as when parents tell their children to say “thank you” when someone
gives them something or does them a favor.

2. CULTURE IS SHARED – Culture is an attribute not of individuals per se but of

individuals as members of groups. Culture is transmitted in society. Don’t we
learn our culture by observing, listening, talking, and interacting with many other
people? Shared beliefs, values, memories, and expectations link people who
grow up in the same culture. Enculturation unifies people by providing us with
common experiences. As children, when we didn’t finish a meal, our parents
reminded us of starving children in some foreign country, just as our
grandparents had done a generation earlier. The specific country changes
(China, India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Somalia,Rwanda. Still, American culture
 goes on transmitting the idea that by eating all our Brussels sprouts or broccoli,
we can justify our own good fortune, compared to a hungry Third World child.
3. CULTURE IS SYMBOLIC – Leslie White defined culture as dependent upon
symbolling. Culture consists of tools, implements, utensils, clothing, ornaments,
customs, institutions, beliefs, rituals, games, works of art, language, etc.
Symbols are usually linguistic. But there are also nonverbal symbols, such as
flags, that stand for countries, as arches do for hamburger chains. Holy water is
a potent symbol in Roman Catholicism.
4. CULTURE AND NATURE – Culture takes the natural biological urges we share
with other animals and teaches us how to express them in particular ways.
People have to eat, but culture teaches us what, when, and how. In many
cultures people have their main meal at noon, but most North Americans prefer
a large dinner. English people may eat fish for breakfast, while North Americans
may prefer hot cakes and cold cereals. Brazilians put hot milk into strong coffee,
whereas North Americans pour cold milk into a weaker brew. Midwesterners
dine 5 or 6 pm, Spaniards at 10 pm.
Cultural habits, perceptions, and inventions mold “human nature” in many
directions. People have to eliminate wastes from their bodies. But some cultures
teach people to defecate squatting, while others tell them to do it sitting down. A
generation ago, in Paris and other French cities, it was customary for men to urinate
almost publicly, and seemingly without embarrassment, in barely shielded pissoirs
located on city streets. Our “bathroom” habits, including waste elimination, bathing,
and dental care, are parts of cultural traditions that have converted natural acts into
cultural customs.
Our culture – and cultural changes – affect the ways in which we perceive
nature, human nature, and “the natural” Through science, invention, and discovery,
cultural advances have overcome many “natural” limitations. We prevent and cure
diseases such as polio and small-pox that felled our ancestors. We use Viagra to
restore sexual potency. Through cloning, scientists have altered the way we think
about biological identity and the meaning of life itself. Culture, of course, has not
freed us from natural threats. Hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and other natural
forces regularly challenge our wishes to modify the environment through building,
development, and expansion. Can you think of other ways in which nature strikes
back at people and their products ?
5. CULTURE IS ALL-ENCOMPASSING – Culture, as defined anthropologically,
encompasses features that are sometimes regarded as trivial or unworthy of
serious study, such as “popular” culture. To understand contemporary North
American culture, we must consider television, fast-food restaurants, sports, and
games. As a cultural manifestation, a rock star may be as interesting as a
symphony conductor, a comic book as significant as a book-award winner.
6. CULTURE IS INTEGRATED – Cultures are integrated, patterned systems. If
one part of the system ( ex. The economy) changes, other parts change as well.
During the 1950s, most American women planned domestic careers as
homemakers and mothers. Most of today’s college women, by contrast, expect
to get paid jobs when they graduate. What are some of the social repercussions
of the economic change? Attitudes and behavior regarding marriage, family, and
children have changed. Late marriage, “living together” and annulment have
become more common. The average age at first marriage for American women
rose from 20 in 1955 to 24 in 1994. The number of currently divorced Americans
quadrupled from 4 million in 1970 to 17 million in 1995. Work competes with
 marriage and family responsibilities and reduces the time available to invest in
child care.
7. PEOPLE USE CULTURE ACTIVELY – People use their culture actively and
creatively, rather than blindly following its dictates. We are not passive beings
who are doomed to follow our cultural traditions like programmed robots.
Instead, people can learn, interpret, and manipulate the same rule in different
ways. Also, culture is contested. That is, different groups in society often
struggle with one another over whose ideas, values, and beliefs will prevail.
Even common symbols may have radically different meanings to different people
and groups in the same culture.
8. CULTURE CAN BE ADAPTIVE AND MALADAPTIVE – Despite the crucial role
of cultural adaptation in human evolution, cultural traits, patterns, and inventions
can also be maladaptive, threatening the group’s continued existence(survival
and reproduction). Air conditioners help us deal with heat, as fires and furnaces
protect us against the cold. Automobiles permit us to make a living by getting us
from home to workplace. But the by-products of such “beneficial” technology
often create new problems. Chemical emissions increase air pollution, deplete
the ozone layer, and contribute to global warming. Many cultural patterns, such
as over consumption and pollution, appear to be maladaptive in the long run.

ELEMENTS OF CULTURE
1. LANGUAGE – is a set of symbols that expresses ideas and enables people to
think and communicate with one another. Chomsky’s position that all humans
have similar linguistic abilities and thought processes. Another line of support
comes from creole languages. Such languages develop from pidgins, languages
that form in situations of acculturation, when different societies come into contact
and must devise a system of communication. PIDGINS based on English and
native languages developed in the context of trade and colonialism in China,
Papua New Guinea, and West Africa. Eventually, pidgins may develop into
CREOLE languages. These are more mature languages, with developed
grammatical rules and native speakers (that is, people who learn the language
as their primary means of communication during enculturation). Creoles are
spoken in several Carribean societies. Gullah, which is spoken by African-
Americans on coastal islands in South Carolina and Georgia, is also a creole
language. A television has become a TV, an automobile has become a TV, an
automobile a car, and a videocassette recorder a VCR. Both white and black,
have conducted detailed studies of what they call BLACK ENGLISH
VERNACULAR (BEV). Vernacular means ordinary, casual speech. BEV is
spoken by the majority of black youth in most parts of the US today, especially in
the inner city areas of New York, Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington,
Cleveland. Rap and hip-hop music weave Black English Vernacular into musical
expression.
2. N O R M S - are established rules of behavior or standards of conduct. P r e s c
r I p t I v e n o r m s – state what behavior is appropriate or acceptable.
Example, to open the door for an old person. P r o s c r I p t I v e Norms – state
what behavior is inappropriate or unacceptable, example, driving over the speed
limit.
3. FOLKWAYS – are informal norms or everyday customs that may be violated
without serious consequences within a particular culture. Examples are wearing
appropriate clothing for a specific occasion, applying underarm deodorant.
 4. MORES – Culture’s strongly held norms with moral and ethical connotations that
may not be violated without serious consequences. Violators are subject to
more severe negative sanctions such as ridicule, loss of employment, or
imprisonment.
5. V A L U E S - are collective ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad, and
desirable or undesirable in a particular culture.
6. BELIEFS – Shared ideas held collectively by people within a given culture.
Example is belief in God, belief about the nature of the universe.

L E V E L S OF C U L T U R E
1. International Culture – Basketball is a very good example of international culture;
this is played and enjoyed by different peoples in different parts of the globe. Eating rice
as a staple food is common among Asian people. International culture, therefore, is a
cultural practice catered to by people across the globe.
2. National culture – a cultural practice common among people in a country like the
Philippines. Wearing barong Tagalog in formal occasions like wedding, baptism or debut
is common among Filipinos.
3. Elite culture – (High Culture) consists of classical music, opera, ballet, live theater,
and other activities usually patronized by elite audiences, composed primarily of
members of the upper-middle and upper classes, who have the time, money, and
knowledge assumed to be necessary for its appreciation.
4. Popular Culture - Consists of activities, products, and services that are assumed to
appeal primarily to members of the middle and working classes. These include rock
concerts, spectator sports, movies, and television soap operas and situation comedies.
5. Subculture – Members of s subculture share certain cultural features that are
significantly different from those of the rest of society.
A subculture is a category of people who share distinguishing attributes, beliefs,
values, and/or norms that set them apart in some significant manner from the dominant
culture.
6. Ethnic Subcultures – Some people who have unique shared behaviors linked to a
common racial, language, or national background identify themselves as members of a
specific subculture, whereas others do not. Examples include African Americans,
Latinos (Hispanic Americans), Asian Americans, and Native Americans.
7. Counterculture – Is a group that strongly rejects dominant societal values and
norms and seeks alternative lifestyles. Example : the drug enthusiasts of the 1970s,
Nation of Islam.

APPROACHES TO CULTURE –
1. ETHNOCENTRISM – is the tendency to view one’s own culture as superior and
to apply one’s own cultural values in judging the behavior and beliefs of people
raised in other cultures. Ethnocentrism contributes to social solidarity, a sense of
value and community, among people who share a cultural tradition. People
everywhere think that their familiar explanations, opinions, and customs are true,
right, proper, and moral. They regard different behavior as strange, immoral, or
savage. (kottak) ETHNOCENTRISM – is the belief that one’s own patterns of
behavior are always natural, good, beautiful, or important, and that strangers, to
the extent that they live differently, live by savage, inhuman, disgusting, or
irrational standards. It is the practice of judging all other cultures by one’s own
culture.
2. Opposing ethnocentrism is CULTURAL RELATIVISM, the argument that
behavior in one culture should not be judged by the standards of another culture.
 Cultural relativism argues that there is no superior, international, or universal
morality, that the moral and ethical rules of all cultures deserve equal respect.
For example, several cultures in Africa and the Middle East have traditions of
female genital modification. Clitoridectomy is the removal of a girl’s clitoris.
Infibulation involves sewing the lips (labia) of the vagina so as to constrict the
vaginal opening. Both procedures reduce female sexual pleasure, and, it is
believed in some cultures, the likelihood of adultery. Marvin Harris uses cultural
relativism to explain why cattle which are viewed as sacred, are not killed and
eaten in India, where widespread hunger and malnutrition exist. Live cows are
more valuable than dead ones because they have more important uses than
dead ones because they have more important uses than as a direct source of
food. They produce two valuable resources –oxen to power the plows and
manure (for fuel and fertilizer) as well as milk, floor covering, and leather.
3. Xenocentrism – The Filipinos are known as imitators. The satiristic label “Great
Imitators” is even attached to them. Because of more than 300 years under the
Spanish regime and more or less (40) years under the Americans, Filipinos have
become strongly xenocentric. They consider their culture inferior to that of the
Americans and the West. This behavior is seen in the Filipinos’ love for anything
foreign and imported, to the demise of their unique and local products.
4. Temporocentric – is equivalent to the English word “time” Time centered
individuals have similar tendency with ethnocentrics. Both believe in the
superiority of the way they do things. Temporocentrists strongly believe that their
time is more effective in resolving problems and in the way they make things.
Like the ethnocentrists, temporocentrists also suffer from culture lag.

SOME MORE KEY TERMS

1. Material Culture – consists of the physical or tangible creations that members of
a society make, use, and share.
2. Nonmaterial Culture – consists of the abstract or intangible human creations of
society that influence people’s behavior. Language, beliefs, values, rules of
behavior, family patterns, and political systems are some examples.
3. Cultural Universals – customs and practices that occur across all societies.
4. Culture Shock – is the disorientation that people feel when they encounter
cultures radically different from their own and believe they cannot depend on
their own taken-for-granted assumptions about life.

In His love,

PROF. GRACE Q. MACASAET