GST LECTURE NOTE

CONCEPT OF CULTURE, EPISTEMOLOGY AND COSMOLOGY

The concept culture has no universally acceptable definition. Many scholars have defined
the concept from different perspectives. The term culture is derived from the Latin word,
“colere,” meaning “to cultivate.” It is a social behaviour and norms found in human societies.
Culture is considered a central concept in anthropology, encompassing the range of phenomena
that are transmitted through social learning in human societies (Agbe, 2012). According to

Nigerian National Cultural Policy (1988), culture is the totality of the way of life

evolved by a people in their attempt to meet the challenges in their environment

which gives order and meaning to their social, political, economic, aesthetic and

religious norms and modes of organization, thus distinguishing a people from their

neighbours. Culture is fundamental to human existence and human civilization. It is dynamic

and it embodies the totality of a people's response to the challenges of life and living. It offers
meaning, purpose, and value to the socio-economic, religious, political and aesthetic ethos of
society (Obafemi, 2011).

Scholars have been discussing and debating definitions of culture since the origin of the
discipline in the 19th century. The classic definition of culture is given by E.B. Tylor in his book
Primitive Culture in 1871. He stated “Culture or Civilization, is that complex whole which
includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and any capabilities and habits acquired by
man as a member of society.”

Culture is something individuals acquire as a member of society, meaning that people

obtain their culture from growing up with and living among a particular group. The acquisition
of culture is not through biological heredity but through socialization which is called
enculturation. Enculturation is specifically defined as the process by which an individual learns
the rules and values of one’s culture which begins at the family level right from the moment a
child is born.
 Terry Eagleton maintains that, culture is said to be one of the two or three most complex
words in English language. A good working definition, though, is offered by the anthropologist
Clifford Geertz, who argued that culture is a historically transmitted pattern of meanings
embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means
of which men communicate, perpetuate and develop their knowledge of and attitudes toward life.
Kazi (2008) defines culture as a total or sum total of a people’s way of life which is
transmitted from generation to generation via the instrument of learning. This means the way
people or members of a particular society behave, their ideas, habits that they learn, share and
transfer from one era to another. Uche (2006) citing Menle (1965) identified one characteristic of
culture as that of human product of social interaction which provides socially acceptable pattern
for meeting biological and social needs. It is cumulative as it is handed down from generation to
generation. It is meaningful to human beings because of its symbolic quality. It is learned by
each person in the course of his development.
Emmanuel Williams Udoh argued that culture can be considered as the entire social
custom of humanity; it is the convention of a certain people, a way of live acquired and
transmitted by members of that particular group or people. Understanding the concept of culture
is the key to understanding human behaviour. The phenomenon comprises objects such as
artefacts, buildings and house hold crafts, and so on. People live in natural environments and
must adapt or mould it for their own purposes. Most traditional societies live in an environment
largely formed by nature. In complex industrial societies, much of the human environment is
culturally moulded.
Culture should therefore be understood as shared principles, social heritage that make up
the people’s way of life. Every human society functions effectively as propelled by various
elements of culture. It is the peculiarities of a people of particular geographical locations. Culture
is so complex that defining it becomes an arduous task for a scholar. According to Ojetayo, “if it
is taken to mean the way of thinking and behaviour shared by a substantial social grouping which
gives them identify in relation to others, then it is obvious that all persons participate in one
culture or another.”
Characteristic of Culture
 From the definitions of culture given above, certain characteristics or features of culture
are noticeable. Culture as the distinctive generality or totality of a people's way of life is
historically created and it is shared by all members of a society. It is not genetically transmitted
but learnt and transmitted through socialization process. It is universal, variable and dynamic.
Culture is historically design for living. Generation after generation new things are added to it
and this is accountable for the development and change in culture. The culture we have at present
combines what has been first created by our ancestors with what has been added to it by
subsequent generations. To be brief, culture is dynamic in that, as time goes by, new items are
added to those already existing.
Culture is unique to the human species. No species has ability like human beings in its
complexity, meaning, to learn, to communicate and to store, process and use information to the
same extent. Culture has moral force which serves as a guide for human action how to behave in
a society. Neither monkeys nor apes have moral force in their life. Morality is a part of culture.
Therefore human culture has moral foundation, but primate life has no moral basis.
Culture is a product of social learning rather than biological heredity which means
Culture is non-genetic. It cannot be inherited by offspring from parents, but it can be transmitted
socially from parents to children. Like animals, human cannot inherit behaviour. Animal
behaviour is inborn. Animals inherit behaviour or at most, proto-culture, but humans acquire
culture. All people have culture, though not similar. Different groups of humans or societies have
different cultures.
Culture has unity as well as diversity.
All humans have culture, but all cultures are not alike. In this context, it is necessary to
draw a distinction between “a culture” and culture”. The term culture signifies the way of life of
human societies as a whole and the term “a culture” signifies the way of life of specific part of
human society which is technically called a society.
Culture is socially learned
Culture is a natural outgrowth of the social interactions that constitute human groups whether in
societies or organisations. Whenever and wherever people come together over time, culture
develops. Culture is learned from our parents, surroundings, and friends and others through
enculturation. And the learned behaviour is communicated in the group through forms of
socialization such as observation, instruction, reward, punishment and experience. The learning
takes place in individual situation of experiences, social situation of imitating others and cultural
situation of symbolic communication.

Culture is symbolic
Symbolic thought is unique and crucial to humans and to culture. It is human ability to give a
thing or event an arbitrary meaning and grasp and appreciate that meaning. Symbols are the
central components of culture. Symbols refer to anything to which people attach meaning and
which one uses to communicate with others.
More specifically, symbols are words, objects, gestures, sounds or images that represent
something else rather than themselves. There is no obvious natural or necessary connection
between a symbol and what it symbolizes. Culture thus works in the symbolic domain
emphasizing meaning, rather than the technical or practical rational side of human behaviour.
Culture is integrated
Elements or traits that make up a culture are not just a random assortment of customs but are
mostly adjusted to or consistent with one another. Traits of a culture are attitudes, values, ideals,
and rules for behaviour. All aspects of culture function as an inter-related whole. If one part of a
culture changes it tends to affect another part.
Culture is adaptive and maladaptive
People adapt themselves to the environment using culture. The ability to adapt themselves to
practically any ecological condition, unlike other animals, makes humans unique. This ability is
attributed to human’s capacity for creating and using culture. Culture has also maladaptive
dimensions. That is, the very cultural creations and achievements of people may turn out to
threaten their survival. When we see the contemporary problems of the environments, the side
effects of rapid growth and in science and technology, thus, culture is also maladaptive.

Elements of Culture
A culture is more than the sum of its parts. A mere listing of customs and norms and the material
objects associated with them would by no means give a true picture of the culture. For the sake
of anthropological analysis, culture may be broken down into the following main elements.
These elements or components are: types of norms, sanctions, values, culture trait, culture
complex and culture pattern.
Values
What is considered as good, proper and desirable, or bad, improper or undesirable, in a culture
can be called as values. It influence people’s behaviour and serve as a benchmark for evaluating
the actions of others. There is often a direct relationship between the values, norms, and
sanctions of a culture.
Norms
Norms refers to a standard pattern of behaviour that is accepted by a society. Norms may differ
from society to society. Generally there are two types of norms formal norms and informal
norms. Norms that are written down and violation of which can lead to punishment is referred to
as formal norms. By contrast, informal norms are generally understood and followed by a society
though not recorded in black and white.
Sanctions
Sanctions consist of both rewards and penalties. It includes rewards for conducting the norms of
the society as prescribed or penalties for defying the concerned social norms. Adherence to a
norm can lead to positive sanctions such as a medal, a word of gratitude, or a pat on the back.
Negative sanctions include fines, threats, imprisonment, and even unpleasant stares for contempt.
The most cherished values of a culture will be most heavily sanctioned, whereas matters
regarded as less critical will carry light and informal sanctions.
Culture Traits
Culture traits are the smallest units of a particular culture. They are the building blocks of
culture. Each trait can be material or non-material and it is analogous to the unit of the human
body, the cell. Each cultural trait has a form, use, function and meaning. As several cells form a
tissue, several traits form a complex culture.
Culture varies from place to place and country to country. Its development is based on the
historical process operating in a local, regional or national context. Nathan Nunn (2012) in his
analysis of culture and historical process argued that historical events could have persistent
impacts if they alter the relative costs and benefits of different cultural traits, affecting their
prevalence in a society. In turn, if cultural traits are transmitted vertically from parents to
children, then the impacts will persist through time.
Dimensions of Culture
Culture has two distinct dimensions. These are enculturation and acculturation.
Enculturation is the process by which a person is introduced into the culture of his birth. It is a
process by which the values, norms, beliefs and attitudes shared by members of one’s society are
transmitted from one person to another and from one generation to another. Acculturation is the
coming into contact of different cultures. It is the process by which cultural elements pass over
from one culture to another and which gives rise to new cultural traits in the cultures that meet.
For instance, the penetration of European cultural values with traditional African cultures during
the colonial led to the emergence of new cultural behavior in the various colonial territories.
According to Madison 1998 acculturation cultivates a global vision without losing sight of local
differences or complexities. It purveys that global thought and local action as well as local
thought and global action can be harmonized giving rise to the local assimilation of global
trends.
Cultural Epistemologies and Cosmology

Epistemology can also be regarded as the theory of knowledge and a core branch of
philosophical metaphysics that deals with limits, sources and methods of knowledge. Epistemic
knowledge is not about what we know, but about what it means to know. Epistemology seeks to
answer basic questions about how human beings perceive the world and gain knowledge about it.
Three main components of epistemology are Knowledge, Belief and Truth. Epistemology
focuses on answering four core questions: What are sources of information about general
existence of man? How are details collected? What do people know? Why do people know?
How do we know what we know and what do we think?
Cultural epistemology is especially concerned with the ways and means culture is
produced and expressed. Culture is epistemological because it makes human experience

understandable, and makes them feel as if they know their world and places. If culture were
purely normative and morally bounded we would enjoy only "the good," but even "bad" events
are appreciated when they are epistemologically satisfying. When bad event does a good job of
illustrating a shared meaning, we respond to it positively we are not personally involved in the
event. In later discussions of the event, we opine upon it, and thereby collaborate in making
culture. Thus, good stories are just as often about something bad as they are about something
good. Underlying the above is a key premise of this theory: the desire to know our environment
motivates us to create and maintain culture. The following are identified as sources of knowledge
for culture:
Traditional Knowledge
Historical Knowledge
Archaeological Knowledge
Scientific Knowledge
Local, National and International Regulations
Community Consultations
These sources of knowledge could be used by proponents and other stakeholders during
the screening, scoping and impact assessment phases of a development project. They could also
be used during the mitigation and monitoring processes for educational, training and other
management purposes.
According to a foremost cultural scholar, Loren Demerath, there are three basic
dimensions of cultural production: "articulate,” "typify, “and "orient". For example, as human
beings reiterate their experience with a group while using a stereotype, and contextualizing it
within an ideology, they articulate, typify, and orient the group such that it becomes more
comprehensible. These variables are wrapped up in Knowledge-Based Affect Theory (KBAT) as
propounded by Demerath in 1993.
The KABT theory of culture explains how individuals enhance their sense of security in
the world by creating and maintaining culture as knowledge of the world. Based on cognitive and
affective processes, the theory posits three dimensions of cultural production: we articulate,
typify, and orientation of human experiences. The theory asserts that people produce culture
because it allows them to feel as if they understand their world, and to perceive it as ordered; this
in turn triggers an aesthetic response of knowledge-based affect. The theory explains how
cultural production is motivated by the pursuit of meaningfulness as well as material interests.
The theory describes how' an oppressive culture can be reproduced unintentionally, even by the
groups it oppresses. The theory also identifies connections between social structure and culture
where conditions of ambiguity or control have implications for how meaning can be created.

Cultural cosmologies are based on the proposition that ideas about the cosmos are
integral part of human cultural and social systems. For example, the archaeologist Timothy
Darvill talks of a cosmology as being, ‘”the world view and belief system of a community based
upon their understanding of order in the universe.” George Gumerman and Miranda Warburton
argued that “… to truly comprehend a culture we must have some sense of its cosmology the
group’s conception of themselves in relation to the heavens.

A renowned anthropologist Clifford Geertz, argued that if culture is an historically

transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions
expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate and develop their
knowledge of and attitudes toward life, then, the influence of cosmology on culture then
becomes a matter of exploring its impact on political and religious ideas, and its use in the arts,
perhaps mainly in literature, painting and film.

A culture’s worldview helps its members make sense of their reality. The worldview
contributes to the collective body of ideas that members of a culture generally share concerning
the ultimate shape and substance of their reality. In addition, it is a culture’s worldview that
members of each culture use in constructing, populating and anticipating social worlds”. These
“social worlds” are linked directly to social perception. World is an “inside view” of the way
things are colored, shaped, and arranged according to personal cultural perceptions.
Worldview provides some of the unexamined underpinnings for perception and the
nature of reality as experienced by individuals who share a common culture. The worldview of a
culture functions to make sense of life experiences that might otherwise be construed as chaotic,
random and meaningless. Worldview is imposed by collective wisdom as a basis for sanctioned
actions that enable survival and adaptation. In essence, every social group has a worldview a set
of more or less systematized beliefs and values in terms of which the group evaluates and
attaches meaning to the reality that surrounds it.
Virtually all cultures in Nigeria have their word view an avenue through which they
define the guiding principles of their cultural practice. These word views revolved round the way
different ethnic groups sees the dead, marriage, child birth, festivals, seasons, family life among
others. Proper understanding and knowledge of these cultural practices defines peace and
harmony in various communities. It creates uniqueness and appreciation in practice of each
culture.