Unit Three

Human Culture and Ties that

Connect
 Conceptualizing Culture:
What Culture is and What Culture isn't
 No universally agreed definition
 For some, it refers to an appreciation of good

literature, music, art, and food

 For others, unique traditional material objects or

non – material things of the past

 The term was first used in this way by the pioneer English Anthropologist
Edward Tylor
According to him
Edward B. Tylor
• “a complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art,
morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits
acquired by man as a member of society
 Culture

B. Malinowski
• culture “as cumulative creation of man". He regarded
culture as the handiwork of man and the medium through
which he achieves his ends.
Robert Bierstedt
• “Culture is the complex whole that consists of everything
we think and do and have as members of society.”
In general culture is: all? Some? or one of these?

Material
possessions
(what we
have)

Behavior cultureKnowledge
(What we (What we
do) know)
 Characteristic of Culture
Culture Is Learned
• Culture is not transmitted genetically.
• It is acquired through the process of learning or
interacting with one’s environment.
• This process of acquiring culture after we born is called
enculturation.
• Enculturation is specifically defined as the process by which an

individual learns the rules and values of one’s culture.

 Culture Is Shared:
• For a thing, idea, or behavior pattern to qualify as being
“cultural” it must have a shared meaning by at least two people
within a society.
• In order for a society to operate effectively, the guidelines must
be shared by its members.
• Without shared culture members of a society would be unable to
communicate and cooperates and confusion and disorder world
result.
• But, all things shared among people might not be cultural, as
there are many biological attributes which people share among
themselves
 Culture Is Symbolic:

 It is based on the purposeful creation and usage of symbols

 A symbol is something verbal or nonverbal, within a particular
language or culture that comes to stand for something else.

 Symbolic thought is unique and crucial to humans and to culture

 Symbolic thought is the human ability to give a thing or event
an arbitrary meaning and grasp and appreciate that meaning
 Example, the symbolic meaning we give to our flag
 There need be no obvious, natural, or necessary connection between
the symbol and what it symbolize
 Culture Is Dynamic

 There are no cultures that remain completely static

year after year.
 Culture is changing :-through diffusions, innovation,
and adaptation to new circumstances
 Example, our traditional way of arranging marriage
has become changed
 Parents marriage arrangement has been changed to
couples agreement
 Culture Is All-Encompassing

 Culture encompasses all aspects, which affect people in

their everyday lives.
 Culture comprises countless material and non-material
aspects of human lives.
 Thus, when we talk about a particular people’s culture,
we are referring to all of its man- made objects, ideas,
activities whether those of traditional, old time things of
the past or those created lately.
 Culture Is Integrated/System

 Cultures are not hit-or-miss collections of customs and beliefs.

• Instead, culture should be thought as of integrated wholes, the
parts of which, to some degree, are interconnected with one
another.
 Culture is a system, change in one aspect will likely generate
changes in other aspects.
• A good way of describing this integrated nature of culture is by
using the analogy between a culture and a living organism.
• The physical human body comprises a number of systems, all
functioning to maintain the overall health of the organisms,
including among others, such system as the respiratory system, the
digestive system, the skeletal system, excretory system, the
reproductive system, and lymphatic system.
 Culture Can Be Adaptive and Maladaptive
• Humans have both biological and cultural ways of
coping with environmental stresses.
• Besides our biological means of adaptation, we also use
"cultural adaptive kits," which contain customary
activities and tools that aid us.
• People adapt themselves to the environment using
culture. The ability to adapt themselves to practically
any ecological condition, unlike other animals, makes
humans unique
• Adaptive behavior that offers short-term benefits may
harm the environment and threaten long-term survival
 Aspects/Elements of Culture
Material culture
 Is about how we relate to physical objects
 Consists of the concrete, tangible objects within a culture
—automobiles, basketballs, chairs, highways, art
 These physical objects have no meaning or use apart from
the meanings people give them
 Example, different cultural clothes of Ethiopian
community like Woliata, Gamo, Hadya…..
 If people don’t give meaning for these clothes, they are
meaningless by themselves (only colored clothes)
 Material Culture
 The uses and meanings of physical objects can vary among
societies
 For example the meaning people give to white color objects are
different for Ethiopians and Indians
 The meanings of physical objects are based on the beliefs,
norms, and values people hold with regard to them
 Example, who and why made “wearing black clothes” is a sign
of expressing the sorrow or sadness or mourning in Ethiopia?
 Non – Material culture

• The term ‘culture’ when used in the ordinary sense, means ‘non-
material culture’.
• Non-material culture consists of the words the people use or the
language they speak, the beliefs they hold, values and virtues
they cherish, habits they follow, rituals and practices that they
do and the ceremonies they observe.
• It also includes our customs and tastes, attitudes and outlook, in
brief, our ways of acting, feeling and thinking.
 Aspects of non-material culture listed as follows:


Values
 The Basis for Norms
 Essential elements of non-material culture
 General, abstract guidelines for our lives, decisions,
goals, choices, and actions
 Shared ideas of a groups or a society as to what is right
or wrong, correct or incorrect, desirable or undesirable,
acceptable or unacceptable, ethical or unethical, etc.,
regarding something
Beliefs
• Beliefs are cultural conventions that concern true or
false assumptions.
• Values are generalized notions of what is good and
bad; beliefs are more specific and, in form at least,
have more content.
• “Education is good” is a fundamental value in
American society, whereas “Grading is the best way to
evaluate students” is a belief that reflects assumptions
about the most appropriate way to determine
educational achievement.
Norms

The rules we live by or govern

Rules defining appropriate and inappropriate
behavior
Ways of behaving in specific situations
Explain why people in a society or group behave
similarly in similar circumstances
 So deep-rooted, embedded, informal social controls,
informal laws
 Guide behavior without our awareness
 Range from relatively minor rules, such as the idea that
we should approve after a performance (appreciation,
thank you), to extremely important ones, such as laws
against stealing
 Depending on the intensity/strength of feeling
associated with them, norms can be classified into
Mores and Folkways
a) Mores: Mores are much stronger norms than are
folkways.
 The term mores (pronounced “MOR-ays”) is based on
the word moral
 Morality deals with conduct related to right and wrong.
 Mores are norms of great moral significance
 They are vital to the well-being of a society.
 Conformity to mores draws strong social approval
 Violation of this type of norm brings strong disapproval
 Conformity to mores is a social requirement
 Some mores are more vital to a society than

others
 The most serious mores are taboos
 A taboo is a norm so strong that its violation

demands punishment by the group (or, some

people think even the supernatural)
 In India, followers of Hinduism have a taboo

forbidding the killing of cows

 Other taboos are related to sexual behaviors
 Incest taboo is forbidding sexual contact with
close relatives
 Generally, regarded as the only taboo that is
present in all societies
 Mores further classify into laws and conventions
 Laws are codified mores
 Conventions on the other hand refer to formal
agreements such as those made between countries
 FOLKWAYS
• Are minor rules about social conduct that serve as
conventional ways of doing things
• Those norms that should be followed as a matter of
good conduct or politeness
• They are only agreed notions of proper conduct
• Have little moral significance
• Examples include norms involving dressing,
walking, talking rules.
• They are viewed as less important than mores
 Some folkways are more important than others, and the
social reaction to their violation is more intense.
 For example, respecting religious leaders are more
serious than respecting other ordinary people in
Ethiopians
 Failure to offer a woman a seat on a crowded bus draws
little notice today.
 In contrast, horrible behavior at a party after excessive
drinking may bring a strong negative reaction from
others.
 FOLKWAYS
 Depending on their duration, folkways are also divided in to two
as customs and fashions
 Customs are folkways that have existed for a long time and
become part of society’s traditions
 For example, in rural parts of Ethiopia children are expected to
eat their dinner after elders
 Fashions are folkways which are not relatively permanent and
change from time to time
 For example naming fathers as “DADY”, naming mothers as
“MOMY’’ are recent fashions in urban areas of Ethiopia but may
change through time
Cultural Unity and Variations: Universality, Generality
and Particularity of Culture
Universality:
• Universals are cultural traits that span across all cultures.
• Most are biologically that distinguish us from other species –
Long period of infant dependency – Year-round sexuality
• Complex brain that enables use of symbols, languages, and
tools
• A great example of universality is that whether in Africa or
Asia, Australia, or Antarctica, people understand the universal
concept of family.
• Anthropologists would argue that it's just what we as humans do
- we organize ourselves into families that are based on biology.
• No matter where you choose to travel and explore, you'll find a
family system.
 Generality

• Generalities are cultural traits that occur in many societies but not all of them.
• Societies can share same beliefs and customs because of borrowing
• Domination (colonial rule) when customs and procedures are imposed on one
culture can also cause generality
• Independent innovation of same cultural trait – Farming Examples: – Nuclear
family Parents and children.
Particularity:
• Trait of a culture that is not widespread
• Cultural borrowing – traits once limited are more widespread
• Useful traits that don’t clash with current culture get borrowed Examples: –
Food dishes Particularities are becoming rarer in some ways but also becoming
more obvious
• Borrowed cultural traits are modified Marriage, parenthood, death, puberty,
birth all celebrated differently.
Evaluating Cultural Difference
ATTITUDE…
Xenocentrism
 An interesting extension of cultural relativism

 It is the belief that the products, styles, or ideas of one’s society

inferior to those that originate elsewhere

 In a sense, it is a reverse ethnocentrism

 damaging to local competitors

 Had economic impact in the developing world (Conflict theorist

 How do you feel about the quality of Ethiopian shoe as compa

with products from abroad?

 ATTITUDES…
Cultural Relativism
 A situation where there is an attitude of respect for cultural

differences rather than condemning other people's culture as

uncivilized or backward
 It views people’s behavior from the perspective of their own

culture
 Unlike ethnocentrism, cultural relativism employs the kind of

value neutrality in scientific study

Respect for cultural differences involves:
Appreciating cultural diversity;
 Accepting and respecting other cultures;
 Trying to understand every culture and its elements in
terms of its own context and logic;
 Accepting that each body of custom has inherent dignity
and meaning as the way of life of one group which has
worked out to its environment, to the biological needs of its
members, and to the group relationships;
 Knowing that a person's own culture is only one among
many; and
 Recognizing that what is immoral, ethical, acceptable,
etc, in one culture may not be so in another culture.
HUMAN RIGHTS
 Human rights advocates challenge many of the views of cultural
relativism
 Many anthropologists are uncomfortable with the strong form of

cultural relativism that suggests that all patterns of culture are

equally valid
 What if the people practice slavery, violence against women,

torture, or genocide?
 Shall we respect these issues in the view of cultural relativism?
 HUMAN RIGHTS…
 Human rights include the right to speak freely, to hold
religious beliefs without discrimination, and to not be
murdered, injured, or enslaved or imprisoned without
charge
 Such rights are seen as inalienable (nations cannot
abridge or terminate them) and international (larger than
and superior to individual nations and cultures)
HUMAN RIGHTS…
 A doctrine of universal human rights, which emphasizes the
rights of the individual over those of the community, would
condemn such killings
 Most ethnographers try to be objective, accurate, and sensitive

in their accounts of other cultures

 However, their objectivity, sensitivity and a cross-cultural

perspective got nothing to do with ignoring international

standards of justice and morality
 Therefore, how we treat human rights under cultural

relativism perspective? unanswered

 Culture Change
 All cultures experience change
 It is not static
 Norms, values, and beliefs are relatively stable, but they do change
over time
 Examples, cultures about child care, marriage, neighborhood and
respecting elders are changing in Ethiopia through time
 Mode of information transmission has changed from physical
delivery ---Posta---phone---email etc..
 Interracial dating (marriage), while still relatively uncommon, is
becoming more acceptable in many countries
 Causes of culture change

Diffusion
 The borrowing of aspects of culture from other cultures,
 One aspect of culture that diffuses rapidly is food
 Tacos, pizza, and hamburgers can be found on menus all over
the world
 Christmas trees and piñatas are part of celebrations in many
countries
 Now a days, our dressing style is diffused from the western
 Ideas are also diffused
 Ideas like democracy, freedom, federalism, globalization,
capitalism etc. rapidly diffused to many countries after World
War II
 Cultures can also change through adaptation to new
circumstances
 Examples, dressing styles to adapt warm and icy
environments
 Afar’s traditional water refrigeration culture to adapt the hot
environment
Acculturation:
• Acculturation is a process of cultural contact and
exchange through which a person or group comes to
adopt certain values and practices of a culture that is not
originally their own, to a greater or lesser extent.
• Is the exchange of cultural features that results when
groups have continuous firsthand contact.
• The cultures of either or both groups may be changed by
this contact.
• This usually happens in situations of trade or
colonialism.
• In situations of continuous contact, cultures have also
exchanged and blended foods, recipes, music, dances,
clothing, tools, and technologies.
 Causes
Invention
 The creation of something new
 Science has led to inventions that have changed
the world since the fifteenth century, from the
creation of the steam engine to the cellular phone
 Such inventions have greatly altered our way of
life.
 Examples, new housing designs by artichetures,
new scientific perspective about child care
• Globalization

• The term globalization encompasses a series of

processes, including diffusion and acculturation,
working to promote change in a world in which
nations and people are increasingly interlinked
and mutually dependent.
• Internet
• Technology
• Media
Ties That Connect: Marriage, Family and Kinship

MARRIAGE
What is marriage?
 A sexual union between a man and a woman such

that children born to the woman are considered

the legitimate offspring of both parents
 In traditional, simple societies, marriage is often

more of a relationship between groups than

between individuals
RULES OF MARRIAGE

 There are two types of rules of marriage:

 These are endogamy and exogamy
 Endogamy is a marriage rule, which requires

that people marry within their own social group

(e.g. their own tribe, nationality, religion, race,
community, social class, etc..)
RULES…
 Exogamy requires that people marry
outside a group to which they belong
 It blocks marriage within smaller inner

circle, i.e. one's own close relatives

 One of the main concerns of exogamous

marriage rule is prohibition of incest, i.e.,

marrying or sexual contact between blood
relatives
FORMS OF MARRIAGE

 Generally, marriage is classified into

monogamy and polygamy
 Monogamy is a form of marriage which

involves usually a man and a woman

 It is a one to one marriage
 Very common in most societies of the world
 Polygamy (also called plural marriage) is

permitted in many cultures

 FORMS OF MARRIAGE…
 Polygamy divided in to two
 polygyny and polyandry
 Polygyny involves multiple wives (a man marrying

more than one woman at a time)

 Marriage of a man with two or more sisters at a time

is called sororal polygyny.

 When the co-wives are not sisters, the marriage is

termed as non-sororal polygyny

 Polyandry involves multiple husbands (i.e. one

woman married to more than one man at a time)

 Polygyny is much more common than polyandry
 Advantages & Disadvantages of Polygamy
marriage
• Having two/more wives is often seen as a sign of
prestige.
• Having multiple wives means wealth, power, & status
both for the polygnous husband, wives and children.
• It produces more children, who are considered
valuable for future economic and political assets.
• Economic advantage: It encourages to work hard
(more cows, goats..) for more wives
• The Drawbacks of Polygyny: Jealousy among the co-
wives who frequently compete for the husband’s
attention.
 OTHER FORMS OF MARRIAGE ARRANGEMENT

 Levirate marriage, which is a form of marriage

whereby a man is entitled to inherit the wife of his
dead brother or close relative called wife
inheritance
 This form of marriage is common in some parts of

Ethiopia and elsewhere in traditional societies,

despite it may be declining these days
 OTHER FORMS…
 Sororate marriage, The sororate, which comes into
play when a wife dies.
 It is the practice of a widower’s marrying the sister

(or some close female relative) of his deceased wife.

 Child marriage or arranged marriage:-
arrangement of marriage of a young girl to usually an
older person
 A more common form of marriage in Ethiopia
 Classified among the so-called harmful traditional

practices in Ethiopia
 Economic Consideration of Marriage

Most societies view as a binding contract between at least the

husband and wife and, in many cases, between their respective
families as well.
Such a contract includes the transfer of certain rights between the
parties involved: rights of sexual access, legal rights to children,
and rights of the spouses to each other’s economic goods and
services.
Often the transfer of rights is accompanied by the transfer of some
type of economic consideration.
These transactions, which may take place either before or
after the marriage can be divided into three categories:
BRIDE PRICE It is also known as bride wealth, is the
compensation given upon marriage by the family of the groom to the
family of the bride.
BRIDE SERVICE When the groom works for his wife’s family, this
is known as bride service.
DOWRY A dowry involves a transfer of goods or money in the
opposite direction, from the bride's family to the groom’s family.
 Post-Marital Residence
• Where the newly married couple lives after the marriage ritual is
governed by cultural rules, which are referred to as post-marital
residence rule.
• Patrilocal Residence: the married couple lives with or near
the relatives of the husband’s father.
• Matrilocal Residence: the married couple lives with or near
the relatives of the wife.
• Avunculocal Residence: The married couple lives with or
near the husband’s mother’s brother.
• Ambilocal/Bilocal Residence: The married couple has a
choice of living with relatives of the wife or relatives of the
husband
• Neolocal Residence: The Married couple forms an
independent place of residence away from the relatives of either
spouse.
• Duolocal or Natolocal: In this marital residence pattern, couples are
required to reside separately. This means that both husband and
wife stay in their families of orientation or in their different
apartments and only visit each other.
 FAMILY: TYPES AND FUNCTIONS
 What is family?
 One of the functions of marriage is that it

leads to the creation of families,

 But, families may come into being
independently of marriage
 However, marriage provides the family its

legal and social validity

 FAMILY…
 Conventionally defined as “an intimate kin-based
group that consists of at least a parent-child
nucleus”
 It is a minimal social unit that cooperated

economically and assumes responsibilities for

rearing children
 A more general definition:- family is any social

group of people who are united together by ties of

marriage, ancestry or adoption, having the
responsibility for rearing children
TYPES OF FAMILY
1. Nuclear family

A dominant form of family in today's modern
society consists of a husband, wife and their
dependent children or child
 However, this form of family is the ideal one in

societies where polygamous marriage form is

dominant
 It is rare among small-scale, agriculturalist

societies in the Third World

 TYPES OF FAMILY…
2. Extended family
 A family in much small- scale, traditional

societies may constitute a husband, his

wife/wives, his wife’s/ wives’ children
and/or the wives and children of his sons
 Extended families may emerge out of

polygamous marriage forms

 TYPES OF FAMILY…
3. Single Parent Family
 Consists of one parent raising one or more

children on his/her own

 A mother with her children, or fathers with his

children
 Challenge for the single parent to give care
 Limits income and opportunities in many cases,

although many single parent families have

support from relatives and friends
 TYPES OF FAMILY…
4. Childless Family
 Family consists of couples who either cannot or choose
not to have children
 Consists of a husband and wife living and working

together
 Is sometimes called the "forgotten family," as it does not

meet the traditional standards set by society

 This type of family take on the responsibility of household

ownership or have extensive contact with their nieces and

nephews as a substitute for having their own children
 TYPES OF FAMILY…
5. Step Family
 Over half of all marriages end in divorce
 Many of these individuals choose to get remarried

 Involves two separate families merging into one new unit

 It consists of a new husband and wife and their children

from previous marriages or relationships

 Common as the nuclear family

 Tend to have more problems like adjustment periods and

discipline issues
 TYPES OF FAMILY
6. Grandparent Family
 Grandparents raising their grandchildren for a

variety of reasons
 One in fourteen children is raised by his

grandparents, and the parents are not present in the

child's life
 This could be due to parents' death, addiction,

abandonment or being unfit parents

 FUNCTIONS OF FAMILY
 The family is the most basic unit of all social
institutions;
 It is the building block of any society
 Very important to individuals and society
 Because it responds to some of the fundamental

human needs, both individual and collective

 Functions Marriage and Family

• Family performs certain specific functions which can be mentioned

as follows:
• Biological Function: The institution of marriage and family serves
biological (sexual and reproductive) function.
• Economic Function: Marriage brings economic co-operation
between men and women and ensure survival of individuals in a
society.
• Social Function the institution of marriage brings with it the
creation and perpetuation of the family, the form of person to person
relations and linking once kin group to another kin group.
• Educational and Socialization Function: The burden of
socialization (via processes of enculturation and education) of new
born infants fall primarily upon the family. In addition, children
learn an immense amount of knowledge, culture, values prescribed
by society, before they assume their place as adult members of a
society.
 KINSHIP SYSTEM

The Concept Kinship

 Kinship is considered the lifeblood or the social

building blocks of the people

 It is defined as the network in which people are

related to one another through blood, marriage and

other ties
 It is a kind of social relationship that ties people
 It is universally found in all societies
 KINSHIP…
 Kinship is the method of reckoning relationship. In any
society every adult individual belongs to two different
nuclear families.
 The family in which he was born and reared is called

‘family of orientation’.
 The other family to which he establishes relation

through marriage is called ‘family of procreation’.

TYPES OF KINSHIP…
 Kinship can be categorized into three
types based on the way in which the link
created:
1. Consanguineal Kinship
2. Affinal Kinship
3. Fictious Kinship
 CONSANGUINEAL KINSHIP
A consanguine is a person who is related to
another person through blood
 Includes kin who have blood connection, not

friends
Examples
 A parent's (father/mother/grand-parent) relation to a child
 Relation between siblings (brothers and sisters)
 An individual’s relation to his/ her uncle, aunt, niece or
nephew etc.
AFFINAL KINSHIP
 Created through marriage relationship
 The affinal kins are not related through the

bond of blood
Examples
 Kinship ties between husband and wife
 Husband and his wife's group
 Wife and her husband’s group, etc.
 FICTIOUS KINSHIP
 Created through adoption, fostering, god-
parenthood, etc.
 This is called the principle of fictitious

kinship
 Parent-child relationship without any blood

or marriage ties
 There are three important rules of decent
Patrilineal descent
 The most common descent system that traces an individual
to the father’s side or lineage
 Woman's children are members of her husband's patrilineal

line
 Authority and economic survival are vested on the men

 The household is male-headed which is also known as the patriarchal

household (power)
 Both the male and the female children belong to their father’s lineage or
kin and not the mother’s
 Children bear their father’s name, inherits from their father side and have
all the entitlements attached to their father’s lineage
 The residence is patrilocal, the man with his immediate family members
lives in his father’s house
 2. Matrilineal descent
 It is not as common as the patrilineal
descent system
 It is characterized with that the children are

traced to their mother’s lineage; and the

means of survival is carried out mostly
by women
 This system is not the direct opposite of the

patrilineal system in terms of authority

 The authority may vest on the men; though

the economic means of survival is by the

women
 Cognatic Descent
 This system is two-sided because an individual

can be traced to; inherit from and connected to

both the father’s and mother’s side
 There is a simultaneous affiliation to both sides
 Usually, the landed and immovable properties

such as the trees, forests, farm products are

inherited through the male side while the
movable properties and livestock are inherited
matrilineally
 The combination of both the Patrilineal and
Matrilineal descent systems
 But, an individual can be traced to either of the

two lineages
 He or she needs to select only one line to be

traced to
 The reason for choosing one side over the other

has to do with the importance or benefits attached

to each line