SST 9 Ridler

 Not everyone agrees on a definition because it is COMPLICATED and it depends on why you’re studying it!  Take 2-5 minutes to write down your own definition of culture and then share with the person next to you. Choose one person from your pair to share with the class.  Notice similar words/ideas with the class as they come up.

Write this down! “Everything humans know, think, value and feel is learned through participating in a cultural system” Make a four columned list like this and fill it in. (take15 mins): KNOWTHINKVALUEFEEL What do you know how to do, or understand? How did you get this knowledge? Who taught it to you? How was it taught to you? What are your opinions or ideas? How did you come up with them? What do you value? Family? Friends? Religion? Money? Life? Material things? Where/how did you learn to value what you do? How do you express (or not) your feelings? Do you get “gut” feelings about things? Where/how did you learn this?

Write this down: Culture binds people together in a group, and sets one group apart from “other” groups. Can you name some things that bring people together as a group? One example is clothing. Discuss as a class and write down 3 more examples.

Since it is helpful to have a starting point, we will use the definition used by sociologists (people who study societies). They say: (and write this down please!) “culture is a group’s knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, laws, customs, and habits as they are acquired by humans in society.” WHOA. That’s a mouthful. Let’s break it down….

(write this down) knowledge: Information and skills acquired through experience or education. beliefs: Something one accepts as true or real; a firmly held opinion or conviction. arts: The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination. morals: A person's standards of behaviour or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable for them to do.

(write this down) laws: The system of rules that a country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members. There are consequences for not following the laws. custom: A traditional and widely accepted way of behaving or doing something that is specific to a particular society, place, or time. habit: A recurrent, often unconscious pattern of behavior that is acquired through frequent repetition. NOW, on your paper please come up with 2 examples for each word. Take 10 minutes to do this. Then, for each category (word), find one person in the room who came up with the same example! Take 10 minutes then sit down please.

Write this down: There are 5 agreed upon characteristics of culture. Notice any words/ideas that may have come up in your own definitions and examples...

(write this down) CULTURE IS UNIVERSAL All humans have:  technology to sustain life  ways of producing and distributing food  institutions such as family and kin groups  a system of political control and laws  songs, dances, stories  language

(write this down) CULTURE IS STABLE, BUT CHANGES OVER TIME (don’t write this down) Think of a river. It flows on and on, and remains a river, but the water contents change at different points along it’s course. It’s never the very same water. It gets replaced slowly with minerals from trees or a waterfall along the path, or from a human emptying a coffee cup. It’s the same river (culture), but what it’s made of constantly changes.

(write this down) CULTURE IS A LEARNED BEHAVIOUR You do not have instincts that tell you to use a toilet when you have to pee. You would not naturally know how to cook food on a stove if you had NEVER seen a stove before. You would not learn to speak if no one spoke to you.

Watch the following National Geographic video. After you’ve finished, talk about the common elements of children reportedly raised in the wild. How is this related to culture? channel/all-videos/ngc-feral-children.html

 Write this down: Things we think of as “natural”or “normal”or “common sense” or “human nature” or “instinctive” are often cultural. Like manners, or personal space. In a different culture, your instincts might be thought of as bizarre. Take “personal space” for example. In Canada we stand about 2-3 feet away from someone we’re talking to. In other cultures it might be much closer, or farther away. This video (a commercial, but a good example!), of how a European man feels about his personal space when he takes a trip to Mexico!

Read the following analysis of a culture as a class. As you read, point out or highlight what about the study counts as knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, laws, customs, and or habits.analysis of a culture