How would you define culture? View the following video for some ideas:

Cultural anthropology is the study of past and present societies and the language, traditions, customs, and behaviour that make them unique. Cultural anthropology also makes comparisons between societies to help understand human behaviour better.

Each of these aspects of culture becomes a subfield of cultural anthropology that helps to explain from different perspectives what makes us human.

Just like we can see the impact assimilation, acculturation, diffusion and multiculturalism have on our environment once we’re attuned to looking for it, we can see many ways in which a variety of factors influence and shape our human behaviour and culture. Consider the following examples:

Traffic flow on major highways has made changes to the way we measure distance between places. It’s not unusual now to see road signs on highways that display distance that is measured, not in kilometres, but in time, depending on how busy the traffic is. You can read more about how Canadians view time as a measurement of distance at this blog. 

Some people use an app on their cell phones to schedule their day. Often, the app that links to their calendar provides alerts when something comes up on the schedule. What behaviours do you think this has changed from the past? What behaviours has this newly created in response?

Changes in food product labeling occur in response to consumer demand and interest. For example, many products now have the label to indicate they are peanut-free, or organic, or fat-free, or are Halal, Kosher, or Vegan.

Schools in Ontario developed a lock down drill procedure to have students practice what to do in the event of a potentially dangerous incident occurring inside the school building or on the school grounds. Try to brainstorm a number of different ways our behaviour and our culture has changed as a result.

Increasingly, speakers in public spaces, such as in school assemblies, at graduations, and in many civic institutions, begin their speech with a land acknowledgement that names the Indigenous land on which the public assembly is taking place. What is the effect of this land acknowledgement? Why is this practice becoming increasingly common?

Research Methodologies

Cultural anthropologists examine different cultures from the point of view of the people they are studying, collecting data and information directly from the subjects themselves. Together, these research methodologies are called ethnography. Fieldwork, is one ethnographic methodology that refers to primary research techniques, taking the researcher outside of the library and laboratory and into the ‘field’ or the culture he or she is studying. Ethnography is a specific type of research whereby the researcher studies the people and cultures in a systematic way. The traditional methods of research used to conduct such studies include:

• Interviews or the interaction between researcher and subject where the researcher asks questions of an individual or a group and the individual or group responds and provides the information or data; and
• Participant Observer whereby the researcher is immersed in the culture of the people he or she is studying, gathering information both from observing the culture and participating in the daily routine of the culture.

A new methodology is emerging which Dr. Robert Kozinets has coined ‘netnography.’ He found value in studying online social media behaviours - a type of field work that takes the researcher into the natural environment of its subjects, much like ethnography does, but in this case the environment is a virtual one. Primarily, netnography studies the phenomenon of online social behaviours as well as the perceived and symbolic meanings and other cultural information in the social context of digital environments (Kozinets, 2010).

In your mind, is there something different about the use of social media that would provide its own set of challenges and perhaps its own set of ethical guidelines for the ethnographer?

Ethnographic study refers to the in-depth observation, recording, and analysis of a culture. Ethnographers conduct their research both from an emic and an etic approach. Emic refers to trying to understand the components of a culture from the ‘inside’ or from the point of view of the group being studied. Being a participant observer allows one to become closer to being an ‘insider’ in the group being studied. Etic refers to the study of a culture from the outside. An example would be in the use of theories to help make sense of or explain the observations from the inside. Either way, fieldwork becomes the primary methodology of the ethnographer; that and rigorously recording and documenting the fieldwork in one’s field journal. For further information on ethnography, you can consult this guide.

Schools of Thought

Cultural Relativism

Cultural relativism is a theory that states that it is natural for others to view or study a different culture through the lens of their own. In addition to customs and norms of behaviour, cultural relativism can be apparent when studying emotional responses and how they might differ across the world. But do emotions really differ that much around the world? Watch the following video to learn about universal expressions of emotions.

Functional Theory

Functionalists believe that each part of society has a function, or a job to do, to make sure that society runs smoothly and everything stays in harmony. Cultural anthropologists can use this perspective to examine how elements of a society’s culture are interrelated.

Postmodernism

The following video helps to demonstrate a postmodernist approach to anthropology:

Postmodernism is a school of thought that rejects the idea of one objective truth. Instead, it suggests that what we know about our world is constructed by our culture and our interactions in society. Postmodernist anthropologists try to deconstruct, or break down, what they are observing to determine what a culture believes to be true and how these ‘truths’ came to be believed as such. For a postmodernist, it is important for the cultural anthropologist to recognize that he or she cannot complete fieldwork in a completely objective way. Why do you think postmodernists highlight this caution to the fieldwork of a cultural anthropologist?

Try It Out...

The following videos provide examples of how we, as human beings, establish and define gender identity. As you examine the examples, think about what they have in common, and how they differ. Try to identify the agents of socialization(definition:People and institutions that shape an individual’s social development. Examples include family, peers, school, government, religion, media, and work.in each case: in other words, who are the people and the institutions that shape an individual’s sense of gender identity in each case? In what multiple facets of culture does the gender identity socialization have an impact?