Sturm/ Fall 2013
ANT 302
First Examination Review
Key Terms:
 Culture:
o Book: Sir Edward Tyler: That complex whole which includes
knowledge, belief, arts, morals, law, custom, and any other
capabilities.
o Lecture: an integrated system of meanings, writings, values &
behavioral patterns with which a specific group of people identify
o National culture: refers to those beliefs, learned behavior patterns,
values and institutions that are shared by citizens of same nation
(apple pie, monster-truck rallies)
o International culture: the term for cultural traditions that extend beyond
and across national boundaries (soccer, basketball, pizza)
o Subcultures: different symbol-based patterns and traditions associated
with particular groups in the same complex society (originate in region,
ethnicity, language, class, and religion)
o Culture is transmitted through learning rather than genetically cultural
traits, so it can spread through borrowing or diffusion from one group
to another.
 Characteristics of Culture
o Shared, Learned, Tacit:
 Shared: Culture is transmitted in society. Shared beliefs,
values, memories, and expectations link people who grow up in
the same culture
 Learned: Our own cultural learning depends on the uniquely
developed human capacity to use symbols (signs, that have no
necessary or natural connection to the things they signify or for
which they stand). We grasp and apply specific systems of
symbolic meaning.
 Tacit: Culture as defined anthropologically, encompasses
features that are sometimes regarded as trivial or unworthy of
serious study, such as “pop” culture. (The Subconscious
expression of culture)
o Explicit, Arbitrary, Symbolic,
 Explicit: Conscious expression culture (For example, who you
can and cannot marry)
 Arbitrary: Culture