SUNY Buffalo State CollegeBIO 211Test Bank for Anthropology of Religion, Magic, and Witchcraft, The, 3E 3rd Edition

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The Anthropology of Religion, Magic, and Witchcraft Test Bank for Essentials of Cultural Anthropology 3rd Edition by Bailey 2 FOR MORE OF THIS COURSE AND ANY OTHER COURSES, TEST BANKS, FINAL EXAMS... , AND SOLUTION MANUALS CONTACT US AT [email protected] CHAPTER 2 CULTURE LEARNING OBJECTIVES After reading Chapter 2, the student should be able to: 1. Describe the anthropological meaning of culture and its complexities. 2. Explain why it is usually mistaken to equate “culture” with “nation” or “society.” 3. Discuss the nonobvious components of cultural knowledge and their importance. 4. Evaluate the importance of culture to human life. KEY TERMS culture (22) cultural identity (23) subculture (23) enculturation (socialization) (24) patterns of behavior (26) role (27) 18 The Anthropology of Religion, Magic, and Witchcraft norm (27) values (28) symbol (30) cultural construction (31) world view (34) CHAPTER SUMMARY Anthropologists use the concept of culture to understand the diversity of human experience. Culture is the shared, socially learned knowledge and patterns of behavior that are unique to a group of people. Culture is not only essential for humanity, but it is also the key to our successful adaptation in a wide variety of environments. Though definitions vary widely, anthropologists generally agree on certain characteristics of culture: it is learned, shared, has a profound impact on the group of people who share it, and is central to understanding the different ways in which groups of people act, think, and feel. In a narrow sense, culture can be defined as a mental phenomenon; material artifacts and behaviors, for example, are products of culture in this sense. Broadly defined, culture refers to the way of life of a given group of people and explains the distinctiveness of the group. Culture is shared by definition, and always socially learned. Biological differences do not explain cultural differences; they are independent of each other. Culture is passed from one generation to the next, and transmitted from place to place at any given time. Attitudes, beliefs, assumptions about the world and other socially learned information that is stored in the mind, is called cultural knowledge. The five components of cultural knowledge are: norms, values, symbols, constructions of reality (including the natural and social worlds), and world views through which reality is interpreted. Culture knowledge is learned through enculturation. It is necessary for human existence because it enables us to adapt to our environments and provides the basis for human life, as well as shaping our view of reality. [Show More]

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