Southern New Hampshire University
ATH 101: Introduction to Anthropology
Module 4 Notes
We know culture is learned, shared, symbolic, and involves behavior patterns. However, how is
culture transmitted? Well, we are aware it is not genetic, but we do get it from our parents.
Enculturation is how children learn their cultural values, norms, and beliefs. It begins at birth
and continues through adulthood. Our parents are the most significant influence for the first six
years, but then we start learning about our culture from our ministers, teachers, and peers.
Another way to acquire new cultures is through , when two cultures meet and acculturation
exchange ideas and customs. For instance, an American student travels to France to complete
their degree. While there, they learn French and fall in love with French cuisine. Do they
instantly become French citizens? No, they will return to the U.S. and pick up on their previous
lives and customs. However, they will occasionally speak French and probably cook crepes.
The third method is which occurs when one ethnic group absorbs another so that assimilation
the cultural traits of the assimilated group become indistinguishable. Immigrants to a new
country will shed the greater majority of their homeland’s culture to incorporate into their new
home.
To understand anthropology, it is essential to realize that our perception of the world is seen
through the lens of the society in which we live, a very narrow and often ethnocentric (the belief
that one’s culture is superior to another). An anthropologist must overcome and ethnocentrism
view the world from a . That is, they must realize that their culturally relativistic perspective
values and accepted norms most likely are not applicable and accepted in other societies.
Anthropologists must avoid placing a value judgment on cultural practices different from their
own. At the turn of the 20th century, Franz Boas first proposed valuing different cultures
without our own biases. He suggested that ethnographers researching different cultures do so
use cultural , that is, understanding the ways of other cultures and not judging their relativism
practices according to one’s own culture. This fantastic concept opens up opportunities for more
knowledge because it is taken seriously instead of being peer-judged as worthless due to personal
