Southern New Hampshire University
ATH-101 Introduction to Anthropology
Module 4 Overview
Learning Objectives
Appraise how cultural relativism relates to real-world situations
Explain the merits of anthropology and the importance of the anthropological perspective
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Consider the following questions: “Would you eat roast dog? Would you stop others from eating
roast dog? Would you eat roast cow? What if it was called roast beef? Would you marry your
first cousin? Would you encourage your children to marry their first cousin?” (Heider, 2007, p.
31).
While the answers to these questions might be obvious to one person, others might answer the
opposite. People have different and shared ideas about what is appropriate or appetizing to eat
and about who should and can marry (Heider, 2007). This is what anthropologists refer to as
culture.
While many definitions of culture exist, the essence of understanding what culture is revolves
around four main principles: that it is learned, that it is shared, that it contains ideas (symbols),
and that it involves patterns of behavior. It is important to remember that culture is learned. It is
not innate, and it is not genetically passed on from parents to children.6Enculturation6refers to
the natural process by which children learn the behaviors of the culture that surrounds them. The
process of learning another culture as an adult is called6acculturation. For example, when an
immigrant comes to the United States, learns English (but still retains his or her own language),
and adopts American holidays (such as Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July), that person is being
acculturated into American culture. Assimilation occurs when an immigrant becomes so
incorporated (culturally and socially) into the larger dominant culture that little of the original
culture remains—for example, speaking only English, celebrating only American holidays, and
wearing only American-style clothes. Module Four also explains how cultures change through
time.
Anthropologists learn what patterns and behaviors mean to other cultures through fieldwork (as
discussed previously). As Schultz and Lavenda (2012) state, “learning about other cultures is at
once enormously hopeful and immensely threatening” (p. 28). With the many societies that
anthropologists study, they are bound to come across some strange or odd behaviors.
How do anthropologists remain objective, and is it important to do so? Anthropologists have
developed an approach called6cultural relativism, which means that behaviors and actions must
be described and judged in the terms of that culture, not the culture of the anthropologist. For
example, it is a common practice for Americans to drink cow’s milk. However, among the
Maasai, it is not unusual to drink the blood of a cow. (They do not kill the cow but just make a
small cut in the jugular to draw the blood.) Anthropologists do not judge this as savage but seek
out the social and cultural significance of this and what beliefs are behind this action.
Ethnocentrism6describes the tendency for people to see their culture as the only right culture or
how they do things as the only right way. While ethnocentrism contributes to social solidary and
cultural identity (Gezon & Kottak, 2012), it becomes unacceptable when a group feels that they
must do something about the discrepancies of another group they disapprove of, such as
committing genocide or going to war (Schultz and Lavenda, 2012). Consider the devastating
effects of the Jewish holocaust as Adolf Hitler viewed Jews as an inferior “race.” This led to the
destruction and murder of more than six million people in Europe in the twentieth century.
Cultural variation explains diverse patterns of behaviors among different populations. The
elements of cultural variation introduced in this module lays the groundwork to further
investigate some specific forms of cultural variations in Module Five, such as those surrounding
social stratification, gender roles, and marriage patterns. As discussed in this module,
maintaining an anthropological perspective as diverse cultural patterns are studied is paramount
to avoiding ethnocentrism and attaining true understanding.
REFERENCES
Gezon, L., & Kottak, C. (2012).6Culture. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Heider, K. G. (2007).6Seeing anthropology: Cultural anthropology though film. (4th ed.).
Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.
Schultz, E. A., & Lavenda, R. H. (2012).6Cultural anthropology: A perspective on the human
condition. (8th ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
