What is Culture?
Edward B. Tylor (1832-1917) |
The word culture has many different meanings. For some it refers to an appreciation of good literature, music, art, and food. One definition of culture is “…people’s learned and shared behaviors and beliefs.” (Miller, 2009) For anthropologists and other behavioral scientists, culture is the full range of learned human behavior patterns. The term was first used in this way by the pioneer English Anthropologist Edward B. Tylor in his book, Primitive Culture, published in 1871. Tylor said that culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” Since Tylor's time, the concept of culture has become the central focus of anthropology.
When I thought about culture I thought about country, language, food, dress, routines, architecture style, customs and celebrations. I felt that the only way that you could study culture was to go to an exotic land and study a foreign way of life. I still feel that this is one way of studying culture but there are many sub-cultures imbedded into our own culture. One example is a group of Cuban-American women tied together by language, food, dress, and the customs of Cuban. Certainly these women are American but they have kept Cuban traditions in their lives. Culture is a powerful human tool for survival, but it is a fragile phenomenon. It is constantly changing and easily lost because it exists only in our minds. Our written languages, governments, buildings, and other man-made things are merely the products of culture. They are not culture in themselves. For this reason, archeologist cannot dig up culture directly in their excavations. The broken pots and other artifacts of ancient people that they uncover are only material remains that reflect cultural patterns--they are things that were made and used through cultural knowledge and skills. The shared cultural traits of subcultures set them apart from the rest of their society. Examples of easily identifiable subcultures in the United States include ethnic groups such as Vietnamese Americans, African Americans, and Mexican Americans. Members of each of these subcultures share a common identity, food tradition, dialect or language, and other cultural traits that come from their common ancestral background and experience. As the cultural differences between members of a subculture and the dominant national culture blur and eventually disappear, the subculture ceases to exist except as a group of people who claim a common ancestry. That is generally the case with German Americans and Irish Americans in the United States today. Most of them identify themselves as Americans first. They also see themselves as being part of the cultural mainstream of the nation.
These Cuban American women in Miami, Florida have a shared subculture identity that is reinforced through their language, food, and other traditions |
I decided to explore another sub-culture that is in the United States. When I was in high school I had a teacher who described her teaching experiences in Glouchester, Virginia. Reportedly, in the mid- seventies National Geographic did a special on the Big Island, a small island off the shore of Glouchester, Virginia but part of Glouchester County. It was reported that the people who inhabited the Big Island (Guineamen) were descendents of Cornwallis’s deserters. Out of necessity (fear of being captured and tried for treason) the Guineamen stuck together and did not mix with the people on the mainland. Through the early seventies most of the Guinea children did not go to school. Those that did came by boat. After the National Geographic Special the Big Island was closed down by social services. The children were sent to school and placed in the grade that was commensurate with their age even though they had not been to school. To make matters even harder for the children they spoke a dialect of Old English which had not evolved over the last 200 years. The Guineamen were watermen. They made their living by fishing the waters around Glouchester. The name Guineamen came from the fact that during the war the British paid for their services as soldiers with Guineas. Regardless of their clannish behavior the Guineamen, reported the teacher, were big hearted people. If they felt like you were trying to help their children they would do anything to express their gratitude. It was common place to receive lobster as a Christmas Gift or homemade clam chowder left on the desk as a token of appreciation. When I started reading about different cultures and languages I thought about this story. I researched the story that I had been told and the facts were very close to that of the story. I was able to find a video which included the language of the Guineamen. In the video it explains that the culture and language the Guineamen worked so hard to preserve is dying out. I find it disturbing that this is the case because their heritage is so rich. Below is the link to the Video.
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