Culture and cultural relativism

... Sergey Zubakin CULTURE AND CULTURAL RELATIVISM Culture is the patterns of behaviour and thinking that people living in social groups learn, create, and share. Culture distinguishes one human group from others. It also distinguishes humans from other animals. A people's culture includes their beliefs, rules of behaviour, language, rituals, art, technology, styles of dress, ways of producing and cooking food, religion, and political and economic systems. Culture is the most important concept in anthropology (the study of all aspects of human life, past and present). Anthropologists commonly use the term culture to refer to a society or group in which many or all people live and think in the same ways. Likewise, any group of people who share a common culture and in particular, common rules of behaviour and a basic form of social organization constitutes a society. Thus, the terms culture and society are somewhat interchangeable. However, while many animals live in

want to read more? →