CULTURE BY DEFINITION

Essay by mdsabrinaCollege, UndergraduateA+, February 2008

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What are the two major ways people around the world enculturate their children? Why are different methods used to enculturate people? What did Margarat Mead say about this subject?Culture, by definition, is the common ideas and values shared amongst a group of people. Culture includes language, moral code, beliefs, language, art, clothing, food, religion, and much more. Every society to have ever existed has had some kind of unique culture. Not all early descendants of the human species had culture, though. In fact, culture incorporated itself into human lifestyle among the later years of human evolution, most likely around the lifetime of the Homo Erectus. Evolutionary changes, such as larger brains, the ability to manipulate small objects, and lowering of the position of the voice box for more variations in sound for speech, allowed culture to develop. With a rise in cultural development, members of the genus 'Homo' saw it fit to pass on their culture to their offspring; therefore, allowing traditions and culture to develop even further along the path of enculturation.

When the term enculturation is used, two general methods come to mind: cultural behavior and learned behavior; these two methods set the foundation of how culture is passed from one generation to the next and from parent to child.

The first method used for enculturation is cultural behavior; in other words, cultural behavior is the everyday activities that one may pick up from instinct by observing the acts of those older than themselves within the given society. The biggest component of cultural behavior is language. Starting at a very young age, our brains will start to distinguish certain sounds; with the progression of time, we begin to synthesize those sounds to form words. Language is classified under cultural behavior, because it is something we naturally...