1.16 CUSTOMS Why do the Chinese dislike milk and milk products? Why would the Japanese die willingly in a Banzai charge that seemed senseless to Americans? Why do some nations trace descent through the father, others through the mother, still others through both parents ? Not because different people have different instincts, not because they were destined by God or fate to different habits, not because the weather is different in China and Japan and the Uniteg States. Sometimes shrewd common sense has an answer that is close to that of the anthropologist: "because they were brought up that way". By "culture" anthropology means the total life way of people, the social legacy the individual acquires from his group. Or culture car be regarded as that part of the environment that is the creation of man. This technical term has a wider meaning than the "culture" of history and literature. 4 humble cooking pot is as much a cultural product as is Beethoven sonata. In ordinary speech ¢ man of culture is a man who can speak languages other than his own, who is familiar witt history, literature, philosophy or the fine arts. In some cliques that definition is still narrower The cultured person is one who can talk about James Joyce, Scarlatti, and Picasso. To the anthropologist, however, to be human is to be cultured. There is culture in general and ther there are the specific cultures such as Russian, American, British, Hottentot, Inca. The genera abstract notion serves to remind us that we cannot explain acts solely in terms of the biologica properties of the people concerned, their individual past experience and the immediate situation The past experience of other men in the form of culture enters into almost every event. Eact specific culture constitutes a kind of blueprint for all of life's activities, ‘One of the interesting things about human beings is that they try to understand themselve and their own behavior. While this has been particularly true of Europeans in recent times, there is no group which has not developed a scheme or schemes to explain man's actions. To the insistent human query "Why?" the most exciting illumination anthropology has to offer is tha of the concept of culture. Its explanatory importance is comparable to categories such ¢ evolution in biology, gravity in physics, disease in medicine. A good deal of human behavig can be understood and indeed predicted, if we know a people's design for living. Many acts ag neither accidental not due to personal peculiarities nor caused by supernatural forces nor sim mysterious. Even those of us who pride ourselves on our individualism follow most of the ti a pattern not of our own making. We brush our teeth on arising. We put on pants- not Joincloth or a grass skirt. We eat three meals a day—not four or five or two. We sleep in a b not in a hammock or on a sheep pelt. I do not have to know the individual and his life historyt be able to predict these and countless other regularities, including many in the thinking procet of all Americans who are not incarcerated in jails or hospitals for the insane. To the American women a system of plural wives seems "instinctively" abhorrent. She cannot understand how any woman can fail to be jealous and uncomfortable if she m! 68 | A Course Book of Communicative English ‘Scanned with @camscannershare her husband with other women. She feels it "unnatural" to accept such a situation. On the other hand, a Koryak woman of Siberia, for example, would find it hard to understand how a woman could be so selfish and so undesirous of feminine companionship in the home as to wish to restrict her husband to one mate. Some years ago I met in New York City a young man who did not speak a word of English and was obviously bewildered by American ways. By "blood" he was as American as you or I, for his parents had gone from Indiana to China as missionaries. Orphaned in infancy, he was reared by a Chinese family in a remote village. All who met him found him more Chinese than American, The facts of his blue eyes and light hair were less impressive than a Chinese style of gait, Chinese arm and hand movement, Chinese facial expression and Chinese modes of thought, The biological heritage was American, but the cultural training had been Chinese, He returned to China. Another example of another kind: I once knew a trader’s wife in Arizona who took a somewhat devilish interest in producing a cultural reaction. Guests who came on her way were often served delicious sandwiches filled with meat that seemed to be neither chicken nor tuna fish yet was reminiscent of both. To queries she gave no reply until each had eaten his fill. She then explained that what they had eaten was not chicken, nor tuna fish, but the rich, white flesh of freshly killed rattlesnakes. The response was instantaneous vomiting-often violent vorniting. A biological process is caught in a cultural web. A highly intelligent teacher with long and successful experience in the public schools of Chicago was finishing her first year in an Indian school. When asked how her Navaho pupils compared in intelligence with Chicago youngsters, she replied, "Well, I just don't know. Sometimes the Indians seem just as bright. At other times they just act like dumb animals. The other night we had a dance in the high school. I saw a boy who is one of the best students in my English class standing off by himself. So I took him over to a pretty girl and told them to dance. But they just stood there with their heads down. They wouldn't even say anything.” I inquired if she knew whether or not they were members of the same clan. "What difference would that make?" “How would you feel about getting into bed with your brother?" The teacher walked off in a huff, but, actually, the two cases were quite comparable in principle. To the Indian the type of bodily contact involved in our social dancing has a directly sexual connotation. The incest taboos between true brothers and sisters. The shame of the Indians at the suggestion that a clan. brother and sister should dance and the indignation of the white teacher at the idea that she should share a bed with an adult brother represent equally non-rational responses, culturally standardized unreason, All this does not mean that there is no such things as raw human nature. The very fact that certain of the same institutions are found in all known societies indicates that at bottom all A Course Book of Communicative English | 69 ‘Scanned with @camscannerb é human beings are very much alike. The files of the Cross-Cultural Survey at Yale Uni are organized according to categories such as "marriage ceremonies", "life crisis rites", "ince, taboos", At least seventy-five of these categories are represented in every single one of the hundreds of cultures analyzed. This is hardly surprising. The members of all human groups have about the same biological equipment. All men undergo the same poignant life experiences such as birth, helplessness; illness, old age, and death, The biological potentialities of the species are the blocks with which cultures are built. Some patterns of every culture are built. Some patterns of every culture crystallize around focuses provided by the inevitables of biology: the difference between the sexes, the presence of persons of different ages, the varying physical strength and skill of individuals. The facts of nature also limit culture forms. No culture provides patterns for jumping over trees or for eating iron ore, a Japanese battle cry anthropologist : one who studies mankind, especially its societies and customs Beethoven : Ludwig Van (1770-1827) German composer He was preeminently an instrumental composer and he poured powerful new life into the forms of Sonata, symphony and concerts. Sonata : a composition for one instrument or two (one usually being a piano accompaniment) cliques : closely united, usually small groups of people who do not allow others easily to join their group James Joyce : (1882-1941) Irish novelist and poet Scarlatti : Alessandro (1660-1725) Italian composer, or Domenico Scarlati (1685-1775) Alessandro Don, also a composer Picasso, Pablo : (1881-1973) Spanish painter Hottentot : People now found in SW Africa, characterized by short stature yellow-brown skin colour, and tightly curled hair, related to the Bushmen Inca : American Indians of the Central Andes blueprint : detailed plan hammock : albed of canvas or rope network, suspended by cords at the ends sheep pelt : the undressed skin of a sheep incarcerated : imprisoned, confined reaction : a response or reaction caused by a culture reminiscent : tending to remind one of or suggest 70 | A Course Book of Communicative English ‘Scanned with |CamScanner"— rattlesnake : any of various poisonous American snakes with a rattling structure of horny rings in its tall connotation additional or suggested meaning implied by a word incest taboos prohibitions or restrictions imposed by social customs on sexual intercourse between persons regarded as too closely related to marry each other + a group of families with a common sumame and a common clan ancestor life crisis rites + rites related to disruptive life events, possibly entailing the loss of important relationships and social statuses which require personal adjustment and which may threaten the integrity of the self and its social relationships potentiality capacity for development inevitable of biology : those which are biological and therefore cannot be avoided Comprehension questions ‘Who dislike milk and milk products? What are the ways of tracing descent? In what way are a cooking pot and Beethoven sonata similar? Define a ‘cultural man’. Underline specific instances of culture. ‘What is the interesting thing about human being? ‘What does anthropology have to offer to the insistent human query? Why? How can we predict human behavior? What is an unnatural situation for an American woman? |. When did the writer meet a young man in New York city? | Why did that young man return to China? . What did the woman use to serve her guests? . Where did the intelligent teacher teach? |. What did the writer ask? .. What is the sexual connotation of the Indian? . According to the writer, what are the two equally non-rational responses? . How are the files of the Cross-Cultural survey organized? .. What are the examples of poignant life experiences? A Course Book of Communicative English | 71 ‘Scanned with @camscanner