What is human culture and how is it transmitted? Human culture, in my own words and off the top of my head, refers to the social, economic, environmental and spiritual influences that come together in ways that both differentiate us from and join us with other humans. Thinking back to how Winerman (2006) claimed that our cultural background influences the way we learn, categorize, give attention to, and perceive, I wanted to consider this term, not as a MFT student, but as a layman. Some examples of culture include: social influences, such as learned behavior patterns, language, customs, family systems, extended family, and customs; economic factors like access to education, financial resources, mental and medical health care; environmental features like geographic location, climate, family systems, and extended family; and spiritual considerations such as beliefs and customs (Winerman, 2006). We have been reading our texts and articles and watching documentaries related to culture for six weeks, so I believe it is fair to say my perspective on the term, culture, has been influenced by my higher education. As a result I decided to look for a definition online to see what everyone else would find if they Google’d culture too. This is what I found within the Wikepedia definition, and although we are not supposed to use Wikepedia for school, I wanted to try to put myself in another person’s shoes who is not a MFT student and who does not have access to a college learning library. “In the 20th century, culture emerged as a central concept in anthropology, encompassing the range of human phenomena that cannot be directly attributed to genetic inheritance. Specifically, the term culture in American anthropology had two meanings: the evolved human capacity to classify and represent experiences with symbols, and to act imaginatively and creatively; and the distinct ways that people, who live differently, classified and represented their experiences, and acted creatively.[2] Hoebel describes culture as an integrated system of learned behavior patterns which are characteristic of the members of a society and which are not a result of biological inheritance.[3] Distinctions are currently made between the physical artifacts created by a society, its so-called material culture, and everything else,[4] the intangibles such as language, customs, etc. that are the main referent of the term culture.” I do not think I am alone asserting this is not such a clear-cut definition, and I want to dissect it, thinking of culture in more simplistic terms. Perhaps a more straightforward view would help the majority to recognize where cultural commonalities exist, while appreciating more, how dissimilarities are a result of our cultural specificities. I am a fan of the use of acronyms in learning, so I would say culture is a composite of SEES. This list may not be comprehensive. *Social – learned behavior patterns, language, customs, family systems, extended family, customs *Economic – access to education, financial resources, mental and medical health care *Environmental – geographic location, climate, family systems, extended family *Spiritual influences – beliefs, customs In my view, human culture is transmitted through human reproduction. A particular combination of SEES is unified when two people join to make another human. Therefore, I would hypothesize these SEES perpetuate (along with human DNA) through psychological forces Bowen labels as the multigernerational transmission process, the family projection process, and the societal emotional process. Examples of transmitting psychological dysfunction are found in families where abuse of any kind is the norm and the cycle repeats itself in each subsequent generation until someone learns how to break the cycle (Gehart & Tuttle, 2003). In week three, I posted this quotation, and I would like to tie it to this post as well. “High achievers are more likely to end up in cognitively demanding environments that encourage and facilitate the further development of a wide range of knowledge and skills.” At first one might think genetics makes intelligent humans and high achievers, but I and the author of the article, “On the Nature and Nurture of Intelligence and Specific Cognitive Abilities: The More Heritable, the More Culture Dependent,” would argue social, economic, environmental and spiritual factors merge to create humans, some who seek knowledge and mastery of talents that only the circumstances within which they blossomed would foster and support (Kan, Wicherts, Dolan, & van der Maas, 2013, p. 2426). References Gehart, D. & Tuttle, A. (2003). Theory-Based Treatment Planning for Marriage and Family Therapists: Integrating Theory and Practice. California: Pacific Grove. Kan, K., Wicherts, J. M., Dolan, C. V., & van der Maas, H. J. (2013). On the Nature and Nurture of Intelligence and Specific Cognitive Abilities: The More Heritable, the More Culture Dependent. Psychological Science (Sage Publications Inc.), 24(12), 2420-2428. doi:10.1177/0956797613493292 Retrieved from: libproxy.chapman.edu/login?url=https://search-ebscohost-com.libproxy.chapman.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid,cookie,url&db=aph&AN=92969461&site=ehost-live Winerman, L. (2006). The Cultural-Cognition Connection. American Psychological Association. pp. 64-65.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 03:46:02 +0000
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