What is Culture. Artifacts

The geographer's concern with culture is shared with anthropologists, political scientists, sociologists, and scholars in many other disciplines. Perhaps because the concept of culture is a focus of so many areas of inquiry, it is seldom defined unambiguously. In general, however, culture refers to the set of ideas, beliefs, and practices held in common by people within a society living in a particular place or region.

According to Webster's ninth edition, culture is "the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits constituting a distinct complex of tradition of a racial, religious, or social group." This definition has three important implications. First, culture is shared. Culture traits — the material objects, technologies, social forms, and beliefs on which cultures are founded—are common to considerable numbers of people. Fireworks displays on the Fourth of July and turkey dinners on Thanksgiving are examples of American culture traits. These and many other traits are shared by large numbers of Americans.

Second, culture is learned. An anecdote serves to point up this fact. In describing her neighbors to a friend, a student mentioned that they were studying Chinese. When the friend asked why, the student replied, "They adopted a Chinese baby, and they want to be able to understand her when she learns to talk!" This anecdote is amusing, of course, because nobody is born with the ability to speak a particular language. A baby born in China but raised in an English-speaking home in the United States will grow up speaking English, not Chinese.

Children learn the cultures of the societies in which they grow up. Most cultures make concerted efforts to ensure that important cultural traits are taught to the young. Schools and other educational institutions play a large part in ensuring the transmission of culture to succeeding generations.

Finally, the definition implies an intimate connection between culture and place. The uniqueness of each culture can be attributed, in part, to the characteristics of the place in which the culture originated. Many of the characteristic traits of Yanomami culture have evolved in response to the tropical rainforest environment in which the Yanomami have lived for many centuries (Figure 2-1). Geographers often look for the presence or absence of particular culture traits in given places. A culture region is a formal or functional region defined on the basis of common culture traits.

Figure 2-1. Culture and Place. Characteristic traits of the Yanomami reflect their hunting and fishing activities within the rainforest

In studying and comparing culture traits and culture regions, the geographer must be careful to avoid prejudice against traits that are not associated with his or her own culture. In the past, many Americans and Europeans referred to non-Western cultures as "backward" or "savage." Such value-laden terms imply that Western culture is superior to non-Western culture. In fact, there is no evidence that any culture is superior to any other. Each has evolved in response to conditions associated with its place of origin and interaction with other cultures.

Artifacts. Geographers studying culture traits and culture regions examine artifacts, institutions, and values. As shown in Figure 2-2. artifacts are material objects produced and used in order to satisfy human needs and desires. Foods, clothing, buildings, tools, furniture, pottery, coins, and toys are examples of artifacts. Institutions are systems that regulate conduct and govern social relationships within cultures. Schools, churches, corporations, systems of etiquette, and legal procedures are examples of institutions. Cultural values are basic beliefs within cultures concerning the nature of life, society, and the natural environment.

Figure 2-2. Cultural Artifacts. Artifacts help peoples to define who they are and are unique to each culture, (a) Whereas the storyteller figure is a prominent symbol of the native Americans of the U.S. Southwest, totem poles (b) are significant to the native Americans of the Northwest region, (c) The pyramids represent a significant part of the heritage of ancient Egypt, (d) while an American automobile collector may boast about the condition of his '57 Chevy

Prior to the development of large-scale interregional trade, most cultures relied on artifacts that were made from locally available materials. Artifacts used within the traditional culture of the Inuit (Eskimo) people of Alaska, northern Canada, and Greenland are made from materials available to the Inuit residents of the harsh Arctic environment. In winter, many Inuit built and lived in igloos.

Although igloos were constructed from snow, the Inuit had developed technology to ensure that the igloos' inhabitants remained warm and dry even in extremely cold, windy weather. Most of the Inuit diet came from animals including seals, whales, caribou, and seabirds. Animal furs and skins were used to make warm winter clothing. Leather was used to make shoes and boots, and many other animal parts were used to produce tools and other artifacts.

Today, most people no longer rely exclusively on artifacts designed and produced within their own culture. Rather, artifacts originally used in certain cultures have subsequently diffused throughout the world. Many Inuit have abandoned their igloos in favor of Western-style houses. Many wear Western clothing and eat foods cultivated far from the Canadian Arctic. They work as physicians, teachers, pilots, attorneys, and journalists — occupations that are not generally associated with a traditional hunting and gathering culture. At the same time, Inuit artifacts are now used widely outside their areas of origin in the Canadian Arctic. Harpoons, kayaks, and dogsleds invented by the Inuit are now used in many parts of the world.

The contemporary diffusion of artifacts is illustrated by the foods associated with different cultures. The traditional foods of many places reflect the physical environment in which particular cultures originated. We have already noted the importance of stream fish, rainforest mammals, and birds to the Yanomami diet, along with Inuit reliance on animals found in the Canadian Arctic. Likewise, fish is an important component of the diet in Japan, Norway, and Iceland.

Other cultures rely on food that originated elsewhere. For example, the "Irish" potato is native to the Americas. Only following European conquest of the New World was the potato brought across the Atlantic to Europe. The introduction of the potato into Ireland in the sixteenth century revolutionized Irish culture prior to the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s.

Today, many foods and food products are bought and sold on global markets. Visitors to any large American supermarket can purchase foods cultivated and processed throughout the United States and in many other countries. Modern technology enables the quick and convenient transfer of food products and many other types of artifacts throughout the world.