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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [First Page] [223], (1) Lines: 0 to 68 ——— * 47.95358p ——— Normal Page * PgEnds: PageB [223], (1) appendix 2 Personality and Culture Anthropology 121/122, Winter Session, 1946–1947 october 1, 1946 Anthropology shares problems with all the social sciences, but more than others,it distinguishes viewpoints in our culture from those in other cultures. We should be aware of what is strictly in our culture. Culture is learned and acquired behavior practiced in social groups. Important knowledge for anthropologists, beyond the phenomenon of cultural causation, is, What kind of character structure and attitudes are present in a culture? Primitive cultures, that is, preliterate ones, are possible to view as a whole because they are simpler pedagogically, and only pedagogically. A major reason for this is that the invention of printing has created a problem in understanding culture.1 Man’s culture is learned behavior. Animal learning is instinctual, biological . Under human observation, animals are not found to socially transmit learning. Man transmits learning through child rearing and through manmade institutions. The influence of teaching and of institutions becomes a study. Man equals nurture plus nature. Texts: Margaret Mead, Cooperation and Competition among Primitive Peoples . Abram Kardiner, The Psychological Frontiers of Society. Ruth Benedict, Patterns of Culture. october 3, 1946 (Benedict was out of town. Lecture by Marian W. Smith comparing concepts of property in the United States and among Plains Indian tribes. The topic was preannounced, and it introduced the following three lectures on economic attitudes and arrangements. All lectures after this one were by Benedict.) 223 Appendix 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [224], (2) Lines: 68 to ——— 0.0pt Pg ——— Normal Pag PgEnds: TEX [224], (2) october 8, 1946 Attitudes toward Property, Contrasting the Plains Indians with the Kwakiutls Whenever property is concentrated within any one point, the patterns of Plains life require that it should be distributed. The Western pattern of investment does not belong to many other cultures. In the great giveaway the concentrated property goes to people who have nothing. The Dakota say,“He had nothing. He gave everything away.” There is no rise in prestige through accumulation. The Kwakiutl are a rich people, warlike, and very aggressive. Giving always has a measurable return. They have a permissive environment. They eat fish andtheyhavegoodtechnology.Thisistheonlyareaof head-huntinginNorth America. The purpose of economic exchanges is to flatten your rival. There is a difference between competition and rivalry: in competition, two people compete for the same object with attention on the object; in rivalry, interests shift almost immediately to the rivalry situation with the other person. It is a quarrel situation. When you kill a man, you acquire all his property. (The potlatch is described.) All rivalry is in goods above the subsistence level. october 10, 1946 The contrast between Kwakiutl society, on the one hand, and Plains Indians, on the other, shows up the components which are valued in each. The Plains Indians do not gage self-esteem in terms of property, and you honor yourself and the recipient by stripping yourself of property. The goal in Kwakiutl is to flatten your rival by giving away or destroying property. There is no accumulation of goods in Kwakiutl, and the very poor and very rich people use practically the same things. The Plains system is a siphon system. It insures the distribution of the available goods throughout the social structure through the melodramatic act of giving. Zuni is another siphon system, though not at all melodramatic. Zunis would never strip themselves of everything, and they are more dependable through this restraint. For example, for preparation of the winter ceremonial, Shalako, houses must be built, and the people who build new houses must show that they have much. Building takes six to eight months during which anyone who works is fed and paid by the “contractors.” This is the siphon in operation. Furthermore, people attending the Shalako must be fed. The details of working of this economic system are not available in the literature since the Zuni never talk about it and are...

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