ipl-logo

Artificially Learned Behavior

647 Words3 Pages

People continuously alter culture. Culture is the learned, but, people pass on the artificial, societal behaviors that they learn from generations before them. People collect culture through different values they gather and accept through their peers. Just like the television screens of the modern age, culture continues shifting values with new scientific and technological advancements. Through time, culture expands to accommodate new technology, altering morals and societal expectations throughout the advanced culture. Through simplistic technology, such as the the Mesopotamian bronze swords to the newest smartphone, people directly affect culture through their developing technology. Cultures change through technological advances.

Anthropologists define culture using four characteristics; learned behavior, a system of symbols, dynamic and integrated beliefs, and that people pass these cultural beliefs through generations. Culture is nonbiological, meaning that culture is an artificially learned behavior. As society grows, this learned behavior adapts to appropriately respond to changing technology. For example, when cellphones were less common, people learned to research in libraries, children learned to play outside, and people never relied on social media for communication. Now, people have learned that they can gain each of …show more content…

These symbols can change, but they must remain memorable throughout the society. Over time, a symbol may evolve a new meaning. For example, the Confederate flag was once a symbol of pride and strength, but it now it symbolizes a crucial time in America’s history. People create meaningful and memorable symbols to preserve culture’s conventional meanings; however, these symbols change meanings over time. This shifting understanding reveals the growing comprehension of many symbolic languages and, therefore, the constant adaptations of cultural

Open Document