Languages: English

The state of Oaxaca, Mexico, is the backdrop of this film, which explores the nature of culture and how cultures are studied. The Oaxacan society is used to illustrate the basic characteristics of culture: an integrated, dynamic system of beliefs, values, and behaviors that are shared by the members of a society; wholly learned and based on symbolic systems; and constituting humankind?s most important method of adaptation. Jayne Howell?s work in Oaxaca aims to determine how this society in transition is adapting to the pressures imposed by outside forces, and illustrates some of the methods of research that ethnographers employ in a biocultural approach to discovering how the world?s diverse cultures function.

Humans are first a biological species, Homo sapiens, but they are unique among all species in their capacity for cultural adaptations. This lesson first compares humans to modern primates, especially the great apes, in terms of biology, genetics, and behaviors. Next, it surveys the evolution of the line of pre-human ancestors from the first bipedal species that emerged about six million years ago up to anatomically modern humans and their increasingly sophisticated cultural innovations. Finally, the concept of race is discussed as a social construct that has no biological validity.

This program focuses on the efforts of the Serrano tribe of Native American to revitalize their dying cultural traditions and language. The features and structures of human language in general are discussed, showing some examples from the Serrano language, and the role played by descriptive linguist assisting them is examined. A discussion of deaf sign languages reveals that they are in every way like all other human languages except that they are based on gestures instead of sounds. Nonverbal human communication systems are explored, as are various aspects of the fields of ethnolinguistics and sociolinguistics. African-American Vernacular English is discussed as an example of a social dialect that marks membership in a group. The film closes with a focus on the Serrano children, who it is hoped will carry on the tribal language and traditions.

When studying how personality develops, we cannot ignore the role that sex and gender may play nor can we overlook the biological factors that may influence and differentiate male and female behaviors. Determining whether gender roles influence personality and social identity or vice versa may be difficult, but we know that gender roles vary greatly from culture to culture. It is also recognized that every culture has individuals who are transgenders?people who do not fall neatly within the proscribed male and female categories. Western cultures prefer to think exclusively in male and female gender roles, but many other cultures have created a ?third gender? or even a ?fourth gender? in which to place these individuals. As individuals, we not only need to know who we are but also how we fit in and belong to the culture we were born into. Sometimes it gets complicated.

The video opens with a wedding in Long Bow Village, in China, and effectively shows the diverse nature of weddings from one culture to another emphasizing that weddings are rites of passage, full of ritual and symbols that convey and emphasize the values of that society. It defines marriage and suggests that this is one way that societies regulate sexual relations between men and women. It points out that all cultures include rules on who can marry whom because of the general concern regarding marriage between close family members, or incest. The incest taboo is discussed, and the narrator and expert anthropologists explain it provides a structuring mechanism for marriage rules, endogamy and exogamy. Arranged marriages are discussed, how they benefit specific societies, and the attitudes toward then as opposed to the western ideals of romantic love.

The video for Lesson 20 begins with Helen Mendoza and Pam Privett explaining that families can take many forms today. They are partners in a same-sex marriage, raising children of their own. Lesson 19 explained why some cultures find polygamy a preferred marriage arrangement, and the video for Lesson 9 highlights the familial and household benefits of the polygynous system. However, the video points out that not all such marriages are cooperative. Under some circumstances, competition among wives can cause serious tensions. The terms consanguinal family, conjugal family, and fictive kin are defined and varying family forms such as nuclear family, extended family, and blended family are illustrated.

The video explains that kinships, or the strong familial networks within which individuals function on a daily basis, are made up of groups of family members and that they provide the essentials for survival. The video explains descent groups and lineages and points out that not all lineages trace descent the same way. Several different kinds of descent groups are illustrated and Chinese patrilineal descent is featured. Particular attention is given to explaining this complex system; that a lineage in this system goes back only four to six generations because households become very large over time and conflicts arise, that brothers splinter off and begin lineages of their own. The concept of clan (tsu) is defined and discussed at length. Different systems of kinship are illustrated, and that each group establishes varying methods of defining relatives. The video explains the Eskimo system, the Iroquois System, and the Hawaiian system.

This program explores concepts related to non-kin based social groupings by focusing on the culture of the Black Indians of New Orleans. They are a common interest group that celebrates their own art and culture, culminating in their annual celebration of Mardi Gras separately from the better known White Carnival. Divisions within the group based on age and gender are discussed, as is its origins and history as an oppressed minority social class excluded from the white Mardi Gras. Finally the show examines the effects of hurricane Katrina on the culture of the Mardi Gras Black Indians and on the recovery of the city in general.

This video explores the anthropological concepts of political organization and social control as practiced cross-culturally. It opens with anthropologists Victoria Bernal and Laura Nader discussing the concepts of political organization, in terms of power, authority, functions, and its four main forms: bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states. Nader and William Ury then explore the various methods of maintaining social order across cultures, including interior and externalized controls, sanctions and laws. Methods of dispute resolution are described by Nader and Ury, and the two then debate the merits of the use of alternative dispute resolution methods (ADR) in the United States. China?s control over citizen use of the internet is used as an example of the interrelationships between social control, ideology, legitimacy, and the potential for the use of force by ruling powers.

The program opens with a general discussion of the anthropological definition of religion contrasted with spirituality. This is followed by a close up view of some of the history, beliefs, and practices of Islam and Tibetan Buddhism, through the eyes of several experts and practitioners. Discussions of anthropological concepts of religion cross-culturally are offered with examples of the basic forms of religion, its specialists, and its rituals, as well as magic and witchcraft. The exploration of some of the social and psychological functions of religious practices and belief systems, especially focusing on Islam, conclude the show.