Cultural determinism

Cultural determinism is an idea from sociology (the study of how humans act in groups) and anthropology (the study of humans).

Cultural determinism is the thought that how people think and act is greatly shaped by the culture they grow up in. A culture is the common history and ways of life within a group of people.

Cultural determinism is on a spectrum – it is possible to agree with cultural determination a lot, a little, or not at all. If someone is strongly culturally deterministic, they believe that a person is mainly controlled by their culture. If someone is weakly culturally deterministic, they believe that a person is barely controlled by their culture. Many cultural anthropologists use theories that have varying levels of cultural determinism within them. 

 Nature vs. nurture 
An idea related to cultural determinism is biological determinism. Biological determinism is an idea that the way humans think and act is controlled by their bodies. A common saying is "Nature vs. Nurture." Cultural determinism would be the "Nurture," and biological determinism would be the "Nature." However, anthropologists believe that both culture and biology control the way humans think and act.

 Important figures 
 Franz Boas 
Franz Boas (1858 – 1942) was a German-American anthropologist. He is considered the "Father of American Anthropology."  He is also considered a founder of both cultural determinism and cultural relativism - the idea that anthropologists should study all cultures equally. His work, The Mind of Primitive Man used cultural determinism and cultural relativism to argue against eugenics.

 Margaret Mead 
Margaret Mead (1901 – 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who taught at Columbia University. She was educated under Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict. Mead’s book, Coming of Age in Samoa, is an example of cultural determinism.  

 Clifford Geertz 
Clifford Geertz (1926 – 2006) was an American symbolic anthropologist who taught at the University of Chicago. Geertz was influenced by sociologist Talcott Parsons. His book, The Interpretation of Cultures (1973), looks at cultural determinism.

 Examples of cultural determinism 

 Max Weber has argued that the creation of the Protestant religion led to an increase in the use of capitalism in Europe. Weber used cultural determinism to argue that the it was due to Protestant culture and work ethic. 
 Ancient Greeks believed only those who spoke Greek or Latin could have culture. Those who did not speak those languages were called barbarians. This is an example of a strong culturally deterministic view.
 The use of language is a form of cultural determinism. People who speak different languages know different words. This limits the amount of thoughts a person is able to communicate to the languages that they speak.

 Related pages 
 Bronisław Malinowski
 Émile Durkheim
 Ethics
 Ethnography
 Four-field approach
 Multiculturalism

 References 

determinism
Category:Determinism