Anthropologist Clifford Geertz defined culture as ideas based on cultural learning and symbols. For anthropologist Leslie White, culture originated when our ancestors acquired the ability to use symbols. What is a symbol?
A. a distinctive or unique cultural trait, pattern, or integration that can be translated into other cultures
B. any element within a culture that distinguishes it from other cultures, precisely because it is difficult to translate
C. something verbal or nonverbal within a particular language or culture that comes to stand for something else, with no necessary or natural connection to the thing for which it stands
D. a linguistic sign within a particular language that comes to stand for something else in another language
E. something verbal or nonverbal with a non-arbitrary association with what it symbolizes
Question 2
People in the United States sometimes have trouble understanding the power of culture because of the value that American culture places on the idea of the individual. Yet in American culture,
A. individualism is a distinctive commercial value, a feature of capitalist culture shared only by the business elite.
B. the cult of individualism is truly shared only by the country's atheist minority.
C. individualism is a distinctive shared value, a feature of culture.
D. individualism is a distinctive shared value, a result of genetic enculturation.
E. individualism is something people talk about but don't practice, because it is not really part of their culture.
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