Cultural determinism

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)

This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (June 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Cultural determinism" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

(Learn how and when to remove this message)

Cultural determinism is the belief that the culture in which we are raised determines who we are at emotional and behavioral levels.^[1] It contrasts with genetic determinism, the theory that biologically inherited traits and the environmental influences that affect those traits dominate who we are.

Yet another way of looking at the concept of cultural determinism is to contrast it with the idea of environmental determinism. The latter is the idea that the physical world- with all its constraints and potentially life-altering elements-is responsible for the make-up of each existing culture. Contrast this with the idea that we (humans) create our own situations through the power of thought, socialization, and all forms of information circulation.

It is also used to describe the concept that culture determines economic and political arrangements. It is an idea which has recurred in many cultures over human history, from ancient civilizations through the present.

Cultural determinism as a political and economic influence

[edit]

There are a number of theories of social development that describe culture as the factor that determines all of the others. This is distinct from theories of economic determinism such as that of Marx, namely that an individual or class' role in the means of production determines outlook and cultural roles (although some Marxists reject the label "economic determinism" as an accurate description of Marx's views). Political movements rooted in cultural determinism usually stand opposed to political and economic ideologies or consider them of lesser importance than factors such as religion, race, and nationality. However, cultural determinists do not necessarily disagree with Marx's view of social class as an important determining factor as well. The idea of cultural determinism is extremely common: numerous societies have believed that their habits, ideas and customs were what determined the shape of their political and economic arrangements, and were the source of their uniqueness above all else. This can be seen in adherence to national epics, particular religious customs, and focus on the importance of language as the determiner of national identity.

Examples in history

[edit]

Romanticism had a large element of cultural determinism, and also shows interest in romantic behaviors drawn from writers such as Goethe, Fichte, August and Friedrich Schlegel. In the context of Romanticism, the geography molded individuals, and over time customs and culture related to that geography arose, and these, being in harmony with the place of the society, were better than arbitrarily imposed laws.

In media theory many writers take the position that political arrangements are determined by the mass media images that people see, and that these, by displacing other forms of culture, determine the economic and political arrangements.

In modern conservatism, individuals such as commentator Patrick Buchanan and economist Robert Barro argue that cultural norms determine the behavior of political arrangements. However, the cultural determinism of Buchanan and like-minded conservatives is currently a source of conflict among American conservatives.

References

[edit]

^ "cultural determinism". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 2021-04-22.

v t e Culture
Outline
Sciences	Cultural anthropology Cultural astronomy Cultural ecology Cultural geography Cultural neuroscience Cultural studies Culturology Culture theory
Subfields	Bioculture Cross-cultural studies Cross-cultural communication Cross-cultural leadership Cross-cultural psychiatry Cross-cultural psychology Cultural analytics Cultural economics Cultural entomology Cultural history Cultural mapping Cultural mediation Cultural psychology Cultural values Culturomics Intercultural learning Intercultural relations Internet culture Philosophy of culture Popular culture studies Postcritique Semiotics of culture Sociology of culture Sound culture Theology of culture Transcultural nursing
Types	Constructed culture Dominant culture Folk culture High culture Individualistic culture Legal culture Low culture Microculture Official culture Political culture Civic Popular culture Urban Primitive culture Resistance through culture Subculture Alternative culture Fandom Far-right subcultures Youth subculture list Super culture Vernacular culture Culture by location
Aspects	Acculturation Cultural appreciation Cultural appropriation Cultural area Cultural artifact Cultural baggage Cultural behavior Cultural bias Cultural capital Cross-cultural Cultural communication Cultural conflict Cultural cringe Cultural dissonance Cultural emphasis Cultural framework Cultural heritage Destroyed Cultural icon Cultural identity Cultural industry Cultural invention Cultural landscape Cultural learning Cultural leveling Cultural memory Cultural pluralism Cultural practice Cultural property Cultural reproduction Cultural system Cultural technology Cultural universal Cultureme Enculturation High- and low-context cultures Interculturality Manuscript culture Material culture Non-material culture Organizational culture Print culture Protoculture Relational mobility Safety culture Technoculture Trans-cultural diffusion Transculturation Visual culture
Politics	Colonial mentality Consumer capitalism Cross cultural sensitivity Cultural assimilation Cultural attaché Cultural backwardness Cultural Bolshevism Cultural conservatism Cultural contracts Cultural deprivation Cultural diplomacy Cultural environmentalism Cultural exception Cultural feminism Cultural genocide Cultural globalization Cultural hegemony Cultural imperialism Cultural intelligence Cultural liberalism Cultural nationalism Cultural pessimism Cultural policy Cultural racism Cultural radicalism Cultural retention Cultural Revolution Cultural rights Cultural safety Cultural silence Cultural subsidy Cultural Zionism Culture change Culture minister Culture of fear Culture war Deculturalization Dominator culture Interculturalism Monoculturalism Multiculturalism Biculturalism Multiracial democracy Pluriculturalism Polyculturalism Transculturism
Religions	Buddhism Christianity Catholicism Cultural Christians Protestantism Role of Christianity in civilization Eastern Orthodoxy Mormonism Cultural Hindus Islam Cultural Muslims Judaism Sikhism
Related	Animal culture Archaeological culture Bennett scale Cannabis culture Circuit of culture Civilization Coffee culture Cross-cultural Cultural center Cultural competence Cultural critic Cultural determinism Cultural diversity Cultural evolutionism Cultural homogenization Cultural institution Cultural jet lag Cultural lag Cultural literacy Cultural mosaic Cultural movement Cultural mulatto Cultural probe Cultural relativism Culture speculation Cultural tourism Pop-culture Cultural translation Cultural turn Cultural sensibility Culture and menstruation Culture and positive psychology Culture and social cognition Culture gap Culture hero Culture industry Culture shock Culturgen Children's culture Culturalism Cyberculture Death and culture Disability culture Deaf culture Drinking culture Drug culture Eastern culture Emotions and culture Intercultural communication Intercultural competence Languaculture Living things in culture Media culture Oppositional culture Participatory culture Permission culture Rape culture Remix culture Tea culture Transformation of culture Urban culture Welfare culture Western culture Youth culture
Category Commons WikiProject Changes

Determinism

Types

Related topics

Evolutionary psychology

Evolutionary
processes

Areas

Cognition / Emotion	Affect Display Display rules Facial expression Behavioral modernity Cognitive module/modularity of mind Automatic and controlled processes Computational theory of mind Domain generality Domain specificity Dual process theory Cognitive tradeoff hypothesis Evolution of the brain Evolution of nervous systems Fight-or-flight response Arachnophobia Basophobia Ophidiophobia Folk biology/taxonomy Folk psychology/theory of mind Intelligence Flynn effect Wason selection task Motor control/skill Multitasking Sleep Visual perception Color vision Eye Naïve physics
Culture	Aesthetics Literary criticism Musicology Anthropology Biological Crime Language Origin Psychology Speech Morality Moral foundations Religion Origin Universals
Development	Attachment Bonding Affectional/maternal/paternal bond Caregiver deprivation Childhood attachment Cinderella effect Cognitive development Education Language acquisition Personality development Socialization
Human factors / Mental health	Cognitive ergonomics Computer-mediated communication Engineering psychology Human–computer interaction Media naturalness theory Neuroergonomics Depression Digital media use and mental health Hypophobia Imprinted brain hypothesis Mind-blindness Psychological effects of Internet use Rank theory of depression Schizophrenia Screen time Smartphones and pedestrian safety Social aspects of television Societal impacts of cars Distracted driving Lead–crime hypothesis Mobile phones and driving safety Texting while driving
Sex	Activity Adult attachment Age disparity Arousal Concealed ovulation Coolidge effect Desire Fantasy Hormonal motivation Jealousy Mate guarding Mating preferences Mating strategies Orientation Ovulatory shift hypothesis Pair bond Physical/Sexual attraction Sexuality/male/female Sexy son hypothesis Westermarck effect
Sex differences	Aggression Autism Cognition Crime Division of labour Emotional intelligence Empathising–systemising theory Gender role Intelligence Memory Mental health Narcissism Neuroscience Schizophrenia Substance abuse Suicide Variability hypothesis

Related subjects

Academic disciplines	Behavioral/evolutionary economics Behavioral epigenetics/genetics Affective/behavioral/cognitive/evolutionary neuroscience Biocultural anthropology Biological psychiatry Cognitive psychology Cognitive science Cross-cultural psychology Ethology Evolutionary biology Evolutionary medicine Functional psychology Neuropsychology Philosophy of mind Population genetics Primatology Sociobiology
Research topics	Cultural evolution Evolutionary epistemology Great ape language Human–animal communication Missing heritability problem Primate cognition Unit of selection Coevolution Cultural group selection Dual inheritance theory Fisher's principle Group selection Hologenome theory Lamarckism Population Punctuated equilibrium Recent human evolution Species Species complex Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance Trivers–Willard hypothesis
Theoretical positions	Cultural selection theory Determinism/indeterminism Biological determinism Connectionism Cultural determinism Environmental determinism Nature versus nurture Psychological nativism Social constructionism Social determinism Standard social science model Functionalism Memetics Multilineal evolution Neo-Darwinism Neoevolutionism Sociocultural evolution Unilineal evolution

Cultural determinism as a political and economic influence

Examples in history

See also

References