Reading Journal 3

Title: What is Culture?

Authors: Eric Miraglea, Dr. Richard Law, Peg Collins

What do you Know about the topic, author or article?

I know that this source is from a website called, "What is culture?" by three authors, which means that it may be peer reviewed.

What do you Want to know (in context of the writing Assignment)?

I would like to know more about the authors backgrounds, and the purpose of the website. I want to know if the website provides more general or introductory information on culture, or describes studies and research.

What did you Learn?

I learned that the word culture was originally used in reference to land cultivation and agriculture, and how use of the word evolved.

Summarize the Article:

The third article more thoroughly reviewed concepts brought up in the other readings. It explained the entomology and evolution of the word "culture", explained the ways in which culture is gained, and components or aspects of culture and subculture.

Respond to and Analyze the article (consider the purpose for reading/writing):

I think that this article provided a good summary of the concepts in the other readings. I think the purpose of this article is to provide a basic understanding of culture as a springboard for more research. The article discusses how the word "culture" has evolved in meaning over time, and connecting it to the natural evolution of culture itself as well. I think the purpose of our reading this article is to synthesize the ideas presented in other readings, and learn a little bit of new information. I think this article might have been more useful as the first article we read, because it more explicitly states basic information about culture, whereas the other readings discuss different aspects of it, and are less introductory. I do also think that its valuable as a synthesis as well however, because it allowed us to develop our own base of information, and then use this article at the end to corroborate evidence, or expand the view.