This paper examines several interconnected dimensions of American culture and anthropological theory through a series of short analytical responses. It begins by analyzing the American attitude toward mandatory health insurance and how deeply held beliefs about freedom and limited government shape public resistance to healthcare regulation. It then distinguishes etic from emic approaches in cultural research, defines belief systems and rituals using course vocabulary, discusses identity of descent with gender as a key example, and concludes by exploring race as a socially constructed rather than biologically fixed category. Together, the responses apply core anthropological concepts to real-world cultural phenomena.
One of the most curious aspects of American culture to residents of other industrialized democracies is the American attitude toward freedom, as currently expressed in the healthcare debate. Americans have articulated a great deal of hostility about being "forced" to buy health insurance, despite the fact that national and state government-run programs already exist in the form of Medicare and Medicaid, and that healthcare is a necessity. Bankruptcies due to health-related issues are nonexistent in nations such as Great Britain and Canada, where participation in the national system of health insurance is mandatory. Yet in America there is a tendency to view outcomes as deserved — those who fall behind in their healthcare bills are seen as exhibiting moral failings regarding their ability to budget or to find work that provides health insurance.
Given that self-employed businesspeople often lack health insurance while the very poor do have some form of coverage through Medicaid, such attitudes are contradictory as well as misguided. In America, however, there is a strong tradition of mistrusting government intervention of any kind, along with the belief that the government that governs best governs least. This has generated a great deal of animosity toward healthcare regulation, despite highly publicized incidents of insurance companies denying patients needed care.
There are social and financial healthcare costs borne by the entire population over the long term that stem from people not receiving care — from Americans waiting until they are critically ill and must be treated in an intensive and expensive fashion. These costs are not factored into the view that "choosing" not to have healthcare is a right and a freedom.
Simply put, "etic" and "emic" definitions relate to "outsider" and "insider" definitions of culture. "The etic perspective relies upon the extrinsic concepts and categories that have meaning for scientific observers… The validation of etic knowledge thus becomes a matter of logical and empirical analysis — in particular, the logical analysis of whether the construct meets the standards of falsifiability, comprehensiveness, and logical consistency, and then the empirical analysis of whether or not the concept has been falsified and/or replicated" (Lett, 2012). Etic constructs arise from the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, and other intellectual perspectives of persons observing a particular culture and attempting to analyze it in a way that is meaningful within an academic discipline.
In contrast, "emic constructs are accounts, descriptions, and analyses expressed in terms of the conceptual schemes and categories that are regarded as meaningful and appropriate by the members of the culture under study. An emic construct is correctly termed 'emic' if and only if it is in accord with the perceptions and understandings deemed appropriate by the insider's culture" (Lett, 2012). Where etic analysis seeks external, cross-cultural validity, emic analysis privileges the internal logic and self-understanding of the culture being examined.
"Belief is motivation by reliance on an assigned version of reality or an assigned version of what might be imagined" (Belief systems and social perception structures, 2011, Leading Edge International Research Group). Belief systems are not rooted in empiricism; rather, they are assumptions about the world that have been learned through a combination of anecdotal and cultural inputs. They are not substantiated with scientific evidence; instead, they are rooted in a sense of truth based upon custom, folklore, and instinct.
Belief systems are cultural collections, or "treasure troves." They may be formal, like a religious creed, or they may be informal. The beliefs may not be internally consistent in the sense that they do not always obey formal logic, but they do carry a rationale that the individual articulating them believes he or she can understand, both instinctually and intellectually. The observance of these beliefs may not be fully realized in action, but they function as ideals that members of a culture uphold and aspire to as correct. Belief systems help members of a culture make common meaning out of their shared world.
"Rituals as communal acts reinforcing social solidarity"
"Birth-assigned identities such as gender"
"Race as culturally shifting, not biologically fixed"
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