Norms

Norms are the agreed‐upon expectations and rules by which a culture guides the behavior of its members in any given situation. Of course, norms vary widely across cultural groups. Americans, for instance, maintain fairly direct eye contact when conversing with others. Asians, on the other hand, may avert their eyes as a sign of politeness and respect.

Sociologists speak of at least four types of norms: folkways, mores, taboos, and laws. Folkways, sometimes known as “conventions” or “customs,” are standards of behavior that are socially approved but not morally significant. For example, belching loudly after eating dinner at someone else’s home breaks an American folkway. Mores are norms of morality. Breaking mores, like attending church in the nude, will offend most people of a culture. Certain behaviors are considered taboo, meaning a culture absolutely forbids them, like incest in U.S. culture. Finally, laws are a formal body of rules enacted by the state and backed by the power of the state. Virtually all taboos, like child abuse, are enacted into law, although not all mores are. For example, wearing a bikini to church may be offensive, but it is not against the law.

Members of a culture must conform to its norms for the culture to exist and function. Hence, members must want to conform and obey rules. They first must internalize the social norms and values that dictate what is “normal” for the culture; then they must socialize, or teach norms and values to, their children. If internalization and socialization fail to produce conformity, some form of “social control” is eventually needed. Social control may take the form of ostracism, fines, punishments, and even imprisonment.

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/sociology/culture-and-societies/cultural-norms

Language

Scholars wishing to study the origins of language must draw inferences from evidence such as the fossil record, archaeological evidence, contemporary language diversity, studies of language acquisition and comparisons between human language and systems of communication existing among animals (particularly other primates). Many argue that the origins of language probably relate closely to the origins of modern human behavior, but there is little agreement about the facts and implications of this connection.

Various hypotheses have been developed about how, why, when, and where language might have emerged. Still, little more has been universally agreed upon today than a hundred years ago, when Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection provoked a surge of speculation on the topic. Since the early 1990s, however, a number of linguists, archaeologists, psychologists, anthropologists, and others have attempted to address this issue with new, modern methods.

Belief Systems

The earliest archeological evidence of religious ideas dates back several hundred thousand years, to the Middle and Lower Paleolithic periods. Archaeologists believe that the apparently intentional burial of early Homo sapiens and Neanderthals as early as 300,000 years ago is proof that religious ideas already existed.

Scientists generally interpret a number of artifacts from the Upper Paleolithic (50,000-13,000 BCE) as representing religious ideas. These include the lion man, the Venus figurines, cave paintings from Chauvet Cave and the elaborate ritual burial from Sungir.

Göbekli Tepe, the oldest religious site yet discovered anywhere includes circles of the world’s oldest known megaliths decorated with abstract, enigmatic pictograms and carved-animal reliefs. The site, built around 9000 BCE and abandoned before the beginning of agriculture and animal husbandry, implies organization of an advanced order not associated with contemporary societies.

By 900 to 200 BCE humanity’s most influential philosophical traditions, including monotheism in Persia and Canaan, Platonism in Greece, Buddhism and Jainism in India, and Confucianism and Taoism in China had been founded.

Artistic and Creative Styles

Art and artistic styles, particularly in the scope of a collection dedicated to human civilization, is an extremely complex topic. As such, detailed analysis of works of art falls more within the realm of the Artist and the Art Historian than that of the Archaeologist and Anthropologist.

For the archaeologist, the study of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetic visual form rather than just their function. The aesthetics can show creative imagination and an aim to express technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.

The three classical branches of visual art are painting, sculpture, and architecture; but archaeologists often look beyond just those to include as different cultures developed distinct artistic styles in their dress, pottery, tools, and crafts, as well as their “performing arts” such as music, dance, poetry, and theater.

Social Systems

A social system is the patterned network of relationships constituting a coherent whole that exist between individuals, groups, and institutions. It is the formal structure of role and status that can form in a small, stable group. An individual may belong to multiple social systems at once; examples of social systems include nuclear family units, kinship groups, communities, cities, nations, organizations, corporations, and industries. The organization and definition of groups within a social system depend on various shared properties such as location, socioeconomic status, race, religion, societal function, or other distinguishable features.