The Concept of Culture
Culture is the set of beliefs, values, traditions, and ways of interacting that characterize the behavior of a particular group of humans. It encompasses a wide range of practices, including the use of symbols and icons, music and art, social rituals, food and clothing, and language. It is also the way that a group interprets its own history and experiences of time and place. Throughout the world, human cultures are numerous and diverse.
The concept of culture has long been of interest to historians and has inspired a great variety of studies. In the 1970s and 80s, it was a major trend in academic research. A number of books were published on the subject, and many popular television programs (such as 1969’s Civilisation and 1973’s The Ascent of Man) were broadcast. The ‘cultural turn’ in history was partly a response to the perceived rigidity of the predominantly political histories that preceded it.
It has also been influenced by neighbouring disciplines, such as anthropology. In England, for example, the work of Thomas and Burke was influential; in Scandinavia, the work of Lofgren and Frykman was embraced; and Clifford Geertz’s notion of ‘thick description’ has been widely cited. More recently, there has been a rapprochement with experimental psychology and neuroscience, as well as a ‘bio-history’ concerned with the co-evolution of human beings and their environments.
One approach to cultural history identifies the core of a culture as its values. Values are broad tendencies to prefer some states of affairs over others (good-evil, right-wrong, natural-unnatural). The values that characterize a culture are unconscious for its members and can be discerned only by examining the practices of a group. The outermost layer of a culture is its symbols, heroes, and rituals. Symbols are tangible or visual aspects of a culture’s practices, but they carry only the meanings that are recognized by those who practice the culture. Heroes are persons, real or fictitious, who embody the values of a culture. Rituals are group activities that may seem superfluous in the attainment of desired goals but are carried out as part of a culture’s identity.
A second approach views culture as a result of evolved biological dispositions that lead to the formation of cognitive fossils, which are enduring mental representations of past experiences. These representations are then filtered through the a culture’s social structure, producing the cultural characteristics that distinguish that group. The resulting patterns of behaviour are passed on to new generations, thus creating a continuous process of evolution in culture. The most important task for researchers in the field of cultural history is to identify variables that can be used to measure the process of this evolution. Among these are psychological traits such as sensation-seeking and the preference for certain types of music and foods. For example, the’musical taste’ of adolescents can be a reliable indicator of their preferences for future musical styles. Similarly, the interest in romantic love displayed by children can serve as a predictor of their preferences for romantic literature and music.
Culture is the set of beliefs, values, traditions, and ways of interacting that characterize the behavior of a particular group of humans. It encompasses a wide range of practices, including the use of symbols and icons, music and art, social rituals, food and clothing, and language. It is also the way that a group interprets its own history and experiences of time and place. Throughout the world, human cultures are numerous and diverse. The concept of culture has long been of interest to historians and has inspired a great variety of studies. In the 1970s and 80s, it was a major trend in academic research. A number of books were published on the subject, and many popular television programs (such as 1969’s Civilisation and 1973’s The Ascent of Man) were broadcast. The ‘cultural turn’ in history was partly a response to the perceived rigidity of the predominantly political histories that preceded it. It has also been influenced by neighbouring disciplines, such as anthropology. In England, for example, the work of Thomas and Burke was influential; in Scandinavia, the work of Lofgren and Frykman was embraced; and Clifford Geertz’s notion of ‘thick description’ has been widely cited. More recently, there has been a rapprochement with experimental psychology and neuroscience, as well as a ‘bio-history’ concerned with the co-evolution of human beings and their environments. One approach to cultural history identifies the core of a culture as its values. Values are broad tendencies to prefer some states of affairs over others (good-evil, right-wrong, natural-unnatural). The values that characterize a culture are unconscious for its members and can be discerned only by examining the practices of a group. The outermost layer of a culture is its symbols, heroes, and rituals. Symbols are tangible or visual aspects of a culture’s practices, but they carry only the meanings that are recognized by those who practice the culture. Heroes are persons, real or fictitious, who embody the values of a culture. Rituals are group activities that may seem superfluous in the attainment of desired goals but are carried out as part of a culture’s identity. A second approach views culture as a result of evolved biological dispositions that lead to the formation of cognitive fossils, which are enduring mental representations of past experiences. These representations are then filtered through the a culture’s social structure, producing the cultural characteristics that distinguish that group. The resulting patterns of behaviour are passed on to new generations, thus creating a continuous process of evolution in culture. The most important task for researchers in the field of cultural history is to identify variables that can be used to measure the process of this evolution. Among these are psychological traits such as sensation-seeking and the preference for certain types of music and foods. For example, the’musical taste’ of adolescents can be a reliable indicator of their preferences for future musical styles. Similarly, the interest in romantic love displayed by children can serve as a predictor of their preferences for romantic literature and music.