What Is Culture?
Culture is the set of beliefs, values, habits, knowledge, art, and other aspects that characterize a group as distinct from others. It includes both ponderable and intangible traits, but it is the values that form its core. Values are broad tendencies for preferences of certain state of affairs over others (good-evil, right-wrong, natural-unnatural). Generally they remain unconscious, but they may be reflected in choices that people make in different circumstances. The term is also used to refer to the patterned behavior of a particular group within society. Examples of this include the way members of a particular profession, social class, or age group act in their daily lives. The culture of a nation may also be referred to as its national culture.
The infant human enters the world as cultureless, but he acquires culture at birth through his environment and from his parents. As he grows, he acquires more of his culture from society in general and his peers in particular. He also develops a more or less conscious awareness of his culture.
It is commonly assumed that culture spreads from one person to another in the same manner as a disease. This belief is based on the fact that some cultural traits, including customs, tools, techniques, folktales, ornaments, and beliefs, may diffuse from one people or region to another. Other cultural traits, such as social organization and clan structure, do not, however, tend to transfer from one population to another.
As a result, anthropologists have developed the theory that cultures are distinct and independent of their environment, although this view has not always been embraced by other historians. For example, the historian Lynn Hunt has argued that, in the case of the development of Western culture, historical factors played a much smaller role than cultural influences.
Cultural history is a growing field of study, but it remains an interdisciplinary subject. It incorporates perspectives from a variety of other disciplines, particularly history and sociology.
For example, a historian dealing with the growth of industrialization might study the evolution of corporate culture as well as the evolution of labor unions and socialist collectives.
Likewise, a historian of religion might examine the growth of religious sects along with the emergence of a secularized public life.
In the last generation, the ‘cultural’ turn in historiography has begun to affect both the content and the methods of historical research. It has tended to emphasize the importance of cultural patterns rather than economic or political events, and it has pushed for greater attention to the ways that different social groups construct their own histories. It has also led to a new emphasis on the study of mentalities and other intangible factors that shape human behavior. The field has become more inclusive, with a greater range of topics falling under its rubric—crime, madness, childhood, old age, gestures, humor, smells, and space. These topics, however, are more suited to the study of a specific society than to an attempt at the generalization of history.
Culture is the set of beliefs, values, habits, knowledge, art, and other aspects that characterize a group as distinct from others. It includes both ponderable and intangible traits, but it is the values that form its core. Values are broad tendencies for preferences of certain state of affairs over others (good-evil, right-wrong, natural-unnatural). Generally they remain unconscious, but they may be reflected in choices that people make in different circumstances. The term is also used to refer to the patterned behavior of a particular group within society. Examples of this include the way members of a particular profession, social class, or age group act in their daily lives. The culture of a nation may also be referred to as its national culture. The infant human enters the world as cultureless, but he acquires culture at birth through his environment and from his parents. As he grows, he acquires more of his culture from society in general and his peers in particular. He also develops a more or less conscious awareness of his culture. It is commonly assumed that culture spreads from one person to another in the same manner as a disease. This belief is based on the fact that some cultural traits, including customs, tools, techniques, folktales, ornaments, and beliefs, may diffuse from one people or region to another. Other cultural traits, such as social organization and clan structure, do not, however, tend to transfer from one population to another. As a result, anthropologists have developed the theory that cultures are distinct and independent of their environment, although this view has not always been embraced by other historians. For example, the historian Lynn Hunt has argued that, in the case of the development of Western culture, historical factors played a much smaller role than cultural influences. Cultural history is a growing field of study, but it remains an interdisciplinary subject. It incorporates perspectives from a variety of other disciplines, particularly history and sociology. For example, a historian dealing with the growth of industrialization might study the evolution of corporate culture as well as the evolution of labor unions and socialist collectives. Likewise, a historian of religion might examine the growth of religious sects along with the emergence of a secularized public life. In the last generation, the ‘cultural’ turn in historiography has begun to affect both the content and the methods of historical research. It has tended to emphasize the importance of cultural patterns rather than economic or political events, and it has pushed for greater attention to the ways that different social groups construct their own histories. It has also led to a new emphasis on the study of mentalities and other intangible factors that shape human behavior. The field has become more inclusive, with a greater range of topics falling under its rubric—crime, madness, childhood, old age, gestures, humor, smells, and space. These topics, however, are more suited to the study of a specific society than to an attempt at the generalization of history.