Community Builders: Understanding the Significance of Culture
Culture is the sum total of human experiences that define a people as distinct from other people. It is all the learned behaviors, beliefs, values, and traditions that are passed down to children and grandchildren. It also includes language, food, art, habits, and the cores of a society that differ from those of other societies.
Anthropologists and sociologists study the cultures of all the world’s peoples. They find that there are universal traits in human behavior, but also that the cultural characteristics of a people are unique. These traits and the resulting cultures are what give each group of humans its identity, which allows them to function as a community within an ever-changing world.
In his book, “Culture: The Anthropological Concept,” anthropologist Edward Tylor defines culture as the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, values, attitudes, and beliefs that distinguish a people and bind them together. Unlike natural selection, which is driven by survival of the fittest, cultural evolution is driven by social learning.
Tylor viewed culture as the result of a long-term process that began with primitive man’s instinctive responses to survival and ended with the development of a complex society. The process he describes involved moving from simple and unstructured behaviors (good-bad, right-wrong, natural-unnatural) to more structured responses that were conditioned by the environment and passed on through imitation.
He believes that a person’s cultural characteristics and the values that define them determine their abilities and attitudes. He further suggests that a person’s culture is the limiting factor in his or her potential to achieve.
A person’s culture can also determine the type of personality and character he or she will develop, according to another anthropologist, George Bernard Shaw. This is because a person’s cultural beliefs and values determine how he or she responds to life events.
As community builders, it is important to understand the significance of culture and how it affects people. Without understanding the various cultures in our communities, we would be unable to build relationships with different peoples and help them overcome their differences. It is also important to learn how to identify and celebrate the various cultural aspects of the neighborhoods where we work. By doing so, we will promote diversity and inclusion in our communities. In this way, we will be able to bring the benefits of all cultures together into one harmonious community.
Culture is the sum total of human experiences that define a people as distinct from other people. It is all the learned behaviors, beliefs, values, and traditions that are passed down to children and grandchildren. It also includes language, food, art, habits, and the cores of a society that differ from those of other societies. Anthropologists and sociologists study the cultures of all the world’s peoples. They find that there are universal traits in human behavior, but also that the cultural characteristics of a people are unique. These traits and the resulting cultures are what give each group of humans its identity, which allows them to function as a community within an ever-changing world. In his book, “Culture: The Anthropological Concept,” anthropologist Edward Tylor defines culture as the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, values, attitudes, and beliefs that distinguish a people and bind them together. Unlike natural selection, which is driven by survival of the fittest, cultural evolution is driven by social learning. Tylor viewed culture as the result of a long-term process that began with primitive man’s instinctive responses to survival and ended with the development of a complex society. The process he describes involved moving from simple and unstructured behaviors (good-bad, right-wrong, natural-unnatural) to more structured responses that were conditioned by the environment and passed on through imitation. He believes that a person’s cultural characteristics and the values that define them determine their abilities and attitudes. He further suggests that a person’s culture is the limiting factor in his or her potential to achieve. A person’s culture can also determine the type of personality and character he or she will develop, according to another anthropologist, George Bernard Shaw. This is because a person’s cultural beliefs and values determine how he or she responds to life events. As community builders, it is important to understand the significance of culture and how it affects people. Without understanding the various cultures in our communities, we would be unable to build relationships with different peoples and help them overcome their differences. It is also important to learn how to identify and celebrate the various cultural aspects of the neighborhoods where we work. By doing so, we will promote diversity and inclusion in our communities. In this way, we will be able to bring the benefits of all cultures together into one harmonious community.