The Concept of Culture
Culture is the beliefs, behaviors, and objects that are shared by members of a particular group. It can be based on ethnicity, religion, cuisine, social habits or music and art. For some scholars, culture includes the ideas, values, and assumptions that are held by a society, such as gender roles and racial hierarchies. Cultural historians study these beliefs and practices to gain a better understanding of the evolution of human civilizations.
The concept of culture is a very broad one and there are numerous definitions. The Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition defines it as a “shared patterns of behavior and interactions, cognitive constructs and understanding that are learned by children through socialization.” Other scholars believe that the term has a more literal meaning and encompasses a person’s entire way of life. This would include a person’s religious or social beliefs, their music and art preferences and even the clothing they wear.
In the past, when scholars were first defining what it meant to have a culture, they focused on the characteristics of a specific group of people. As anthropologists continued to study other groups, however, they realized that this limited the scope of their studies. They decided to change the way they viewed culture, and started to view it as an overarching concept that could be applied to many different cultures. Anthropologists also began to divide culture into two distinct categories: the big C, which refers to a general concept, and the little c, which refers to the specifics of a particular group.
Every culture exists within a natural environment and the interactions between these two elements affect the culture in question. For example, some Eskimo tribes have developed a very rich culture that reflects their ability to adapt to extremely cold climates. This culture has allowed them to survive in a harsh environment by providing them with such things as tailored fur clothing, snow goggles, boats and harpoons for hunting sea mammals, and even hemispherical snow houses that are called igloos.
When a culture becomes too ingrown, it may become stagnant and not evolve or change as other cultures do. This can result in a type of groupthink mentality that ostracizes any person who does not follow the strictures of the dominant culture. This can be seen in many forms of popular culture, where the ideas and values that are promoted by a particular group have an overwhelming influence over what is considered normal or acceptable.
In recent times, there has been much discussion of a new form of history that is sometimes referred to as “new cultural history.” This approach incorporates the concepts and tools of both traditional and social histories while trying to focus on the idea that culture has a greater impact on our lives than previously thought. This movement has resulted in a productive interchange between various disciplines and often results in hybridizations of social, feminist and postcolonial methodologies. It is also possible that this new wave of history will supplant the old paradigm altogether.
Culture is the beliefs, behaviors, and objects that are shared by members of a particular group. It can be based on ethnicity, religion, cuisine, social habits or music and art. For some scholars, culture includes the ideas, values, and assumptions that are held by a society, such as gender roles and racial hierarchies. Cultural historians study these beliefs and practices to gain a better understanding of the evolution of human civilizations. The concept of culture is a very broad one and there are numerous definitions. The Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition defines it as a “shared patterns of behavior and interactions, cognitive constructs and understanding that are learned by children through socialization.” Other scholars believe that the term has a more literal meaning and encompasses a person’s entire way of life. This would include a person’s religious or social beliefs, their music and art preferences and even the clothing they wear. In the past, when scholars were first defining what it meant to have a culture, they focused on the characteristics of a specific group of people. As anthropologists continued to study other groups, however, they realized that this limited the scope of their studies. They decided to change the way they viewed culture, and started to view it as an overarching concept that could be applied to many different cultures. Anthropologists also began to divide culture into two distinct categories: the big C, which refers to a general concept, and the little c, which refers to the specifics of a particular group. Every culture exists within a natural environment and the interactions between these two elements affect the culture in question. For example, some Eskimo tribes have developed a very rich culture that reflects their ability to adapt to extremely cold climates. This culture has allowed them to survive in a harsh environment by providing them with such things as tailored fur clothing, snow goggles, boats and harpoons for hunting sea mammals, and even hemispherical snow houses that are called igloos. When a culture becomes too ingrown, it may become stagnant and not evolve or change as other cultures do. This can result in a type of groupthink mentality that ostracizes any person who does not follow the strictures of the dominant culture. This can be seen in many forms of popular culture, where the ideas and values that are promoted by a particular group have an overwhelming influence over what is considered normal or acceptable. In recent times, there has been much discussion of a new form of history that is sometimes referred to as “new cultural history.” This approach incorporates the concepts and tools of both traditional and social histories while trying to focus on the idea that culture has a greater impact on our lives than previously thought. This movement has resulted in a productive interchange between various disciplines and often results in hybridizations of social, feminist and postcolonial methodologies. It is also possible that this new wave of history will supplant the old paradigm altogether.