What Is Culture?
A culture is all the ways of life and beliefs of a population that are passed on from generation to generation. These include language, ideas, customs and habits, religion, rituals, art and systems of belief. Culture also includes the patterns of behaviour that distinguish a group from another.
Many distinct views of culture have been advanced, and there is substantial disagreement about whether one view is more valid than another. However, there is considerable agreement that culture matters to people and that it has value for them in their lives. This is why there is a desire, both in legal and political spheres, to understand what culture actually is.
The aim of the articles in this collection is to present a range of views on what culture actually is, and how it can be used in law and politics. The articles are not intended to provide a comprehensive treatment of the subject, but rather to highlight important and interesting aspects of the debate.
Views on what constitutes a culture tend to fall into one of two categories: essentialist and non-essentialist. An essentialist account of culture treats the boundaries of a culture as if they were determinate and unshifting, and assumes that its members will share a common commitment to its defining practices and norms. Critics of this approach argue that it is mistaken to treat the boundaries of a culture as if it were an independent, determinate entity, and that there will always be disagreement about which practices are defining in any given cultural context.
Non-essentialist accounts of what constitutes a culture, on the other hand, tend to focus on how cultural traits and activities can be transmitted between individuals and communities. This view is typically based on social science theories of learning and transmission, such as those developed by Hofstede, Kluckhohn, Kroeber and others. In this approach, the key concept is the idea that culture is essentially about how human beings learn and develop. The goal of this development is to move from instinctive, pre-programmed behaviour, to a level of sophistication in which the human species can take control over its own actions.
One of the implications of this view is that the spread and transmission of culture is a crucial factor in humanity’s evolution from a primitive form of existence to an increasingly sophisticated society, characterized by enlightened self-interest and self-governing institutions. Evidence for this has been provided by the wide-ranging diffusion of cultural objects and traits, such as amber from Baltic regions, early coins from the Mediterranean area, and macaw feathers found in archaeological sites in North America. Moreover, it can be seen in the fact that cultural knowledge, like other forms of intellectual property, is both a commodity and a source of power.
A culture is all the ways of life and beliefs of a population that are passed on from generation to generation. These include language, ideas, customs and habits, religion, rituals, art and systems of belief. Culture also includes the patterns of behaviour that distinguish a group from another. Many distinct views of culture have been advanced, and there is substantial disagreement about whether one view is more valid than another. However, there is considerable agreement that culture matters to people and that it has value for them in their lives. This is why there is a desire, both in legal and political spheres, to understand what culture actually is. The aim of the articles in this collection is to present a range of views on what culture actually is, and how it can be used in law and politics. The articles are not intended to provide a comprehensive treatment of the subject, but rather to highlight important and interesting aspects of the debate. Views on what constitutes a culture tend to fall into one of two categories: essentialist and non-essentialist. An essentialist account of culture treats the boundaries of a culture as if they were determinate and unshifting, and assumes that its members will share a common commitment to its defining practices and norms. Critics of this approach argue that it is mistaken to treat the boundaries of a culture as if it were an independent, determinate entity, and that there will always be disagreement about which practices are defining in any given cultural context. Non-essentialist accounts of what constitutes a culture, on the other hand, tend to focus on how cultural traits and activities can be transmitted between individuals and communities. This view is typically based on social science theories of learning and transmission, such as those developed by Hofstede, Kluckhohn, Kroeber and others. In this approach, the key concept is the idea that culture is essentially about how human beings learn and develop. The goal of this development is to move from instinctive, pre-programmed behaviour, to a level of sophistication in which the human species can take control over its own actions. One of the implications of this view is that the spread and transmission of culture is a crucial factor in humanity’s evolution from a primitive form of existence to an increasingly sophisticated society, characterized by enlightened self-interest and self-governing institutions. Evidence for this has been provided by the wide-ranging diffusion of cultural objects and traits, such as amber from Baltic regions, early coins from the Mediterranean area, and macaw feathers found in archaeological sites in North America. Moreover, it can be seen in the fact that cultural knowledge, like other forms of intellectual property, is both a commodity and a source of power.