Culture is all the things that bind people together, both shared and unique to each group. This includes values, norms, philosophies, worldviews, and knowledge. It also includes behaviors that are motivated by belief and incorporated into daily life. These can include the language we speak, the way we dress, and the beliefs that we hold.
There are many definitions of culture, but most agree that it is learned, shared, symbolic, holistic, and dynamic. Some aspects of culture change more rapidly than others, but all parts of a culture are interconnected and interact continuously.
As a field of study, cultural history seeks to understand the ways that ordinary people use culture in their everyday lives. As such, it is a broad discipline that encompasses all aspects of human society, including social relationships, the arts, technology, and even how we think.
UNESCO defines culture as the “distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of a society or a social group.” This broad and inclusive approach makes it an essential tool for community builders.
The term “culture” can mean a lot of different things, from the art and food of wealthy aristocrats to the sex dances and oral histories of indigenous communities. But it is important for community builders to know what culture is so that they can build relationships with people who may be very different from them.
For a long time, scholars have thought of culture as a sort of continuum, with societies moving up or down a ladder that consisted of three phases: savagery, barbarism, and civilization. This hierarchical perspective was influenced by the ideas of American anthropologists Lewis Henry Morgan and Edward Tylor, as well as German social philosopher Karl Marx. It has since been debunked, but its legacy remains in the idea that cultures move from one stage to the next as they grow more complex.
What’s more, the notion that cultural development is a universal process also gives rise to the belief that people are either born with a culture or they develop their own. This, too, is a flawed concept. While some people are more naturally prone to developing a culture than others, it is entirely possible for any person to create and sustain a culture.
As a result, the concept of culture is extremely complex and has shaped the work of many different disciplines. It has even led to the creation of an entirely new genre of history, one that aims to look at culture as a living system, rather than simply an object. This more ephemeral understanding of culture allows researchers to explore not only the arts and beliefs of the past, but also the ways in which those traditions continue to shape the lives of ordinary people today.