Culture is the non-material, learned aspects of a human society that include beliefs, values and traditions. It is the defining feature of a society that distinguishes it from other societies and gives each group its identity. Cultural events allow people to learn about other cultures in a fun and engaging way. They can also be a great place to meet new friends and have a good time. The most important aspect of a cultural event is to provide a safe environment for attendees and participants. This is vital to the success of your event and should be a focus throughout all stages of planning.
Cultural anthropology is the discipline that studies the cultures of human groups and individuals. It includes the study of language, religion and family life. It also looks at the origin and development of different traditions, beliefs and ideas. It is an interdisciplinary field and crosses the borders of many other disciplines such as history, linguistics and sociology.
The term culture can be used to describe any kind of society, even a small one such as a town or village. But it usually refers to a larger society such as a country or continent. Within a nation, there may be unique regional cultures, ethnic cultures or age-related cultures. There are also subcultures that form within any given culture such as youth cultures, gay cultures or racial cultures.
Some anthropologists believe that certain cultural traits may spread from one region to another. This is based on the notion that any trait that offers some advantage or pleasure will be adopted by a person. This advantage or pleasure may be in the form of pleasure from a particular food or social interaction, or it may be in the form of an inherited skill or physical attribute. The degree to which a cultural trait is contagious has a lot to do with the physical barriers that separate two societies.
For example, a culture that has developed in a desert area may have more difficulty spreading to a mountain range or ocean. However, the spread of a culture can also depend on the ease of communication between the two regions.
A key challenge for the study of cultural history is recognizing how social practices and discourse give meaning to objects that are regarded as cultural artifacts. The challenge lies in the fact that a cultural object is at once inventive and conventional. It is the product of a creative imagination but it also defines, more or less rigorously according to the position it occupies in domination relationships, what is permissible to think and say.
When organizing a cultural event, it is helpful to develop an evaluation plan that will help the participants and hosts make sense of their experience. Encourage participants to discuss how they connected the culture they experienced with their previous learning and what it meant to them. This will help them feel comfortable when interacting with people from other cultures in the future.