Culture is the sum total of human ways of life, including beliefs, values, customs and institutions. It can be thought of as the way that people act, usually without thinking about it and passed on to the next generation by communication and imitation. It may be the result of innate biological traits, but it is also learned and can even be unconsciously adopted. It can include everything from languages, ideas, art, music and dance to religion, laws, traditions, architecture, work, symbols, and beliefs.
A person is born into one culture, but can also acquire another culture by being exposed to it through the media or by contact with people from a different background. This is called acculturation. People are often confused about the difference between a culture and an ethnicity, as well as a race and a nationality.
In the past, anthropologists tried to explain culture by talking about the Big C and the Little C. The Big C was the general concept of culture that could be applied to all cultures and the Little C was the specifics of a particular cultural group such as American culture. Over time, anthropologists realized that using specifics limited the definition of culture and began to define it in more broad terms.
The word “culture” was originally used to refer to a way of life, but it has since been extended to encompass all aspects of a person’s worldview and daily experience. It includes values, beliefs, attitudes, behaviors and norms that define a group and distinguish them from others, as well as the knowledge, skills and habits acquired over time. Culture is also a complex system of symbolic communication.
It is the most powerful and enduring element of mankind’s external environment. It can hold a person’s sex urge in check and lead to premarital chastity, or cause a man to shoot himself and wipe out the stain of dishonour. The direction of biologic evolution is toward the greater security and continuity of life and it can be seen in the fact that some cultures provide better food, more effective means of coping with disease and a more durable housing structure than others.
We would like to thank all of the panelists who have contributed their thoughts and opinions on the topic of cultural. Their expertise comes from diverse fields including anthropology; visual arts; education; languages; the law; literature; horticulture; and museum management. They have shared their knowledge with us to help us understand how the concept of culture fits into a global society. We are grateful for their contributions to this publication and hope that it will encourage others to continue to explore the complexity of culture. It is our intent to publish the best research, regardless of the source. Manuscripts submitted to this journal are subject to peer review. Upon submission, the copyright of the manuscript will become the property of the publisher. The manuscripts will not be published elsewhere in the same form or in any other language, except by permission of the editor and publisher.