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what does culture mean to you
attempt a comprehensive definition of culture
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Every society has a culture, in fact, every human being is cultured. In our daily usage of the word 'culture', we often just refer it as a custom or tradition of certain group of people, or else the higher desirable quality we can acquire after paying a hard effort such as playing piano. However the definition of culture is not as simple as that but it refers to countless aspects of life which include every simple elements at whole (Linton, 1945). In general, the social scientists often refer to the Tylor's definition of culture when defining culture: "Culture... is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society" (Tylor, 1958, p. 1). Culture is learned through enculturation and commonly shared by the members of the society. In this paper, three types of culture are briefly discussed which include dominant culture, subculture and counter-culture.
The first type of culture is dominant culture. Quite often, the dominant culture is reflected as orthodox and universal in society. The dominant culture is typically shared and being practiced cumulatively by society (O’Reilly & Chatman, 1996). Anthropologists normally referred it as ideal cultural patterns. It had received support from majority of the constitutions, in terms of values, norms and beliefs are to be conducted every now and then. For example, complex society like United States is frequently taken into account for research purposes representing dominant culture. Weaver (1999, p2) emphasized, “There is no way to explain the behaviours of Americans unless you know their dominant or mainstream culture”. This implies that every aspects ranging from economic, politic...
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Linton, R. (1945). The cultural background of personality. New York, NY: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Malinowski, B. (1939). The group and the individual in functional analysis. American Journal of Sociology, 44, 938-964.
O' Reilly, C., & Chatman, J. A. (1996). Culture as social control: Corporations, cults, and commitment. In B. M. Staw & L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in Organizational Behavior, Vol. 18 (pp. 287-365). Stamford, CT: JAI Press.
Schusky, E. L., & Culbert, T. P. (1967). Introducing culture. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Tylor, E. B. (1958). Primitive culture. New York, NY: Harper Torchbooks.
Weaver, G. R. (1997). American cultural values. Intercultural Training, 14, 14-20.
William, T. R. (1990). Cultural Anthropology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Yinger, J.M. (1982). Countercultures. New York, NY: The Free Press.
Before writing this paper, I interviewed several of my colleagues. Among the questions I asked were: if they could give me a definition of culture and what their culture was like. Interestingly I got the same answer, just in different words and terms. Culture to them was what was popular in their family when they grew up. And when they answered what their culture was like, they would label it: Mexican, Chinese, American culture, etcetera. This is why I believe it is vital to know the definition of “culture...
Geert Hofstede, Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations. Second Edition, Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications, 2001
The culture of a community invariably determines the social structures and the formation of a society. Developed over time, culture is the collection of beliefs and values that a group of people maintain together. Culture is never constant, and thought to be continually renewed over years as new ideas and concepts become mainstream. It ranges from how people live, day to day topics for conversations, religion, and even entertainment. It is analogous to guidelines, or the rulebook of the said group of people. Society, on the other hand, emanates from the social structure of the community. It is the very institutions to which create a regulated and acceptable form of interaction between peoples. Indeed, culture and society are so perversely intertwined in a
Geert Hofstede’s research in this area has been largely accepted as the standard for understanding culture within nations for study in many different disciplines including sociology and management research, among others. His studies because of their vastness in scale, gathering data from more than ”60,000 respondents in seventy different countries,” makes his research extremely reliable and foundational to research in this area (Hofstede, 1984, 1991, 2001).”
historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values; Culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, and on the other as conditioning elements of further action.”
According to Rivkin and Ryan (1998), the word ‘culture’ acquired a new meaning in the 1960s and 1970s. Prior to that time, ‘culture’ was associated with art, literature, and classical music. To have ‘culture’ was to possess a certain taste for particular kinds of artistic endeavor. Anthropologists have always used the word ‘culture’ in much broader sense to mean forms of life and of social expression. The way people behave while eating, talking to each other, becoming sexual partners, interacting at work, engaging in ritualized social behaviour such as family gatherings, and the like constitute a culture. This broad definition of the term includes language and the arts, but it also includes the regularities, procedures, and rituals of human life in communities.
“Culture is often described as the combination of a body of knowledge, a body of belief and a body of behavior. It involves a number of elements, including personal identification, language, thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions that are often specific to ethnic, racial, religious, geographic, or social groups”.
The term culture refers to a broad spectrum of general human society that can be delineated as “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious or social group” as well as “the characteristic features of everyday existence...shared by people in a place or time.” However, with such a vast notion that acts to give meaning to the various methods of operation used by the equally various societies and their respective members worldwide, the definition of culture can be stretched and expanded because of culture’s flexibility as a conceptual aspect of humanity that surrounds, defines, and permeates those in it. Simple attributes such as a group of people, a civilization’s geography, and a set of societal features can
Culture is a way of life that allows a diverse group of people to interrelate with one another. It is usually passed down from one generation to the next by communication and imitation. The term itself has a set definition, but it normally relates to the behavior, beliefs, values, and symbols that are accepted by a group of people. Culture can also be used to describe the time period and events in history. In the sense of what was deemed as popular during a specific stage in time and its impact on the culture surrounding it. Micro-historian have been dissecting and interpreting the meaning of popular culture and the courses of action that lead up to the events.
Culture, a word almost everyone hears whenever there is sociological discussion that transcends various formats ranging from scholarly articles to local news station broadcasts. Culture contains a myriad of definitions depending on the perspective and lenses which are used to view it. Since it is a difficult concept to grasp at first, we do not realize the true scale of culture and its responsibility in dictating many actions within our daily lives. Different cultures are found all throughout the world, from the ever increasing western culture to smaller tribal cultures such as the wintu in California (“Vanishing Voices”). What must be taken into account is the fact that culture is heavily intertwined within society, since they both interact
The concept of culture refers to the perceived generation to generation and is somewhat durable. To call such behavior cultural does not necessarily mean that it is refined, but rather means that it is cultured. Hence it has been acquired, cultivated and persistent. Social scientists have invented the notion of a subculture to describe variations, within the a society, upon its cultural themes. In such circumstances, it is assumed that some cultural prescriptions are common to all members of society, but that modifications and variations are discernible within the society.
Stressors initiate a response within the organism and causes changes in the body, specifically responses in the body’s autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system has two branches: the sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic nervous system. The sympathetic autonomic nervous system helps the body deal with the stress it encounters, initiating the ‘fight or flight’ response. Once the threat has passed, the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system will take over, relaxing the body. There is a balance between these two in a healthy person. However, when someone stays on guard, using the sympathetic autonomic nervous system, all sorts of physical effects can
Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s Consequences : Comparing Values, Behaviours, Institutions & Organizations across Nations (2nd ed.). USA, Sage.
Culture varies from one organization to another as it is shaped by the values and beliefs of the people working there. As it progresses over the years, it takes form in such a way that it works or performs in a manner to regulate behavior, action and decision making processes within the organization. It not just includes written rules and regulations, but also the behavioral aspects faced by each one on a day to day basis.
In the end, what we learn from this article is very realistic and logical. Furthermore, it is supported with real-life examples. Culture is ordinary, each individual has it, and it is both individual and common. It’s a result of both traditional values and an individual effort. Therefore, trying to fit it into certain sharp-edged models would be wrong.