Definitions of Culture: Survey

Rank these definitions according to your general preference: are they appropriate, understandable,
useful? From best to worst.

1. “Culture, or civilization, . . . is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law,
morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of
society.” Edward B. Taylor 1870.

2. “Culture embraces all the manifestations of social habits of a community, thereactions of the
individual as affected by the habits of the group in which he lives, and the products of human
activities as determined by these habits.” Franz Boas, 1890

3. “Sociology understands culture as the languages, customs, beliefs, rules, arts, knowledge,
and collective identities and memories developed by members of all social groups that make
their social environments meaningful." American Sociological Association 2003.

4. “Culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one
category of people from another.” Geert Hofstede 1980

5. "shared set of beliefs, attitudes, norms, values, and behavior organized around a central
theme and found among speakers of one language, in one time period, and in one
geographic region” Harry C. Triandis, 1997

6. “The deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings,

hierarchies,religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and
material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations
through individual and group striving.” Samovar and Porter, 2017
Definitions of Culture: Indefinite Variety
Cultura animi (cultivation of the soul) is a phrase from 45 BC: the Roman orator Cicero
discussed it in Tusculanae Disputationes, a series of essay-like pieces about stoicism and the
need to adapt Greek tradition in Rome. So we need to cultivate our souls like a farming field,
so it bears fruit. Then, in the 19th century, the anthropologist Edward Taylor (not just him),
begins to use the word culture in the sense of manners, rituals, knowledge, beliefs, shared
by a group of people, a nation or tribe. By extension, we can call that group a culture, too.
This is subtly leading to three strains of definitions:
1. Some definitions focus on group identity: culture is what defines a group, what gives
the group its identity. When you do certain things in certain ways, you belong to a
certain culture. Culture is a set of behavioral patterns shared by a group. This is
culture as a source of identity.
2. Some definitions do not focus on the group of people, and instead define culture as a
set of practices and products. This is mainly about patterns, ways, features of objects.
This is culture as a way of doing things.
3. Sometimes the primary focus is material things. This is very important in archeology:
a culture is defined by specific objects and sites, like the La Tène culture (an iron-age
culture defined by fancy ornamented jewelry and weapons). When similar objects
are found elsewhere, they belong to the same culture (La Tène artifacts from Britain).
This is culture as a way of making things.
Exercise: match the following definitions of culture, and non-defining uses of the word
culture, into three groups: (1.) culture as identity, as (2.) behavioral pattern (doing things),
and as (3.) material pattern (making things).

If you do not know the phrase, google it :).

“Cancel culture” Mycenaean Greek civilization

Late Bronze Age collapse Bell Beaker culture

Hooligan firms Hooliganism

Wolverhampton Wanderers (Subway Army) Star Wars franchise

Disney Princess style New Age culture

Woke movement and Anti-Woke movement Foreign Legion culture

Glam culture Shia vs Sunni Islam

Cultural liberalism vs. cultural conservatism Culture industry

Culture as Source of Identity: Things that Define Us
We usually define our culture by means of certain patterns: fashion, music, forms of address, food
etc. Many patterns are related to national allegiance, so that most people talk about "belonging" to
Polish or English culture etc. Some people do not belong to a national culture, though, others identify
with a more localized, regional culture. So when someone asks you to define "your" culture, you
might refer to the cultural patterns of your nation, region, city, or some other group. But what are
the patterns? Quite often they are physical things, material things, or specific sensory patterns, like
the taste of an important national meal. National meal?

It might be interesting to create a list of sensory patterns, the sensations, that define your culture. So
please make this list about your culture (national or non-national). Descriptions are enough, but if
you can, bring an example to class!

1. What is the taste of your culture's defining meal?

1a. And sweets? How about cakes or pastry?

2. What songs or melodies are important for your culture? National anthem? Big hit songs?

3. Is there a national or cultural aroma? If so, what is it? For example, what could be the "Polish
fragrance"?

4. What colors or visual patterns/designs are popular or defining for your culture?

5. How about clothing? What is the typical, culture specific apparel? Casual? Smart?

6. Is there something else about appearance in your culture? Make-up? Hairstyle? Beard or
moustache? Jewelry?

7. Imagine you are hosting a foreigner, or visiting a foreigner who hosts you. It is customary to
exchange gifts, something folksy or local. What would be yours?

8. What does an ideal home (the building) look like in your culture?

9. Is there a flower or some other natural object that you cherish in your culture? A mineral, a
plant or something?

Enforcing the pattern

When someone starts "acting strange", culture might have ways of punishing them. There is law
and law enforcement, but there is also bullying, peer pressure, social conformity. So, other than
police persons, who enforces conformity to cultural norms? It depends on the context, on the
group. Provide three examples.


Culture as a way of making things: material culture

Material culture and material history is so important because we have replaced the natural world
almost entirely. Where can you see a place that is “untouched” by culture and civilization? Perhaps
wild animals and plants are somehow natural? Or maybe microscopic processes are? Or the basic
phenomena of nature, like gravity force?
Be it as it may, cultural patterns have imprinted themselves on matter, as objects, as landscapes, as
technologies.
In pairs, find examples of cultural footprint in non-urban landscapes and other parts of nature:
1. In forests
2. In the atmosphere and in the starred sky
3. In behavior of individual animals and entire animal populations
4. In our bodies, in illness and health, on the surface and in their innermost physiology

Mental exercise: find elite and pop examples of the following material made-things, the following
examples of material culture. They should be equivalent, i.e. they should be pop and elite versions of
the same thing, or the same function:

1. landscape design, gardening, urban development (there is even something called

McNeighborhood!)
2. toys and apparatus used in sports and play
3. architecture
4. furniture
5. fashion (apparel, make-up, jewelry, hair)

Are elite things more gaudy or more modest? Is modesty elegant? There is also this reverse-snobbery
angle, where people get gaudy things to be more elitist and smarter than the smart ones. Can you
think of an example?
Culture as a way of doing things
Most definitions (which?) cover "patterns" of collective behavior such as: rituals and festivities,
patterns of family loyalty, displays of seniority and power, displays of defference, politeness, and
respect, and finally, patterns of everyday activities, such as work and play, trade, housekeeping,
farming, hunting, cooking, children's games etc. In anthropological research, this is the most
important field of research.
In groups of three, provide an example of a cultural pattern in each of these areas of human activity:
a. forms of address and politeness
b. eating
c. cooking (this means local meals, but also the culture of preparing food, such as the right way of
peeling, or not peeling vegs etc.)
d. children’s games
e. fashion taboos

So let's follow up with a mental experiment about a vow of silence: what would happen if you
stopped talking altogether? How would your cultural background react? Would culture try to enforce
its patterns? How? Clearly, most cultures rely on talking.

Another mental exercise: in most cultures, internet nudity and porn is taboo, especially in content
directed at children. But, as the recent 2017 tragedy of Molly Russell demonstrated, suicide and self-
inflicted harm are kind of taboo, but still acceptable, not desirable, but acceptable enough not to be
removed from social platforms, from the reach of children. Why on earth is that? Russel’s parents
talk about “monetarising misery”. Should teenagers be free to watch what they want? Is freedom
more important than safety? What values are cherished by a culture that allows horror, violence, and
self-harm in media? Can we defend this cultural practice?

The last mental exercise is about high culture and pop culture: are there "high rituals" and "pop
rituals"? Clearly there are, like when you eat at McDonalds and in a fancy restaurant. Eating in a
fancy place is a ritual, there are rules and codes, but eating at MD is a ritual too, the boxes, the
queues, the joy of it. How about religion? Is there a pop religious ritual culture, or a folksy variety of
religious practice? Do you know any upper-class, rich ways of doing religious and non-religious
rituals? (Of course we know them, because we watch the spectacle of British royalty). Provide
examples of popular patterns in ceremonies and family life. If you know any examples, also provide
examples of ritual cultures associated with wealth and upper class.