Culture
is all around us, an inherit part of our social life as well as our personality
and sense of subjectivity. However, culture, as cultural studies researcher Raymond
Williams noted, is one of the most complex words in the English language. Culture
is popularly used to denote as narrow sense that is usually related to the arts
and humanities. In a broader sense, culture denotes the practices, beliefs and
perceptions of a given society. Culture is additionally often opposed with
"savagery", relating to something which is "cultured" as a
product of a certain evolvement from a natural state. In the theoretical sense
culture is often related as a system of structures with power relations running
through them.
In social
sciences, sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, there is hardly a consensus
regarding the meaning of the term culture and various definitions of culture
are in circulation. Researchers Kroeber and Kluckhohn (Culture: A Critical
Review of Literature", 1952) gathered an array of various definitions
of culture is sociology and anthropology and have divided them into six primary
categories: 1. Descriptive definitions of culture which view culture as
a total system of customs, beliefs, knowledge, laws, means of expression as so
forth. 2. Historical definitions of culture which view culture as the
continuation of generations. 3. Normative definitions of culture which related
to value systems which construct social and personal behavior. 4. Psychological
definitions of culture which stress culture's role in interpersonal
relations. 5. Structural definitions of culture that focus on relational
aspects of cultural components through abstraction. 6. socio-genetic
definitions of culture which focus on the genesis and continued existence
of a culture.
A different,
more contemporary, way to distinguish definitions of culture is to note the way
in which culture is theoretically perceived as either something which is
opposed to materiality, technology and social structures from which culture is something
different, or as a space of non-material ideas which are also, obviously,
abstract. Other definitions of culture focus on its autonomy from social and
economical structures.
This
leads us to propose two fundamental understanding regarding definitions of
culture: A. culture is an ensemble of practices, values and meanings common to
a collective entity; B. culture is the totality of activities and objects
through which meaning is generated and circulated in a given collective entity.
See also: Classic Definition of Culture
