102,831
edits
Changes
New page: '''Culture''' (from the Latin ''cultura'' stemming from ''colere'', meaning "to cultivate,") generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such a...
'''Culture''' (from the [[Latin]] ''cultura'' stemming from ''colere'', meaning "to cultivate,") generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. Different definitions of "culture" reflect different theoretical bases for understanding, or criteria for evaluating, human activity. In some contexts, a frequent usage of the term ''culture'' is to indicate artifacts in music, literature, painting and sculpture, theater and film.<ref>[[Raymond Williams]] (1976) ''[[Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society]]''. Rev. Ed. (NewYork: Oxford UP, 1983), pp. 87-93 and 236-8.</ref> Although some people identify culture in terms of consumption and consumer goods (as in [[high culture]], [[low culture]], [[folk culture]], or [[popular culture]]) <ref>John Befrger ''Ways of Seeing''</ref>{{Verify source|date=August 2007}}, anthropologists understand "culture" to refer not only to [[consumption goods]], but to the general processes which produce such goods and give them meaning, and to the social relationships and practices in which such objects and processes become embedded. For the, culture thus includes technology, art, science, as well as moral systems.
[[anthropology|Anthropologists]] most commonly use the term "culture" to refer to the universal human capacity to classify, codify and communicate their experiences [[symbol]]ically. This capacity has long been taken as a defining feature of the humans. However, [[primatology|primatologists]] have identified aspects of culture among humankind's closest relatives in the animal kingdom.<ref>Goodall, J. 1986. ''The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior.''</ref> As a rule, [[archaeology|archaeologists]] focus on material culture (the material remains of human activity), whereas [[social anthropology|social anthropologists]] focus on social interactions, statuses and institutions, and [[cultural anthropology|cultural anthropologists]] focus on norms and values. This division of labor reflects the different conditions under which different anthropologists have worked, and the practical need to focus research. It does not necessarily reflect a theory of culture that conceptually distinguishes between the material, the social, and the normative, nor does it reflect three competing theories of culture.
[[Image:Mehmooni2.jpg|thumb|200px|right|''Farhang'', culture, has always been the focal point of Iranian [[civilization]]. Painting of Persian women musicians from ''[[Hasht Behesht|Hasht-Behesht Palace]]'' ("Palace of the 8 heavens").]]
[[Image:Ägyptischer Maler um 1400 v. Chr. 001.jpg|right|200px|thumb|[[Ancient Egypt]]ian [[art]].]]
== Ways of looking at culture ==
=== Culture as civilization ===
Many people today have an idea of "culture" that developed in Europe during the 18th and early 19th centuries. This notion of culture reflected inequalities within European societies, and between European powers and their colonies around the world. It identifies "culture" with "[[civilization]]" and contrasts it with "[[nature]]." According to this way of thinking, one can classify some countries as more civilized than others, and some people as more cultured than others. Some cultural theorists have thus tried to eliminate popular or mass culture from the definition of culture. Theorists such as [[Matthew Arnold]] (1822-1888) or [[F. R. Leavis|the Leavisites]] regard culture as simply the result of "the best that has been thought and said in the world”<ref name=anarchy>Arnold, Matthew. 1869. [http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/nonfiction_u/arnoldm_ca/ca_all.html ''Culture and Anarchy.'']</ref> Arnold contrasted mass/popular culture with social chaos or anarchy. On this account, culture links closely with social cultivation: the progressive refinement of human behavior. Arnold consistently uses the word this way: "... culture being a pursuit of our total [[perfection]] by means of getting to know, on all the matters which most concern us, the best which has been thought and said in the world".<ref name=anarchy />
[[Image:Degas- La classe de danse 1874.jpg|left|150px|thumb|An artifact of "high culture": a painting by [[Edgar Degas]].]]
In practice, ''culture'' referred to [[elite|élite]] activities such as [[museum]]-caliber [[art]] and [[European classical music|classical music]], and the word ''cultured'' described people who knew about, and took part in, these activities. These are often called "[[high culture]]", namely the culture of the [[Ruling class|ruling]] [[social group]],<ref>Bakhtin 1981, p.4</ref> to distinguish them from [[mass culture]] or [[popular culture]].
From the 19th century onwards, some social [[critics]] have accepted this contrast between the highest and lowest culture, but have stressed the refinement and of sophistication of high culture as corrupting and unnatural developments that obscure and distort people's essential nature. On this account, [[folk music]] (as produced by working-class people) honestly expresses a natural way of life, and classical music seems superficial and decadent. Equally, this view often portrays [[Indigenous peoples]] as '[[noble savage]]s' living [[authenticity (philosophy)|authentic]] unblemished lives, uncomplicated and uncorrupted by the highly-stratified [[capitalism|capitalist]] systems of [[Western culture|the West]].
Today most social scientists reject the [[monadic]] conception of culture, and the opposition of culture to [[nature (innate)|nature]]. They recognize non-[[élite]]s as just as cultured as élites (and non-Westerners as just as civilized) -- simply regarding them as just cultured in a different way. Thus social observers contrast the ''"high" culture'' of élites to [[Popular culture|''"popular" or pop culture'']], meaning goods and activities produced for, and consumed by the [[proletariat|masses]]. (Note that some classifications relegate both [[high culture|high]] and [[low culture]]s to the status of [[subculture]]s.)
=== Culture as worldview ===
During the [[Romanticism|Romantic era]], scholars in [[Germany]], especially those concerned with [[nationalism|nationalist]] movements — such as the nationalist struggle to create a "Germany" out of diverse principalities, and the nationalist struggles by ethnic minorities against the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]] — developed a more inclusive notion of culture as "[[worldview]]." In this mode of thought, a distinct and incommensurable world view characterizes each ethnic group. Although more inclusive than earlier views, this approach to culture still allowed for distinctions between "civilized" and "primitive" or "tribal" cultures.
By the late 19th century, [[anthropology|anthropologists]] had adopted and adapted the term ''culture'' to a broader definition that they could apply to a wider variety of societies. Attentive to the theory of [[evolution]], they assumed that all human beings evolved equally, and that the fact that all humans have cultures must in some way result from human evolution. They also showed some reluctance to use biological evolution to explain differences between specific cultures — an approach that either exemplified a form of, or segment of society ''vis a vis'' other segments and the society as a whole, they often reveal processes of [[domination]] and [[resistance movement|resistance]].
In the 1950s, [[subcultures]] — groups with distinctive characteristics within a larger culture — began to be the subject of study by sociologists. The 20th century also saw the popularization of the idea of [[corporate culture]] — distinct and malleable within the context of an employing [[organization]] or a [[office|workplace]].
=== Culture as symbols ===
The symbolic view of culture, the legacy of Clifford Geertz (1973) and Victor Turner (1967), holds symbols to be both the practices of social actors and the context that gives such practices meaning. Anthony P. Cohen (1985) writes of the "symbolic gloss" which allows social actors to use common symbols to communicate and understand each other while still imbuing these symbols with personal significance and meanings.<ref>Cohen, A. 1985. ''The Symbolic Construction of Community.''</ref> Symbols provide the limits of cultured thought. Members of a culture rely on these symbols to frame their thoughts and expressions in intelligible terms. In short, symbols make culture possible, reproducible and readable. They are the "webs of significance" in Weber's sense that, to quote Pierre Bourdieu (1977), "give regularity, unity and systematicity to the practices of a group."<ref>Bourdieu, P. 1977. ''Outline of a Theory of Practice.''</ref> Thus, for example:
*''"Stop, in the name of the law!"''—Stock phrase uttered to the [[antagonist]]s by the [[sheriff]] or [[marshal]] in 20th century [[American Old West]]ern [[movies]]
*''Law and order''—stock phrase in the United States
*''Peace and order''—[[stock phrase]] in the Philippines
===Culture as a stabilizing mechanism===
Modern cultural theory also considers the possibility that (a) culture itself is a product of stabilization tendencies inherent in evolutionary pressures toward self-similarity and self-cognition of societies as wholes, or [[tribalism]]s. See [[Stephen Wolfram]]'s ''[[A new kind of science]]'' on iterated simple algorithms from genetic unfolding, from which the concept of culture as an operating mechanism can be developed,<ref>* Wolfram, S., ''[http://www.wolframscience.com/nksonline A New Kind of Science]''.</ref> and [[Richard Dawkins]]' ''[[The Extended Phenotype]]'' for discussion of genetic and [[memetic]] stability over time, through [[negative feedback]] mechanisms.<ref>Dawkins, R. 1982. ''[[The Extended Phenotype]]''</ref>
===Culture and evolutionary psychology===
Researchers in [[evolutionary psychology]] argue that the mind is a system of neurocognitive information processing modules designed by natural selection to solve the adaptive problems of our distant ancestors. According to evolutionary psychologists, the diversity of forms that human cultures take are constrained (indeed, made possible) by innate information processing mechanisms underlying our behavior, including:
* Language acquisition modules
* Incest avoidance mechanisms
* Cheater detection mechanisms
* Intelligence and sex-specific mating preferences
* Foraging mechanisms
* Alliance-tracking mechanisms
* Agent detection mechanisms
* Fear and protection mechanisms (survival mechanisms)
These mechanisms are theorized to be the psychological foundations of culture. In order to fully understand culture we must understand its biological conditions of possibility.
==Cultures within a society==
Large societies often have [[subculture]]s, or groups of people with distinct sets of behavior and [[beliefs]] that differentiate them from a larger culture of which they are a part. The subculture may be distinctive because of the age of its members, or by their [[race]], [[ethnicity]], [[social class|class]] or [[gender]]. The qualities that determine a subculture as distinct may be [[aesthetic]], [[religious]], [[occupation]]al, [[political]], [[sexual]] or a combination of these factors.
In dealing with immigrant groups and their cultures, there are essentially four approaches:
* [[Monoculturalism]]: In some European states, culture is very closely linked to [[nationalism]], thus government policy is to assimilate immigrants, although recent increases in migration have led many European states to experiment with forms of multiculturalism.
* [[Leitkultur]] (core culture): A model developed in Germany by [[Bassam Tibi]]. The idea is that minorities can have an identity of their own, but they should at least support the core concepts of the culture on which the society is based.
* [[Melting Pot]]: In the [[United States]], the traditional view has been one of a melting pot where all the immigrant cultures are mixed and amalgamated without state intervention.
* [[Multiculturalism]]: A policy that immigrants and others should preserve their cultures with the different cultures interacting peacefully within one nation.
The way nation states treat immigrant cultures rarely falls neatly into one or another of the above approaches. The degree of difference with the host culture (i.e., "foreignness"), the number of immigrants, attitudes of the resident population, the type of government policies that are enacted and the effectiveness of those policies all make it difficult to generalize about the effects. Similarly with other subcultures within a society, attitudes of the mainstream population and communications between various cultural groups play a major role in determining outcomes. The study of cultures within a society is complex and research must take into account a myriad of variables.
==Organizational Culture & Change==
{{Main|Organizational culture}}
When one wants to change something in the culture of a company one has to keep in consideration that this is a long term project. Corporate culture is something that is very hard to change and employees need time to get used to the new way of organizing. For companies with a very strong and specific culture it will be even harder to change.
Cummings & Worley (2005, p. 491 – 492) give the following six guidelines for cultural change, these changes are in line with the eight distinct stages mentioned by Kotter (1995, p. 2)3.
1. Formulate a clear strategic vision (stage 1,2 & 3 of Kotter, 1995, p. 2)
In order to make a cultural change effective a clear vision of the firm’s new strategy, shared values and behaviours is needed. This vision provides the intention and direction for the culture change (Cummings & Worley, 2005, p.490).
2. Display Top-management commitment (stage 4 of Kotter, 1995, p. 2)
It is very important to keep in mind that culture change must be managed from the top of the organization, as willingness to change of the senior management is a very important indicator (Cummings & Worley, 2005, page 490). The top of the organization should be very much in favour of the change in order to actually implement the change in the rest of the organization. De Caluwé & Vermaak (2004, p 9) provide a framework with five different ways of thinking about change.
3. Model culture change at the highest level (stage 5 of Kotter, 1995, p. 2)
In order to show that the management team is in favour of the change, the change has to be notable at first at this level. The behaviour of the management needs to symbolize the kinds of values and behaviours that should be realized in the rest of the company. It is important that the management shows the strengths of the current culture as well, it must be made clear that the current organizational does not need radical changes, but just a few adjustments. (See for more: (Deal & Kennedy, 1982; Sathe, 1983; Schall; 1983; Weick, 1985; DiTomaso, 1987)
4. Modify the organization to support organizational change
The fourth step is to modify the organization to support organizational change.
5. Select and socialize newcomers and terminate deviants (stage 7 & 8 of Kotter, 1995, p. 2)
A way to implement a culture is to connect it to organizational membership, people can be selected and terminate in terms of their fit with the new culture (Cummings & Worley, 2005, p. 491).
6. Develop ethical and legal sensitivity
Changes in culture can lead to tensions between organizational and individual interests, which can result in ethical and legal problems for practitioners. This is particularly relevant for changes in employee integrity, control, equitable treatment and job security (Cummings & Worley, 2005, p. 491).
==Cultures by region==
{{main|Culture by region}}
Many regional cultures have been influenced by contact with others, such as by [[colonization]], [[trade]], [[migration]], [[mass media]] and [[religion]].
;Africa
Though of many varied origins, African culture, especially Sub-Saharan African culture has been shaped by European colonialism, and, especially in North Africa, by [[Arab]] and [[Islamic]] culture.
[[Image:Hopi weaver.jpg|150px|thumb|right|[[Hopi]] man weaving on traditional loom in the USA.]]
;Americas
The culture of the [[Americas]] has been strongly influenced by [[indigenous peoples of the Americas|peoples that inhabitated the continents]] before Europeans arrived; people from Africa (the United States especially has a large African-American population, most of whom are descended from former slaves), and the immigration of Europeans, especially Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, German, Irish, Italian and Dutch.
;Asia
Despite the great cultural diversity of [[Asia]]n nations, there are, nevertheless, several transnational cultural influences. Though [[Korea]], [[Japan]], and [[Vietnam]] are not Chinese-speaking countries, their languages have been influenced by Chinese and Chinese writing. Thus, in [[East Asia]], [[Chinese character|Chinese writing]] is generally agreed to exert a unifying influence. Religions, especially [[Buddhism]] and [[Taoism]] have had an impact on the cultural traditions of East Asian countries (''see'' section on [[Culture#Eastern religion and philosophy|Eastern religion and philosophy]], below). There is also a shared social and moral philosophy that derives from [[Confucianism]].
[[Hinduism]] and [[Islam]] have for hundreds of years exerted cultural influence on various peoples of [[South Asia]]. Similarly, Buddhism is pervasive in [[Southeast Asia]].
;Pacific
Most of the countries of the [[Pacific Ocean]] continue to be dominated by their [[Indigenous (ecology)|indigenous]] cultures, although these have generally been affected by contact with European culture. In particular, most of [[Polynesia]] is now strongly [[Christian]]. Other countries, such as [[Australia]] and [[New Zealand]] have been dominated by white settlers and their descendants, whose culture now predominates. However [[Indigenous Australian]] and [[Māori]] (New Zealand) cultures are still present.
;Europe
European culture also has a broad influence beyond the continent of Europe due to the legacy of [[colonialism]]. In this broader sense it is sometimes referred to as ''[[Western culture]]''. This is most easily seen in the spread of the [[English language]] and to a lesser extent, a few other European languages. Dominant influences include [[ancient Greece]], [[ancient Rome]], and [[Christianity]], although religion has declined in Europe.
;Middle East and North Africa
The Middle East generally has three dominant and clear cultures, Arabic, Persian and Turkish, which have influenced each other with varying degrees during different times. The region is predominantly Muslim although significant minorities of Christians and smaller minorities of other religions exist.
Arabic culture has deeply influenced the Persian and Turkish cultures through [[Islam]]; influencing their languages, writing systems, art, architecture and literature as well as in other areas. The proximity of [[Iran]] has influenced the regions closer to it such as [[Iraq]] and [[Turkey]], traces of language can be found in the Iraqi and [[Kuwait]]i dialects of Arabic as well as the Turkish language. The 500 years of [[Ottoman]] rule over most of the Middle East has had a heavy influence over the Arabic culture, this may spread as far as Algeria but can be found to a heavier degree in [[Egypt]], [[Iraq]] and the [[Levant]].
== Belief systems ==
{{Main| Religion}}
Religion and other belief systems are often integral to a culture. Religion, from the Latin ''religare,'' meaning "to bind fast", is a feature of cultures throughout human history. The ''Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion'' defines religion in the following way:
<blockquote>... an institution with a recognized body of communicants who gather together regularly for worship, and accept a set of doctrines offering some means of relating the individual to what is taken to be the ultimate nature of reality.<ref>Reese, W.L. 1980. ''Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion: Eastern and Western Thought,'' page 488.</ref></blockquote>
Religion often codifies behavior, such as with the [[10 Commandments]] of [[Christianity]] or the [[Pancasila|five precepts]] of [[Buddhism]]. Sometimes it is involved with government, as in a [[theocracy]]. It also influences arts.
[[Eurocentric]] custom to some extent divides humanity into Western and non-Western cultures, although this has some flaws.
[[Western culture]] spread from Europe most strongly to Australia, Canada, and the United States. It is influenced by [[ancient Greece]], [[ancient Rome]] and the [[Christian church]].
Western culture tends to be more individualistic than non-Western cultures. It also sees man, god, and nature or the universe more separately than non-Western cultures. It is marked by economic wealth, literacy, and technological advancement, although these traits are not exclusive to it.
=== Abrahamic religions ===
Judaism is one of the first, recorded [[Monotheism|monotheistic]] faiths and one of the oldest religious [[traditions]] still practiced today. The values and history of the Jewish people are a major part of the foundation of other [[Abrahamic religion]]s such as [[Christianity]], [[Islam]], as well as the [[Bahá'í Faith]]. However, while sharing a heritage from [[Abraham]] each has distinct arts (visual and performance arts and the like.) Of course some of these are regional influences among the nations the religions are present in, but there are some norms or forms of cultural expression distinctly emphasized by the religions.
Christianity was the dominant feature in shaping European and the New World cultures for at least the last 500 to 1700 years. Modern philosophical thought has very much been influenced by Christian philosophers such as St. [[Thomas Aquinas]] and [[Erasmus]] and Christian [[Cathedral]]s have been noted as architectural wonders like [[Notre Dame de Paris]], [[Wells Cathedral]] and [[Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral]].
Islam's influence has dominated much of the North African, Middle and Far East regions for almost 1500 years, sometimes mixed with other religions. For example Islam's influence can be seen in diverse philosophies such as [[Ibn Bajjah]], [[Ibn Tufail]], [[Ibn Khaldun]] and [[Averroes]] as well as poetic stories and litariture like [[Hayy ibn Yaqdhan]], [[Layla and Majnun|The Madman of Layla]], [[The Conference of the Birds]] and the [[Masnavi]] in addition to art and architecture such as the [[Umayyad Mosque]], [[Dome of the Rock]], [[Faisal Mosque]], [[Hagia Sophia]] (which has been a Cathedral and a Mosque) and the many styles of [[Arabesque]].
Judaism and the Baha'i faiths are usually minority religions among the nations but still have made distinctive contributions to the cultures of the nations and regions. Of Judaism, people of note include [[Albert Einstein]] and [[Henry Kissinger]] and musicians/performers like [[Paula Abdul]], [[Sammy Davis, Jr.]], and [[Bob Dylan]]. Of the Bahá'í faith, consider the [[Bahá'í House of Worship]] as well as musicians like [[Dizzy Gillespie]] and thinkers like [[Alain LeRoy Locke]], [[Frederick Mayer]] and [[Richard St. Barbe Baker]].
The mainstream [[anthropological]] view of ‘[[culture]]’ implies that we most people experience a strong resistance when reminded that there is an animal as well as a spiritual aspect to human nature.<ref name="AnthropologyTodayApr07">Jonathan Benthall ''[http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8322.2007.00494.x Animal liberation and rights]'' [[Anthropology Today]] Volume 23 Issue 2 Page 1 - April 2007</ref>
===Eastern religion and philosophy===
[[Image:Agni god of fire.jpg|left|110px|thumb|[[Agni]], [[Hindu]] fire god.]]
{{main|Eastern philosophy|Eastern religion}}
Philosophy and religion are often closely interwoven in Eastern thought. Many Asian religious and philosophical traditions originated in India and China and spread across Asia through [[cultural diffusion]] and the migration of peoples. [[Hinduism]] is the wellspring of [[Buddhism]], the [[Mahayana|Mahāyāna]] branch of which spread north and eastwards from India into Tibet, China, Mongolia, Japan and Korea and south from China into Vietnam. [[Theravada|Theravāda]] Buddhism spread throughout [[Southeast Asia]], including Sri Lanka, parts of southwest China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand.
[[Indian philosophy]] includes [[Hindu philosophy]]. They contain elements of nonmaterial pursuits, whereas another school of thought from India, [[Carvaka]], preached the enjoyment of material world. [[Confucianism]] and [[Taoism]], both of which originated in China have had pervasive influence on both religious and philosophical traditions, as well as [[Public administration|statecraft]] and the arts throughout Asia.
During the 20th century, in the two most populous countries of Asia, two dramatically different political philosophies took shape. [[Gandhi]] gave a new meaning to [[Ahimsa]], a core belief of both Hinduism and [[Jainism]], and redefined the concepts of [[nonviolence]] and [[nonresistance]] far beyond the confines of India. During the same period, [[Mao Zedong]]’s [[Communism|communist]] [[Maoism|philosophy]] became a powerful secular belief system in China.
===Folk religions===
{{Main|Folk religion}}
Folk religions practiced by tribal groups are common in Asia, Africa and the Americas. Their influence can be considerable; may pervade the culture and even become the state religion, as with [[Shintoism]]. Like the other major religions, folk religion answers human needs for reassurance in times of trouble, healing, averting misfortune and providing [[rituals]] that address the major passages and transitions in human life.
===The "American Dream"===
The [[American Dream]] is a belief, held by many in the United States, that through hard work, courage, and self-determination, regardless of [[social class]], a person can [[social mobility|gain a better life]].<ref>Boritt, Gabor S. ''Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream,'' p. 1.</ref> This notion is rooted in the belief that the United States is a "[[city upon a hill]], a light unto the nations,"<ref>[[Ronald Reagan]]. [http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1989/011489a.htm "Final Radio Address to the Nation"].</ref> which were values held by many early European settlers and maintained by subsequent generations.
This concept is mirrored in other cultures, such as in the case of ''the Great [[Australia]]n Dream,'' although this refers more closely to [[home ownership]] by the same means.
===Marriage===
Religion often influences [[Religious aspects of marriage|marriage]] and [[Human sexual behavior|sexual]] practices.
Most [[Christianity|Christian]] churches give some form of blessing to a marriage; the wedding ceremony typically includes some sort of pledge by the community to support the relationship. In marriage, Christians draw a parallel with the relationship between Jesus Christ and His Church. The [[Roman Catholic Church]] believes it is morally wrong to divorce, and divorcées cannot remarry in a church marriage (without a formal [[annulment]] of the previous marriage).
==Cultural studies==
[[Cultural studies]] developed in the late 20th century, in part through the re-introduction of [[Marxist]] thought into [[sociology]], and in part through the [[articulation (sociology)|articulation]] of [[sociology]] and other academic disciplines such as [[literary criticism]]. This movement aimed to focus on the analysis of subcultures in [[capitalist]] societies. Following the non-anthropological tradition, [[cultural studies]] generally focus on the study of consumption goods (such as [[fashion]], [[art]], and [[literature]]). Because the 18th- and 19th-century distinction between "high" and "low" culture seems inappropriate to apply to the mass-produced and mass-marketed consumption goods which cultural studies analyses, these scholars refer instead to "popular culture".
Today, some [[anthropology|anthropologists]] have joined the project of cultural studies. Most, however, reject the identification of culture with consumption goods. Furthermore, many now reject the notion of culture as bounded, and consequently reject the notion of [[subculture]]. Instead, they see culture as a complex web of shifting patterns that link people in different locales and that link social formations of different scales. According to this view, any group can construct its own [[cultural identity]].
Currently, a debate is underway regarding whether or not culture can actually change fundamental [[human cognition]]. Researchers are divided on the question.
==Cultural change==
[[Image:Indig2.jpg|thumb|300px|A 19th century engraving showing [[Australian]] "[[Indigenous Australians|natives]] opposing the arrival of [[Captain James Cook]]" in 1770.]]
Cultures, by [[predisposition]], both embrace and resist [[change]], depending on culture traits. For example, men and women have complementary roles in many cultures. One gender might desire changes that affect the other, as happened in the second half of the 20th century in [[western culture]]s. Thus there are both dynamic influences that encourage acceptance of new things, and conservative forces that resist change.
Three kinds of influence cause both change and resistance to it:
#forces at work within a society
#contact between societies
#changes in the natural environment.<ref>O'Neil, D. 2006. [http://anthro.palomar.edu/change/change_2.htm "Processes of Change"].</ref>
Cultural change can come about due to the environment, to inventions (and other internal influences), and to contact with other cultures. For example, the end of the last [[ice age]] helped lead to the invention of [[agriculture]], which in its turn brought about many cultural innovations.
In [[diffusion (anthropology)|diffusion]], the form of something (though not necessarily its meaning) moves from one culture to another. For example, [[hamburger]]s, mundane in the United States, seemed exotic when introduced into China. "Stimulus diffusion" refers to an element of one culture leading to an invention in another. [[Diffusion of innovations]] theory presents a research-based model of why and when individuals and cultures adopt new ideas, practices, and products.
"[[Acculturation]]" has different meanings, but in this context refers to replacement of the traits of one culture with those of another, such has happened to certain [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] tribes and to many indigenous peoples across the globe during the process of [[colonization]]. Related processes on an individual level include [[cultural assimilation|assimilation]] (adoption of a different culture by an individual) and [[transculturation]].
[[Cultural invention]] has come to mean any innovation that is new and found to be useful to a group of people and expressed in their behavior but which does not exist as a physical object. Humanity is in a global "accelerating culture change period", driven by the expansion of international commerce, the mass media, and above all, the [[World population|human population]] explosion, among other factors. The world's population now doubles in less than 40 years.<ref name = Overview>O'Neil, D. 2006. [http://anthro.palomar.edu/change/change_1.htm "Overview"].</ref>
Culture change is complex and has far-ranging effects. Sociologists and anthropologists believe that a [[holistic]] approach to the study of cultures and their environments is needed to understand all of the various aspects of change. Human existence may best be looked at as a "multifaceted whole." Only from this vantage can one grasp the realities of culture change.<ref name = Overview />
==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}
==References==
<div class="references-small">
* Ankerl,Guy: ''Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western.'' Geneva: INUPRESS, 2000, ISBN 2881550045
* Arnold, Matthew. 1869. [http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/nonfiction_u/arnoldm_ca/ca_titlepage.html ''Culture and Anarchy.''] New York: Macmillan. Third edition, 1882, available online. Retrieved: 2006-06-28.
*[[Bakhtin]], M. M. (1981) ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=JKZztxqdIpgC The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays]''. Ed. Michael Holquist. Trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin and London: University of Texas Press.
* Barzilai, Gad. 2003. ''Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legahkjkjl Identities.'' University of Michigan Press.
* Boritt, Gabor S. 1994. ''Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream''. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-06445-6.
* Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. ''Outline of a Theory of Practice.'' Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-29164-4
* Cohen, Anthony P. 1985. ''The Symbolic Construction of Community.'' Routledge: New York,
* Dawkiins, R. 1982. ''[[The Extended Phenotype|The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene.]]'' Paperback ed., 1999. Oxford Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0-19-288051-2
* Forsberg, A. [http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~aforsber/ccsf/culture_defined.html Definitions of culture] [[CCSF]] Cultural Geography course notes. Retrieved: 2006-06-29.
* Geertz, Clifford. 1973. ''The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays''. New York. ISBN 978-0-465-09719-7.
:— 1957. "Ritual and Social Change: A Javanese Example", ''American Anthropologist'', Vol. 59, No. 1.
* Goodall, J. 1986. ''The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior.'' Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-11649-8
* Hoult, T. F., ed. 1969. ''Dictionary of Modern Sociology''. Totowa, New Jersey, United States: Littlefield, Adams & Co.
* Jary, D. and J. Jary. 1991. ''The HarperCollins Dictionary of Sociology.'' New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-271543-7
* Keiser, R. Lincoln 1969. ''The Vice Lords: Warriors of the Streets''. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. ISBN 978-0-03-080361-1.
* Kroeber, A. L. and C. Kluckhohn, 1952. ''Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions.'' Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum
* Kim, Uichol (2001). "Culture, science and indigenous psychologies: An integrated analysis." In D. Matsumoto (Ed.), ''Handbook of culture and psychology.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press
* Middleton, R. 1990. ''Studying Popular Music''. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 978-0-335-15275-9.
* Rhoads, Kelton. 2006. [http://www.workingpsychology.com/download_folder/Culture_And_Influence.pdf ''The Culture Variable in the Influence Equation.'']
* Tylor, E.B. 1974. ''Primitive culture: researches into the development of mythology, philosophy, religion, art, and custom.'' New York: Gordon Press. First published in 1871. ISBN 978-0-87968-091-6
* O'Neil, D. 2006. [http://anthro.palomar.edu/tutorials/cultural.htm Cultural Anthropology Tutorials], Behavioral Sciences Department, Palomar College, San Marco, California. Retrieved: 2006-07-10.
* [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan, Ronald]]. [http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1989/011489a.htm "Final Radio Address to the Nation"], [[January 14]], [[1989]]. Retrieved [[June 3]], [[2006]].
* Reese, W.L. 1980. ''Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion: Eastern and Western Thought.'' New Jersey U.S., Sussex, U.K: Humanities Press.
* UNESCO. 2002. [http://www.unesco.org/education/imld_2002/unversal_decla.shtml Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity], issued on [[International Mother Language Day]], [[February 21]], [[2002]]. Retrieved: 2006-06-23.
* White, L. 1949. ''The Science of Culture: A study of man and civilization.'' New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
* Wilson, Edward O. (1998). ''[[Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge]].'' Vintage: New York. ISBN 978-0-679-76867-8.
* Wolfram, Stephen. 2002 ''[http://www.wolframscience.com/nksonline A New Kind of Science].'' Wolfram Media, Inc. ISBN 978-1-57955-008-0
</div>
==See also==
{{portal}}
* [[List of basic culture topics]]
* [[Cultural bias]] - [[Cultural imperialism]] - [[Ethnocentrism]]
* [[Counterculture]]
* [[Cross-cultural communication]] - [[Intercultural competence]]
* [[Cultural evolution]]
* [[Culture theory]]
* [[Cultural dissonance]]
* [[Cultural universals]]
* [[Culture war]]
* [[Urban culture]]
==External links==
{{sisterlinks|Culture}}
*[http://courses.ed.asu.edu/margolis/spf301/definitions_of_culture.html Detailed article on defining culture]
* [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-73 ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas'':] "culture" and "civilization" in modern times
* [http://www.everyculture.com/ Countries and their Cultures]
* [http://global-culture.org/ Global Culture] Essays on globalization, migration and their impact on global culture
* [http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/cfsi-icse/cil-cai/home-en.asp Centre for Intercultural Learning]
* [http://www.wsu.edu/gened/learn-modules/top_culture/culture-index.html What is Culture? - Washington State University]
* [http://www.observacionesfilosoficas.net/ Revista Observaciones Filosóficas]
* [http://www.defineculture.com Define Culture] - List of definitions of culture from people around the world.
* [http://www.monthlyreview.org/299pare.htm Reflections on the Politics of Culture] by [[Michael Parenti]]
*[http://www.chitralekha.org/ Mukul Dey Archives, Chitralekha, Santiniketan INDIA]
*[http://www.chitralekha.org/mukuldey-archives.htm Foreign Influence on Indian Culture (c. 600 BC to AD 320) by Manjari Ukil]
[[Category: General Reference]]
[[anthropology|Anthropologists]] most commonly use the term "culture" to refer to the universal human capacity to classify, codify and communicate their experiences [[symbol]]ically. This capacity has long been taken as a defining feature of the humans. However, [[primatology|primatologists]] have identified aspects of culture among humankind's closest relatives in the animal kingdom.<ref>Goodall, J. 1986. ''The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior.''</ref> As a rule, [[archaeology|archaeologists]] focus on material culture (the material remains of human activity), whereas [[social anthropology|social anthropologists]] focus on social interactions, statuses and institutions, and [[cultural anthropology|cultural anthropologists]] focus on norms and values. This division of labor reflects the different conditions under which different anthropologists have worked, and the practical need to focus research. It does not necessarily reflect a theory of culture that conceptually distinguishes between the material, the social, and the normative, nor does it reflect three competing theories of culture.
[[Image:Mehmooni2.jpg|thumb|200px|right|''Farhang'', culture, has always been the focal point of Iranian [[civilization]]. Painting of Persian women musicians from ''[[Hasht Behesht|Hasht-Behesht Palace]]'' ("Palace of the 8 heavens").]]
[[Image:Ägyptischer Maler um 1400 v. Chr. 001.jpg|right|200px|thumb|[[Ancient Egypt]]ian [[art]].]]
== Ways of looking at culture ==
=== Culture as civilization ===
Many people today have an idea of "culture" that developed in Europe during the 18th and early 19th centuries. This notion of culture reflected inequalities within European societies, and between European powers and their colonies around the world. It identifies "culture" with "[[civilization]]" and contrasts it with "[[nature]]." According to this way of thinking, one can classify some countries as more civilized than others, and some people as more cultured than others. Some cultural theorists have thus tried to eliminate popular or mass culture from the definition of culture. Theorists such as [[Matthew Arnold]] (1822-1888) or [[F. R. Leavis|the Leavisites]] regard culture as simply the result of "the best that has been thought and said in the world”<ref name=anarchy>Arnold, Matthew. 1869. [http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/nonfiction_u/arnoldm_ca/ca_all.html ''Culture and Anarchy.'']</ref> Arnold contrasted mass/popular culture with social chaos or anarchy. On this account, culture links closely with social cultivation: the progressive refinement of human behavior. Arnold consistently uses the word this way: "... culture being a pursuit of our total [[perfection]] by means of getting to know, on all the matters which most concern us, the best which has been thought and said in the world".<ref name=anarchy />
[[Image:Degas- La classe de danse 1874.jpg|left|150px|thumb|An artifact of "high culture": a painting by [[Edgar Degas]].]]
In practice, ''culture'' referred to [[elite|élite]] activities such as [[museum]]-caliber [[art]] and [[European classical music|classical music]], and the word ''cultured'' described people who knew about, and took part in, these activities. These are often called "[[high culture]]", namely the culture of the [[Ruling class|ruling]] [[social group]],<ref>Bakhtin 1981, p.4</ref> to distinguish them from [[mass culture]] or [[popular culture]].
From the 19th century onwards, some social [[critics]] have accepted this contrast between the highest and lowest culture, but have stressed the refinement and of sophistication of high culture as corrupting and unnatural developments that obscure and distort people's essential nature. On this account, [[folk music]] (as produced by working-class people) honestly expresses a natural way of life, and classical music seems superficial and decadent. Equally, this view often portrays [[Indigenous peoples]] as '[[noble savage]]s' living [[authenticity (philosophy)|authentic]] unblemished lives, uncomplicated and uncorrupted by the highly-stratified [[capitalism|capitalist]] systems of [[Western culture|the West]].
Today most social scientists reject the [[monadic]] conception of culture, and the opposition of culture to [[nature (innate)|nature]]. They recognize non-[[élite]]s as just as cultured as élites (and non-Westerners as just as civilized) -- simply regarding them as just cultured in a different way. Thus social observers contrast the ''"high" culture'' of élites to [[Popular culture|''"popular" or pop culture'']], meaning goods and activities produced for, and consumed by the [[proletariat|masses]]. (Note that some classifications relegate both [[high culture|high]] and [[low culture]]s to the status of [[subculture]]s.)
=== Culture as worldview ===
During the [[Romanticism|Romantic era]], scholars in [[Germany]], especially those concerned with [[nationalism|nationalist]] movements — such as the nationalist struggle to create a "Germany" out of diverse principalities, and the nationalist struggles by ethnic minorities against the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]] — developed a more inclusive notion of culture as "[[worldview]]." In this mode of thought, a distinct and incommensurable world view characterizes each ethnic group. Although more inclusive than earlier views, this approach to culture still allowed for distinctions between "civilized" and "primitive" or "tribal" cultures.
By the late 19th century, [[anthropology|anthropologists]] had adopted and adapted the term ''culture'' to a broader definition that they could apply to a wider variety of societies. Attentive to the theory of [[evolution]], they assumed that all human beings evolved equally, and that the fact that all humans have cultures must in some way result from human evolution. They also showed some reluctance to use biological evolution to explain differences between specific cultures — an approach that either exemplified a form of, or segment of society ''vis a vis'' other segments and the society as a whole, they often reveal processes of [[domination]] and [[resistance movement|resistance]].
In the 1950s, [[subcultures]] — groups with distinctive characteristics within a larger culture — began to be the subject of study by sociologists. The 20th century also saw the popularization of the idea of [[corporate culture]] — distinct and malleable within the context of an employing [[organization]] or a [[office|workplace]].
=== Culture as symbols ===
The symbolic view of culture, the legacy of Clifford Geertz (1973) and Victor Turner (1967), holds symbols to be both the practices of social actors and the context that gives such practices meaning. Anthony P. Cohen (1985) writes of the "symbolic gloss" which allows social actors to use common symbols to communicate and understand each other while still imbuing these symbols with personal significance and meanings.<ref>Cohen, A. 1985. ''The Symbolic Construction of Community.''</ref> Symbols provide the limits of cultured thought. Members of a culture rely on these symbols to frame their thoughts and expressions in intelligible terms. In short, symbols make culture possible, reproducible and readable. They are the "webs of significance" in Weber's sense that, to quote Pierre Bourdieu (1977), "give regularity, unity and systematicity to the practices of a group."<ref>Bourdieu, P. 1977. ''Outline of a Theory of Practice.''</ref> Thus, for example:
*''"Stop, in the name of the law!"''—Stock phrase uttered to the [[antagonist]]s by the [[sheriff]] or [[marshal]] in 20th century [[American Old West]]ern [[movies]]
*''Law and order''—stock phrase in the United States
*''Peace and order''—[[stock phrase]] in the Philippines
===Culture as a stabilizing mechanism===
Modern cultural theory also considers the possibility that (a) culture itself is a product of stabilization tendencies inherent in evolutionary pressures toward self-similarity and self-cognition of societies as wholes, or [[tribalism]]s. See [[Stephen Wolfram]]'s ''[[A new kind of science]]'' on iterated simple algorithms from genetic unfolding, from which the concept of culture as an operating mechanism can be developed,<ref>* Wolfram, S., ''[http://www.wolframscience.com/nksonline A New Kind of Science]''.</ref> and [[Richard Dawkins]]' ''[[The Extended Phenotype]]'' for discussion of genetic and [[memetic]] stability over time, through [[negative feedback]] mechanisms.<ref>Dawkins, R. 1982. ''[[The Extended Phenotype]]''</ref>
===Culture and evolutionary psychology===
Researchers in [[evolutionary psychology]] argue that the mind is a system of neurocognitive information processing modules designed by natural selection to solve the adaptive problems of our distant ancestors. According to evolutionary psychologists, the diversity of forms that human cultures take are constrained (indeed, made possible) by innate information processing mechanisms underlying our behavior, including:
* Language acquisition modules
* Incest avoidance mechanisms
* Cheater detection mechanisms
* Intelligence and sex-specific mating preferences
* Foraging mechanisms
* Alliance-tracking mechanisms
* Agent detection mechanisms
* Fear and protection mechanisms (survival mechanisms)
These mechanisms are theorized to be the psychological foundations of culture. In order to fully understand culture we must understand its biological conditions of possibility.
==Cultures within a society==
Large societies often have [[subculture]]s, or groups of people with distinct sets of behavior and [[beliefs]] that differentiate them from a larger culture of which they are a part. The subculture may be distinctive because of the age of its members, or by their [[race]], [[ethnicity]], [[social class|class]] or [[gender]]. The qualities that determine a subculture as distinct may be [[aesthetic]], [[religious]], [[occupation]]al, [[political]], [[sexual]] or a combination of these factors.
In dealing with immigrant groups and their cultures, there are essentially four approaches:
* [[Monoculturalism]]: In some European states, culture is very closely linked to [[nationalism]], thus government policy is to assimilate immigrants, although recent increases in migration have led many European states to experiment with forms of multiculturalism.
* [[Leitkultur]] (core culture): A model developed in Germany by [[Bassam Tibi]]. The idea is that minorities can have an identity of their own, but they should at least support the core concepts of the culture on which the society is based.
* [[Melting Pot]]: In the [[United States]], the traditional view has been one of a melting pot where all the immigrant cultures are mixed and amalgamated without state intervention.
* [[Multiculturalism]]: A policy that immigrants and others should preserve their cultures with the different cultures interacting peacefully within one nation.
The way nation states treat immigrant cultures rarely falls neatly into one or another of the above approaches. The degree of difference with the host culture (i.e., "foreignness"), the number of immigrants, attitudes of the resident population, the type of government policies that are enacted and the effectiveness of those policies all make it difficult to generalize about the effects. Similarly with other subcultures within a society, attitudes of the mainstream population and communications between various cultural groups play a major role in determining outcomes. The study of cultures within a society is complex and research must take into account a myriad of variables.
==Organizational Culture & Change==
{{Main|Organizational culture}}
When one wants to change something in the culture of a company one has to keep in consideration that this is a long term project. Corporate culture is something that is very hard to change and employees need time to get used to the new way of organizing. For companies with a very strong and specific culture it will be even harder to change.
Cummings & Worley (2005, p. 491 – 492) give the following six guidelines for cultural change, these changes are in line with the eight distinct stages mentioned by Kotter (1995, p. 2)3.
1. Formulate a clear strategic vision (stage 1,2 & 3 of Kotter, 1995, p. 2)
In order to make a cultural change effective a clear vision of the firm’s new strategy, shared values and behaviours is needed. This vision provides the intention and direction for the culture change (Cummings & Worley, 2005, p.490).
2. Display Top-management commitment (stage 4 of Kotter, 1995, p. 2)
It is very important to keep in mind that culture change must be managed from the top of the organization, as willingness to change of the senior management is a very important indicator (Cummings & Worley, 2005, page 490). The top of the organization should be very much in favour of the change in order to actually implement the change in the rest of the organization. De Caluwé & Vermaak (2004, p 9) provide a framework with five different ways of thinking about change.
3. Model culture change at the highest level (stage 5 of Kotter, 1995, p. 2)
In order to show that the management team is in favour of the change, the change has to be notable at first at this level. The behaviour of the management needs to symbolize the kinds of values and behaviours that should be realized in the rest of the company. It is important that the management shows the strengths of the current culture as well, it must be made clear that the current organizational does not need radical changes, but just a few adjustments. (See for more: (Deal & Kennedy, 1982; Sathe, 1983; Schall; 1983; Weick, 1985; DiTomaso, 1987)
4. Modify the organization to support organizational change
The fourth step is to modify the organization to support organizational change.
5. Select and socialize newcomers and terminate deviants (stage 7 & 8 of Kotter, 1995, p. 2)
A way to implement a culture is to connect it to organizational membership, people can be selected and terminate in terms of their fit with the new culture (Cummings & Worley, 2005, p. 491).
6. Develop ethical and legal sensitivity
Changes in culture can lead to tensions between organizational and individual interests, which can result in ethical and legal problems for practitioners. This is particularly relevant for changes in employee integrity, control, equitable treatment and job security (Cummings & Worley, 2005, p. 491).
==Cultures by region==
{{main|Culture by region}}
Many regional cultures have been influenced by contact with others, such as by [[colonization]], [[trade]], [[migration]], [[mass media]] and [[religion]].
;Africa
Though of many varied origins, African culture, especially Sub-Saharan African culture has been shaped by European colonialism, and, especially in North Africa, by [[Arab]] and [[Islamic]] culture.
[[Image:Hopi weaver.jpg|150px|thumb|right|[[Hopi]] man weaving on traditional loom in the USA.]]
;Americas
The culture of the [[Americas]] has been strongly influenced by [[indigenous peoples of the Americas|peoples that inhabitated the continents]] before Europeans arrived; people from Africa (the United States especially has a large African-American population, most of whom are descended from former slaves), and the immigration of Europeans, especially Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, German, Irish, Italian and Dutch.
;Asia
Despite the great cultural diversity of [[Asia]]n nations, there are, nevertheless, several transnational cultural influences. Though [[Korea]], [[Japan]], and [[Vietnam]] are not Chinese-speaking countries, their languages have been influenced by Chinese and Chinese writing. Thus, in [[East Asia]], [[Chinese character|Chinese writing]] is generally agreed to exert a unifying influence. Religions, especially [[Buddhism]] and [[Taoism]] have had an impact on the cultural traditions of East Asian countries (''see'' section on [[Culture#Eastern religion and philosophy|Eastern religion and philosophy]], below). There is also a shared social and moral philosophy that derives from [[Confucianism]].
[[Hinduism]] and [[Islam]] have for hundreds of years exerted cultural influence on various peoples of [[South Asia]]. Similarly, Buddhism is pervasive in [[Southeast Asia]].
;Pacific
Most of the countries of the [[Pacific Ocean]] continue to be dominated by their [[Indigenous (ecology)|indigenous]] cultures, although these have generally been affected by contact with European culture. In particular, most of [[Polynesia]] is now strongly [[Christian]]. Other countries, such as [[Australia]] and [[New Zealand]] have been dominated by white settlers and their descendants, whose culture now predominates. However [[Indigenous Australian]] and [[Māori]] (New Zealand) cultures are still present.
;Europe
European culture also has a broad influence beyond the continent of Europe due to the legacy of [[colonialism]]. In this broader sense it is sometimes referred to as ''[[Western culture]]''. This is most easily seen in the spread of the [[English language]] and to a lesser extent, a few other European languages. Dominant influences include [[ancient Greece]], [[ancient Rome]], and [[Christianity]], although religion has declined in Europe.
;Middle East and North Africa
The Middle East generally has three dominant and clear cultures, Arabic, Persian and Turkish, which have influenced each other with varying degrees during different times. The region is predominantly Muslim although significant minorities of Christians and smaller minorities of other religions exist.
Arabic culture has deeply influenced the Persian and Turkish cultures through [[Islam]]; influencing their languages, writing systems, art, architecture and literature as well as in other areas. The proximity of [[Iran]] has influenced the regions closer to it such as [[Iraq]] and [[Turkey]], traces of language can be found in the Iraqi and [[Kuwait]]i dialects of Arabic as well as the Turkish language. The 500 years of [[Ottoman]] rule over most of the Middle East has had a heavy influence over the Arabic culture, this may spread as far as Algeria but can be found to a heavier degree in [[Egypt]], [[Iraq]] and the [[Levant]].
== Belief systems ==
{{Main| Religion}}
Religion and other belief systems are often integral to a culture. Religion, from the Latin ''religare,'' meaning "to bind fast", is a feature of cultures throughout human history. The ''Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion'' defines religion in the following way:
<blockquote>... an institution with a recognized body of communicants who gather together regularly for worship, and accept a set of doctrines offering some means of relating the individual to what is taken to be the ultimate nature of reality.<ref>Reese, W.L. 1980. ''Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion: Eastern and Western Thought,'' page 488.</ref></blockquote>
Religion often codifies behavior, such as with the [[10 Commandments]] of [[Christianity]] or the [[Pancasila|five precepts]] of [[Buddhism]]. Sometimes it is involved with government, as in a [[theocracy]]. It also influences arts.
[[Eurocentric]] custom to some extent divides humanity into Western and non-Western cultures, although this has some flaws.
[[Western culture]] spread from Europe most strongly to Australia, Canada, and the United States. It is influenced by [[ancient Greece]], [[ancient Rome]] and the [[Christian church]].
Western culture tends to be more individualistic than non-Western cultures. It also sees man, god, and nature or the universe more separately than non-Western cultures. It is marked by economic wealth, literacy, and technological advancement, although these traits are not exclusive to it.
=== Abrahamic religions ===
Judaism is one of the first, recorded [[Monotheism|monotheistic]] faiths and one of the oldest religious [[traditions]] still practiced today. The values and history of the Jewish people are a major part of the foundation of other [[Abrahamic religion]]s such as [[Christianity]], [[Islam]], as well as the [[Bahá'í Faith]]. However, while sharing a heritage from [[Abraham]] each has distinct arts (visual and performance arts and the like.) Of course some of these are regional influences among the nations the religions are present in, but there are some norms or forms of cultural expression distinctly emphasized by the religions.
Christianity was the dominant feature in shaping European and the New World cultures for at least the last 500 to 1700 years. Modern philosophical thought has very much been influenced by Christian philosophers such as St. [[Thomas Aquinas]] and [[Erasmus]] and Christian [[Cathedral]]s have been noted as architectural wonders like [[Notre Dame de Paris]], [[Wells Cathedral]] and [[Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral]].
Islam's influence has dominated much of the North African, Middle and Far East regions for almost 1500 years, sometimes mixed with other religions. For example Islam's influence can be seen in diverse philosophies such as [[Ibn Bajjah]], [[Ibn Tufail]], [[Ibn Khaldun]] and [[Averroes]] as well as poetic stories and litariture like [[Hayy ibn Yaqdhan]], [[Layla and Majnun|The Madman of Layla]], [[The Conference of the Birds]] and the [[Masnavi]] in addition to art and architecture such as the [[Umayyad Mosque]], [[Dome of the Rock]], [[Faisal Mosque]], [[Hagia Sophia]] (which has been a Cathedral and a Mosque) and the many styles of [[Arabesque]].
Judaism and the Baha'i faiths are usually minority religions among the nations but still have made distinctive contributions to the cultures of the nations and regions. Of Judaism, people of note include [[Albert Einstein]] and [[Henry Kissinger]] and musicians/performers like [[Paula Abdul]], [[Sammy Davis, Jr.]], and [[Bob Dylan]]. Of the Bahá'í faith, consider the [[Bahá'í House of Worship]] as well as musicians like [[Dizzy Gillespie]] and thinkers like [[Alain LeRoy Locke]], [[Frederick Mayer]] and [[Richard St. Barbe Baker]].
The mainstream [[anthropological]] view of ‘[[culture]]’ implies that we most people experience a strong resistance when reminded that there is an animal as well as a spiritual aspect to human nature.<ref name="AnthropologyTodayApr07">Jonathan Benthall ''[http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8322.2007.00494.x Animal liberation and rights]'' [[Anthropology Today]] Volume 23 Issue 2 Page 1 - April 2007</ref>
===Eastern religion and philosophy===
[[Image:Agni god of fire.jpg|left|110px|thumb|[[Agni]], [[Hindu]] fire god.]]
{{main|Eastern philosophy|Eastern religion}}
Philosophy and religion are often closely interwoven in Eastern thought. Many Asian religious and philosophical traditions originated in India and China and spread across Asia through [[cultural diffusion]] and the migration of peoples. [[Hinduism]] is the wellspring of [[Buddhism]], the [[Mahayana|Mahāyāna]] branch of which spread north and eastwards from India into Tibet, China, Mongolia, Japan and Korea and south from China into Vietnam. [[Theravada|Theravāda]] Buddhism spread throughout [[Southeast Asia]], including Sri Lanka, parts of southwest China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand.
[[Indian philosophy]] includes [[Hindu philosophy]]. They contain elements of nonmaterial pursuits, whereas another school of thought from India, [[Carvaka]], preached the enjoyment of material world. [[Confucianism]] and [[Taoism]], both of which originated in China have had pervasive influence on both religious and philosophical traditions, as well as [[Public administration|statecraft]] and the arts throughout Asia.
During the 20th century, in the two most populous countries of Asia, two dramatically different political philosophies took shape. [[Gandhi]] gave a new meaning to [[Ahimsa]], a core belief of both Hinduism and [[Jainism]], and redefined the concepts of [[nonviolence]] and [[nonresistance]] far beyond the confines of India. During the same period, [[Mao Zedong]]’s [[Communism|communist]] [[Maoism|philosophy]] became a powerful secular belief system in China.
===Folk religions===
{{Main|Folk religion}}
Folk religions practiced by tribal groups are common in Asia, Africa and the Americas. Their influence can be considerable; may pervade the culture and even become the state religion, as with [[Shintoism]]. Like the other major religions, folk religion answers human needs for reassurance in times of trouble, healing, averting misfortune and providing [[rituals]] that address the major passages and transitions in human life.
===The "American Dream"===
The [[American Dream]] is a belief, held by many in the United States, that through hard work, courage, and self-determination, regardless of [[social class]], a person can [[social mobility|gain a better life]].<ref>Boritt, Gabor S. ''Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream,'' p. 1.</ref> This notion is rooted in the belief that the United States is a "[[city upon a hill]], a light unto the nations,"<ref>[[Ronald Reagan]]. [http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1989/011489a.htm "Final Radio Address to the Nation"].</ref> which were values held by many early European settlers and maintained by subsequent generations.
This concept is mirrored in other cultures, such as in the case of ''the Great [[Australia]]n Dream,'' although this refers more closely to [[home ownership]] by the same means.
===Marriage===
Religion often influences [[Religious aspects of marriage|marriage]] and [[Human sexual behavior|sexual]] practices.
Most [[Christianity|Christian]] churches give some form of blessing to a marriage; the wedding ceremony typically includes some sort of pledge by the community to support the relationship. In marriage, Christians draw a parallel with the relationship between Jesus Christ and His Church. The [[Roman Catholic Church]] believes it is morally wrong to divorce, and divorcées cannot remarry in a church marriage (without a formal [[annulment]] of the previous marriage).
==Cultural studies==
[[Cultural studies]] developed in the late 20th century, in part through the re-introduction of [[Marxist]] thought into [[sociology]], and in part through the [[articulation (sociology)|articulation]] of [[sociology]] and other academic disciplines such as [[literary criticism]]. This movement aimed to focus on the analysis of subcultures in [[capitalist]] societies. Following the non-anthropological tradition, [[cultural studies]] generally focus on the study of consumption goods (such as [[fashion]], [[art]], and [[literature]]). Because the 18th- and 19th-century distinction between "high" and "low" culture seems inappropriate to apply to the mass-produced and mass-marketed consumption goods which cultural studies analyses, these scholars refer instead to "popular culture".
Today, some [[anthropology|anthropologists]] have joined the project of cultural studies. Most, however, reject the identification of culture with consumption goods. Furthermore, many now reject the notion of culture as bounded, and consequently reject the notion of [[subculture]]. Instead, they see culture as a complex web of shifting patterns that link people in different locales and that link social formations of different scales. According to this view, any group can construct its own [[cultural identity]].
Currently, a debate is underway regarding whether or not culture can actually change fundamental [[human cognition]]. Researchers are divided on the question.
==Cultural change==
[[Image:Indig2.jpg|thumb|300px|A 19th century engraving showing [[Australian]] "[[Indigenous Australians|natives]] opposing the arrival of [[Captain James Cook]]" in 1770.]]
Cultures, by [[predisposition]], both embrace and resist [[change]], depending on culture traits. For example, men and women have complementary roles in many cultures. One gender might desire changes that affect the other, as happened in the second half of the 20th century in [[western culture]]s. Thus there are both dynamic influences that encourage acceptance of new things, and conservative forces that resist change.
Three kinds of influence cause both change and resistance to it:
#forces at work within a society
#contact between societies
#changes in the natural environment.<ref>O'Neil, D. 2006. [http://anthro.palomar.edu/change/change_2.htm "Processes of Change"].</ref>
Cultural change can come about due to the environment, to inventions (and other internal influences), and to contact with other cultures. For example, the end of the last [[ice age]] helped lead to the invention of [[agriculture]], which in its turn brought about many cultural innovations.
In [[diffusion (anthropology)|diffusion]], the form of something (though not necessarily its meaning) moves from one culture to another. For example, [[hamburger]]s, mundane in the United States, seemed exotic when introduced into China. "Stimulus diffusion" refers to an element of one culture leading to an invention in another. [[Diffusion of innovations]] theory presents a research-based model of why and when individuals and cultures adopt new ideas, practices, and products.
"[[Acculturation]]" has different meanings, but in this context refers to replacement of the traits of one culture with those of another, such has happened to certain [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] tribes and to many indigenous peoples across the globe during the process of [[colonization]]. Related processes on an individual level include [[cultural assimilation|assimilation]] (adoption of a different culture by an individual) and [[transculturation]].
[[Cultural invention]] has come to mean any innovation that is new and found to be useful to a group of people and expressed in their behavior but which does not exist as a physical object. Humanity is in a global "accelerating culture change period", driven by the expansion of international commerce, the mass media, and above all, the [[World population|human population]] explosion, among other factors. The world's population now doubles in less than 40 years.<ref name = Overview>O'Neil, D. 2006. [http://anthro.palomar.edu/change/change_1.htm "Overview"].</ref>
Culture change is complex and has far-ranging effects. Sociologists and anthropologists believe that a [[holistic]] approach to the study of cultures and their environments is needed to understand all of the various aspects of change. Human existence may best be looked at as a "multifaceted whole." Only from this vantage can one grasp the realities of culture change.<ref name = Overview />
==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}
==References==
<div class="references-small">
* Ankerl,Guy: ''Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western.'' Geneva: INUPRESS, 2000, ISBN 2881550045
* Arnold, Matthew. 1869. [http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/nonfiction_u/arnoldm_ca/ca_titlepage.html ''Culture and Anarchy.''] New York: Macmillan. Third edition, 1882, available online. Retrieved: 2006-06-28.
*[[Bakhtin]], M. M. (1981) ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=JKZztxqdIpgC The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays]''. Ed. Michael Holquist. Trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin and London: University of Texas Press.
* Barzilai, Gad. 2003. ''Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legahkjkjl Identities.'' University of Michigan Press.
* Boritt, Gabor S. 1994. ''Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream''. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-06445-6.
* Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. ''Outline of a Theory of Practice.'' Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-29164-4
* Cohen, Anthony P. 1985. ''The Symbolic Construction of Community.'' Routledge: New York,
* Dawkiins, R. 1982. ''[[The Extended Phenotype|The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene.]]'' Paperback ed., 1999. Oxford Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0-19-288051-2
* Forsberg, A. [http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~aforsber/ccsf/culture_defined.html Definitions of culture] [[CCSF]] Cultural Geography course notes. Retrieved: 2006-06-29.
* Geertz, Clifford. 1973. ''The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays''. New York. ISBN 978-0-465-09719-7.
:— 1957. "Ritual and Social Change: A Javanese Example", ''American Anthropologist'', Vol. 59, No. 1.
* Goodall, J. 1986. ''The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior.'' Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-11649-8
* Hoult, T. F., ed. 1969. ''Dictionary of Modern Sociology''. Totowa, New Jersey, United States: Littlefield, Adams & Co.
* Jary, D. and J. Jary. 1991. ''The HarperCollins Dictionary of Sociology.'' New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-271543-7
* Keiser, R. Lincoln 1969. ''The Vice Lords: Warriors of the Streets''. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. ISBN 978-0-03-080361-1.
* Kroeber, A. L. and C. Kluckhohn, 1952. ''Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions.'' Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum
* Kim, Uichol (2001). "Culture, science and indigenous psychologies: An integrated analysis." In D. Matsumoto (Ed.), ''Handbook of culture and psychology.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press
* Middleton, R. 1990. ''Studying Popular Music''. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 978-0-335-15275-9.
* Rhoads, Kelton. 2006. [http://www.workingpsychology.com/download_folder/Culture_And_Influence.pdf ''The Culture Variable in the Influence Equation.'']
* Tylor, E.B. 1974. ''Primitive culture: researches into the development of mythology, philosophy, religion, art, and custom.'' New York: Gordon Press. First published in 1871. ISBN 978-0-87968-091-6
* O'Neil, D. 2006. [http://anthro.palomar.edu/tutorials/cultural.htm Cultural Anthropology Tutorials], Behavioral Sciences Department, Palomar College, San Marco, California. Retrieved: 2006-07-10.
* [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan, Ronald]]. [http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1989/011489a.htm "Final Radio Address to the Nation"], [[January 14]], [[1989]]. Retrieved [[June 3]], [[2006]].
* Reese, W.L. 1980. ''Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion: Eastern and Western Thought.'' New Jersey U.S., Sussex, U.K: Humanities Press.
* UNESCO. 2002. [http://www.unesco.org/education/imld_2002/unversal_decla.shtml Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity], issued on [[International Mother Language Day]], [[February 21]], [[2002]]. Retrieved: 2006-06-23.
* White, L. 1949. ''The Science of Culture: A study of man and civilization.'' New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
* Wilson, Edward O. (1998). ''[[Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge]].'' Vintage: New York. ISBN 978-0-679-76867-8.
* Wolfram, Stephen. 2002 ''[http://www.wolframscience.com/nksonline A New Kind of Science].'' Wolfram Media, Inc. ISBN 978-1-57955-008-0
</div>
==See also==
{{portal}}
* [[List of basic culture topics]]
* [[Cultural bias]] - [[Cultural imperialism]] - [[Ethnocentrism]]
* [[Counterculture]]
* [[Cross-cultural communication]] - [[Intercultural competence]]
* [[Cultural evolution]]
* [[Culture theory]]
* [[Cultural dissonance]]
* [[Cultural universals]]
* [[Culture war]]
* [[Urban culture]]
==External links==
{{sisterlinks|Culture}}
*[http://courses.ed.asu.edu/margolis/spf301/definitions_of_culture.html Detailed article on defining culture]
* [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-73 ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas'':] "culture" and "civilization" in modern times
* [http://www.everyculture.com/ Countries and their Cultures]
* [http://global-culture.org/ Global Culture] Essays on globalization, migration and their impact on global culture
* [http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/cfsi-icse/cil-cai/home-en.asp Centre for Intercultural Learning]
* [http://www.wsu.edu/gened/learn-modules/top_culture/culture-index.html What is Culture? - Washington State University]
* [http://www.observacionesfilosoficas.net/ Revista Observaciones Filosóficas]
* [http://www.defineculture.com Define Culture] - List of definitions of culture from people around the world.
* [http://www.monthlyreview.org/299pare.htm Reflections on the Politics of Culture] by [[Michael Parenti]]
*[http://www.chitralekha.org/ Mukul Dey Archives, Chitralekha, Santiniketan INDIA]
*[http://www.chitralekha.org/mukuldey-archives.htm Foreign Influence on Indian Culture (c. 600 BC to AD 320) by Manjari Ukil]
[[Category: General Reference]]