What is culture?

[Bram]

Part of my research concerns culture, and its influence on technological development.

Now if you think about that for more than 5 seconds, you'll realize that that's insanely broad and needs to be seriously demarcated. That's what I'm doing right now, and I won't bore you with the specifics of the quite narrow focus I'm opting for.

Over the past months, I've found that virtually every scholar in the social sciencies and humanities has had something to say on the subject of culture. None of them can agree on 'how it works' and most of them don't even agree on what it is. I've been navigating my way through this and I'm slowly but surely forming my opinion in what culture is, and how it influences technology.

Now I know that TMD counts several philisophically inclined members amongst it ranks. No doubt they've all thought about culture. But the following question goes for the rest of you guys and gal(s), too. If you think about the concept of culture, what pops in your head? What do YOU guys think culture is? And do you think it influences technology, or not?

Any thoughts are appreciated!

[Machinus]

I'm sure we can have this question answered and neatly wrapped up in a day or two

During my research for my last political science paper, I hypothesized that two of the more fundamental characteristics were language and religion. I considered many of the religious aspects to be less legitimate in their effect on society, but it is definitely a major factor in every civilization.

Cultural identities are beginning to have less of an influence on modernization. However, I think you are studying this process in the already-developed Western world, which is different.

[Bram]

I'm sure we can have this question answered and neatly wrapped up in a day or two

LOL. Well, that isn't really the point of this thread. I get to spend the next four years focusing on a very small portion of the problem I just sketched, and even that might be pushing my luck ^^

You're correct in assuming my focus is on the Western world, but initially I want to adopt a very broad perspective to get a handle on the matter.

Cultural identities are beginning to have less of an influence on modernization.

Intriguing statement. Care to elaborate a little?

[jpmeyer]

The ideas and manifestations of a group or society.  I like defining the word broadly.

[The Atog Lord]

An excellent question, Bram. I doubt I can answer it, but let me make a few observations.

There are those aspects of a human which are in-born. My hand being on a hot stove will cause me to retract that hand. An object moving quickly towards me will likely cause me to flinch. I hunger and I thirst. Those things are not cultural, and are indeed common among most people.

There are also, however, aspects of people which tend not to be universal, but which hold true for large groups of people which can be identified as a unit. For example, I like sweet foods, and have a relatively low threshold for spicy foods. These characteristics are by no means universal accross all people, but at the same time are not uncommon among many of the people I grew up with. Therefore, I would conclude that these things are cultural. My girlfriend gets a stomach ache if she eats too much that is sweet, and yet loves very spicy food. While uncommon for most Americans, this is common for people from where she is from. Therefore, since the trait is both non-universal and also common among people where she is from, then we can conclude that this is cultural. As a third example, I don't easily get cold, and don't mind temperatures that many people from outside New England can't stand.

In short, upon reflection, I think that a cultural trait is a trait which is both non-universal, and common among a group.

[sean1i0]

Well, I can tell you what I think of when you say culture:  I think of my culture, the Cajun tradition.  So, to me, the word culture is assosiated with heritage.  To me it is a way in a which a group of people act that is similar enough to connect them all in those actions; as such they see themselves as a group and tend to act accordingly.  Generally cultures are connected to an area, as it is with the Cajun people, because the area and environment in which these people live, along with their language, are the causes of this phenomenon; I do not see culture as needing to be connected to physical area, however.  In many ways, people on WoW are creating their own culture that is tied to a virtual place, rather than something in the real world.

Those are my 2 cents.  Hope they help.  (Btw, that's a really interesting question.  I'll continue to think about it.)

[vartemis]

I think that culture can be defined by a group's shared values and communication based upon tradition.  When most people think of culture, they think of racial or geographical cultures.   This is not always the case.  What about things like "street racing culture" or "the manadrain culture"?

Common values can be absorbed from anywhere.  Television, friends, family, experience, and religion are all places where one develope's their own personal values.  I think that Machinus's statement about religion being an important part is correct, but it is not a fundimental part of culture.  Religion helps dictate your values, which can be shared by people of the same religion, but a person may still agree and not share the same religious views. In some cases this may exclude them from a particular culture, and in other instances they gel just fine.   Just because I am not Catholic does not mean that I don't agree with some of its ideals.  I am not a satanist, and yet some of their ideals are apealing to me as well.

Many cultures have a shared language, or way of communicating.  This may be an accepted language (french, spanish), but it could also include jargon and/or slang.  Internet culture has provided a perfect example of this.  Most of our grandparents would be totally lost in trying to understand a simple instant message we take for granted.  This excludes them from our "internet culture".

The fact that it has to be passed down through tradition is important as well.  Sean1i0 shows that through his traditions he understands his Cajun Heritage.  If just one person is doing something, it is not considered culture.  If they pass their values and language idiosyncracies onto other people, then it becomes a culture.

As for its impact on technological development...

I think it goes back to the values statement.  A prime example is cloning.  Certain sections of the world have no problem in allowing this type of research, and yet others refuse to allow it.  I can see no other reason other than the values of that particular "culture" dictating what is and is not acceptable within that group. 

Man I hope this makes up for all the stupid things I've said in previous moral and societal commentaries hehehe.

j

[Harkius]

Culture is the result of a normative experience shared by peoples who live within a broad or narrow range, comprising a community. These peoples have similar experiences, likely share languages and similar faiths, and their similarities are great enough that they are capable of understanding one another's points of view on random issues.

Note that all of these criteria are not necessary. In addition, the idea of understanding, while critical, doesn't mean that people who don't understand each other are from different cultures; rather, they likely are simply choosing not to understand each other.

Technology and culture play reciprocal roles on one another. This is because technology plays an interesting role that few things historically have in culture: It brings us information (required for the shared normative experience) from communities that we could not have been a part of one hundred years ago. This allows the peoples involved to be non-geographically contiguous. This is interesting, but it is hardly what you are asking.

Rather, I think that your questions have been answered in the previous part of my post. So I will stop now.

Harkius

[Lunar]

If I remember correctly, Pasternak comments on this a bit in his book "Quest" near the end of the book. Sure the book has a lot to do with other things beyond culture (such as genetics and philosophy and what not) but it might be a good book to at least look into.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470851449/sr=8-3/qid=1144888615/ref=pd_bbs_3/102-1200761-7646518?%5Fencoding=UTF8

a few searches in Cultural Anthropology would probably yeild a number of good references to draw upon as well. I seem to recall a number of books and articles that my professors had mentioned on the subject, yet I cannot remember the names of them (cant really stand the cultural side of anthro, although I am an anthro major, heh)

I suppose the only problem with getting involved with Antro stuff is that we generally agree with little the sociology people have to say, this could make your search even more problematic if you introduce a whole new set of information into the mix.

As for anything I might have to say on the issue:

Culture no doubt plays a role in part of new technology.  Examples that I can think of immediatly point to pop culture in the US as a prime source of this. I currently work in electronics retail sales, what drives trends in sales more than anything? Popular culture for sure. If there is a new cell phone on TV this week, I will have people demanding to have it. The demand that these phones create are driven by the companies whos job it is to define the latest styles our culture will embrace. Over the past few years our society has had an increasing need (or is it just want due to lazyness or other such factor?) for more and more wireless products such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Certainly we can point to western culture driving the technology onwards. These are items that we certainly dont NEED in our lives, but culture kinda demands that we have them.

As global restrictions continue to fall, individual culture will be assimilated by larger cultural influences (the internet is a prime example of this, and to a smaller degree technology over the years such as better travel and other means of communication) This is a problem that researchers have been having of late and are scrambling to take care of before it is too late.

All of this though seems to fall more on a broader scale however. Globalization of consumer products leads to the need for better faster more powerful *insert X product here. Part of this seems to be brought on by companies wanting to cut costs (time is money as they say)

Now im sure that that really wasnt that helpful, lol, and might have been just me rambling on, but its what came to mind when I read your topic. Have fun with the research though, sounds fun.

[Matt]

It may be easier to say what culture is NOT. Culture is more than just shared experience. It is the interaction and differences between those experiences. You might say that culture is a metric for determining the "distance" between experiences.

Or, you might not.

[Guardian]

For me, culture is the ensemble of behaviors and heritage that define a group of peolpe in a given location and a given period of time.

I like it that way. Simple and elegant.

[Machinus]

You might say that culture is a metric for determining the "distance" between experiences.

I think you're reaching here, but let me suggest an alternative:

Culture is really a social norm that determines the "value" its members.

[davisdad]

Hello there, I am an anthropologist, this is my homepage and I'm also Jacob Orlove's dad. Anthropologists disagree on what culture is...one area where there is much interesting debate these days is about whether chimpanzees have culture. Most people say they do...if  chimps in one group have their particular way of greeting each other and in another group they use a different way (say, in one group they clasp hands over their heads, and in another they tap each other), then that seems like culture, a simple form but culture nonetheless.

For culture and technology, there is a completely fascinating debate about how culture has shaped the development of technology. Take clocks...the medieval Chinese were in many ways more advanced than Europe, but their timepieces were glorifed egg-timers, sundials etc., while Europe--with smaller cities, no paper, no gunpowder etc. got started on a different path of clock-making that led to accurate clocks, way before factories, trains, or anything else you'd think you'd need a clock for. Some of that came from the obsession that medieval monks had to pray at the right time of day.

And people in different cultures use the same technology different. Right now there are anthropologists who study cell phone use, which is pretty different from country to country (the US is way behind Europe and East Asia in that regard).

anyway, a good topic. enjoy.

Ben

[Matt]

You might say that culture is a metric for determining the "distance" between experiences.

I think you're reaching here, but let me suggest an alternative:

Culture is really a social norm that determines the "value" its members.

I'd rather reach less than accept that.

[oldbsturgeon]

i have a book by shiraev and levy entitled introduction to cross cultural psychology. im not sure if you would be interested in it, but you could have it. let me know if you want it.
its an old text book of mine, but its not very old, 2001. anything i can do to help

[Bram]

Sorry to reply so late to my own topic, but TMD has been actingup at work again.

First of all: thanks for all the replies. It's comforting to see that you guys didn't just resort to wikipedia for definitions, but actually thought the issue through.

It's a tricky business, culture, because everyone seems to have their own definitions. Also, many disciplines study the subject and have varying viewpoints. Cultural anthropology (with subdisciplines like structural and symbolic anthropology), several subdisciplines of sociology, cultural studies, and cultural psychology to just name a few of the bigger ones.  Interestingly, you guys mentioned some elements that keep recurring, and that coincide with much of the literature I found on the subject.

Most of you seem to agree that it's at least in some way:
- related to groups (if one guy does something, it's not culture but if it's shared, it might be)
- related to thought as well as behaviour
- related to location (whether that be geographical or 'an internet site')
- related to language as a means of communicating said culture

I think that in all the definitions I've found up to this point, I can basically discern 2 groups (sort of):
- those who believe that culture is something that's 'out there' (or possibly 'in there', 'baked' in your brains), some sort of 'matrix' or 'deep structure' that we build our lives on.
- those who believe that culture is something that is continuously reproduced by the social group that carries it; it doesn't 'exist' as any real entity or structure, but rather as storylines or 'discourses' which are adapted and (somtimes) used strategically.

The second view seems to offer more possibilities to think of culture in relation to technology. A developing enthusiams about 'speed' and 'records' could be thought of as a stimulus for the development of the automobile (which was initially almost exclusively used for racing). Or do you guys think it's the other way around?

Another question: the press often use terms like 'islamic culture', 'corporate culture' and 'macho culture', for example. Obviosuly the characteristics (what it is exactly that's shared) differ widely, but aside from that, are these basically the same kinds of 'culture', or are we speaking of a whole different animal entirly? Let me know what you think!

Ben (or should I say dr. Orlove): very nice to meet you, and thanks for chiming in! As I've said before, I'm trying to get an idea of how various disciplines, among which anthropology, deal with the concept of culture. Would you mind if I e-mailed you, requesting a few literature suggestions?

[Machinus]

Since obviously defining culture is beyond the scope of this thread (and your main concern is elsewhere), I will leave the question unanswered.
 
What I was talking about earlier was that non-Western civilizations are modernizing while resisting the influence of Western culture, something that has been much more difficult in the past. Yet while that relates technology and culture, it does not answer your question.

For the question you are focusing on, I would certainly say "culture" is a different idea than the general meaning of the word culture. Political and religious belief systems likely support the cultural characteristics you are examining, which I would say are more complicated than differences based on language or nationality. You may find that an apparent division exists between age groups, which implies that some issues will gradually fade and that in developed civilizations, this culture changes with time.

You might say that culture is a metric for determining the "distance" between experiences.

I think you're reaching here, but let me suggest an alternative:

Culture is really a social norm that determines the "value" its members.

I'd rather reach less than accept that.

I was more concerned with replying in kind to your analysis pun than I was with seriously answering Bram's question. I had several laughs over it.

[Matt]

Analysis pun?

[Machinus]

metric
norm

[Matt]

Hah, I totally forgot about that use of "norm."

[Komatteru]

Oh, that is the first thing thing I think of when I hear "norm."  In fact, I usually think of that one time where I forgot what norm I was working with (i.e., what Hilbert Space I was in) and all the problems that caused...my proof fell apart when I recalled that simple fact.

I usually go for that def of metric as well, but I usually prefer norm, as Hilbert Space >> Metric Space.

[Klep]

Oh, that is the first thing thing I think of when I hear "norm."  In fact, I usually think of that one time where I forgot what norm I was working with (i.e., what Hilbert Space I was in) and all the problems that caused...my proof fell apart when I recalled that simple fact.

I usually go for that def of metric as well, but I usually prefer norm, as Hilbert Space >> Metric Space.

Math is hard.

[Matt]

Let's go shopping!

[Harkius]

Culture is the stuff in your gut, your mouth, and on your epithelial surfaces.

Usually, it is comprised of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp., Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus dentans, and Enterobaceriaciae in general.

Of course, there are other cultures.

Harkius

[Hi-Val]

I'm also Jacob Orlove's dad.

!!!

As long as we're throwing out terms, how about mores? If nothing else, when people pronounce the word you know if they have actually studied them or whether they just read the word somewhere.

A culture also seems to be a shared set of ethics and morality (whether they pay lip service or actually follow them is something else).

[Matt]

As long as we're throwing out terms, how about mores? If nothing else, when people pronounce the word you know if they have actually studied them or whether they just read the word somewhere.

They might have studied mores in books only.

[PucktheCat]

A few disjointed thoughts:

Culture includes ethics and morals, but it isn't limited to that.  Some cultures have tendencies to, for example, wear bright colors, which has little to do with morality.  Its just a shared and learned social practice.

In short, upon reflection, I think that a cultural trait is a trait which is both non-universal, and common among a group.

Like blond hair among Swedes?

Along the same lines, I am writing a paper this weekend on the U.S. Supreme Court's definition of "religion," or more accurately, the fact that there really isn't one.  Religion seems like a narrower catagory than culture, but it is not much easier to define.

Here's my attempt to answer:  Culture is the set of shared social practices, beliefs, morality, and knowledge that arises in a group that shares certain experiences.

After typing that, I looked the word up in the OED.  It's obvious if you think about it, but the way we are using the term "culture" in this thread is really a agricultural metaphor.  Culture is the result of people's cultivation, just like a good ear of corn is a result of a well cultivated field.  At least that's what the word's derivation suggests.  Since I know many of you speak other languages, is the word for culture in other languages similarly derived, or does it have some other connotation?

[davisdad]

There's an excellent book by Raymond Williams called Keywords. It dates back a number of years, but still is useful...he shows that the words "culture" and "civilization" have been trading places for centuries in Western thought. Very helpful. His section on culture is just a few pages long, but captures the essence of the way that the word has many meanings.

Ben Orlove