Through culture the human achieves his expression, recognizes his singularity, identifies himself as a project in development, questions his works, seeks new meanings and makes creations that will surpass him, one of the main Characteristics of the culture is that it defines the human being.
Characteristics of the culture
Culture in its broadest sense is everything that man himself creatively produces, in contrast to what he did not create and did not change except by nature. According to the broadest definition, cultural achievements are all formative transformations of a given material, for example in technology, agriculture, food preparation or fine arts, but also spiritual structures such as music, languages, morality, religion, the law, economics and science.
The concept of culture can refer to a social group of people who are assigned a certain culture, or to what all people should have. The similarities of a group of people or all of humanity serve to distinguish this group from others or from humans to animals. In sociology, as in ethology, culture is more narrowly defined as "what is common to a group of individuals" and as "what unites it", that is, what is learned, transmitted, invented and produced.
Basically, culture is understood as human activity in its various manifestations, including all forms and methods of human self-expression and self-knowledge, the accumulation of skills by an individual, and society as a whole. Culture is also a manifestation of human subjectivity and objectivity (character, skills, abilities and knowledge).
Culture is a set of stable forms of human activity, without which it cannot reproduce itself and therefore cannot exist. It is a set of rules that prescribe a certain behavior to a person with the experiences and thoughts inherent in it, thus exerting an administrative influence on it. The source of the origin of culture is thought to be human activity, knowledge and creativity.
Etymology
The etymology of the word "culture" (to live, cultivate or honor), suggests that culture refers, in general, to human activity. This word takes on remarkably different and even contradictory meanings depending on its uses.
The Latin term culture defines the action of sowing the earth in the first sense and then that of cultivating the mind, the soul in a figurative sense. Cicero was the first to apply the word culture to humans:
“A field, no matter how fertile, cannot be productive without cultivation, and the same goes for uneducated humans” (Tusculanes, II, 13).
In history, the use of the word has gradually spread to humans. The term cult, of similar etymology (from the Latin cultus), is used to describe the homage paid to a divinity, but it also refers to the action of cultivating, caring for and practicing an art.
culture definitions
The variety of philosophical and scientific definitions of culture existing in the world does not allow referring to this concept as the most obvious designation of an object and subject of culture and requires a clearer and narrower concretization of it. Different definitions of the word "culture" reflect different theories for understanding or evaluating human activity.
The definition that governments can make when setting their mission in the Ministry of Culture is different from the one given in the humanities or the one that corresponds to the characteristics of the general culture of each one.
More generally, in ethology, animal culture designates any behavior, habit, knowledge, meaning system (in anthropology) learned by a biological individual, socially transferred and not by genetic inheritance of the species to which this individual belongs.
Culture is defined in this sense as a body of knowledge transmitted by belief systems, by reasoning or experimentation, which develop it within human behavior in relation to nature and the surrounding world. It thus includes everything that is considered as "obtaining the species", regardless of its instinctive inheritance, considered natural and innate. This word then receives different definitions depending on the context to which it refers.
Several questions arise when the term "culture" is used not only descriptively but also normatively (prescriptively). In this sense, “culture” means not only what is actually found, but also what should be, for example, non-violence.
The normative use of the term culture is not uncommon in everyday language, since one hears, for example, that a «culture of violence» is only spoken of in a pejorative way; such a culture would be a "lack of culture." Very often moral standards are connected with the characteristics of the culture.
However, the difficulty arises in determining what can be understood by “violence” and when it can be avoided. Different cultures not only have different ideas about when an act is violent, but also about what is harmed by the violence in the first place
culture and civilization
The modern definition of "culture" as a civilization was formed primarily in the XNUMXth and early XNUMXth centuries in Western Europe. In the future, this concept, on the one hand, began to include distinctions between different groups of people in Europe itself, and on the other hand, differences between the metropolises and their colonies throughout the world. Hence the fact that in this case the concept of "culture" is the equivalent of "civilization", that is, the antipode of the concept of "nature".
Using this definition, one can easily classify individuals and even entire countries by their level of civilization. Some authors even define culture simply as “everything that is best in the world that has been created and said” (Mathew Arnold), and everything that does not fit this definition is chaos and anarchy. From this point of view, culture is intimately related to social development and the progress of society. Matthew Arnold consistently uses his definition:
«... culture is the result of the constant improvement that arises from the processes of acquiring knowledge about everything that concerns us, it is all the best that was said and thought».
For Immanuel Kant, "civilization" means that people are educated to be with each other, adopt manners and know how to organize their daily lives in a comfortable and practical way and that perhaps through science and technology they produce vehicles, hospitals and refrigerators. However, all this is not enough for them to "have culture", although it can serve culture. Because for Kant, the "idea of morality" applies as a condition for culture. This means that people consciously direct their actions towards ends that are good in themselves.
However, within the framework of such a worldview, there is a current where less "educated" people are considered, in many ways, as more "natural" and "high" culture is attributed to the suppression of "human nature".
This point of view has been found in the works of many authors since the XNUMXth century. They emphasize, for example, that folk music, created by ordinary people, more honestly expresses a natural way of life, while classical music appears superficial. According to this view, people outside of "Western civilization" are "noble savages" who have not been corrupted by the West.
Most specialists today reject both points of view. They do not accept either the concept of "one correct" culture, nor the complete opposition to its nature. In this case, it is understood that the «non-elite» can have the same cultural height as the «elite», and people from outside the West can be equally educated, their culture is only expressed in other ways. The characteristics of the culture of your civilization are different.
However, this concept distinguishes between "high" culture such as the culture of the elites and "mass" culture, which implies goods and works aimed at the needs of ordinary people. Furthermore, in some works, both types of culture, "high" and "low", simply refer to different subcultures.
General characteristics of cultural life
The comparison of the following cultural elements has given rise to several attempts to define geographical areas in which similar and delimitable characteristics of the culture can be established. The resulting culture areas are controversial for a number of reasons, but they provide a way of structuring the world's variety of cultures for a rough overview.
Tradition
The formation of a group's identity is strongly linked to the tradition that lives in it. Therefore, the social group also shapes the culture. Many lines of tradition in religions also determine the identity of their members through joint ceremonies and rituals. Therefore, "tradition can be defined as a permanent cultural construction of identity" (Aleida Assmann: Time and tradition)
Values
Value systems include ideas and materials that seem important in life. They guide the beliefs that are part of the culture. It is possible to recognize value systems preferentially associated with civilizations. So, in what is still called the West, it seems that the cultural conversation is very concerned with the question of rule, measure, physical or social law, while in the Far East the most important issue concerns identity in the world.
The values of village societies are more related to the balance between man and nature, guaranteed by the intercession of healers. The values of nomadic societies are rather linked to solving the problems of inevitable antagonisms between groups over common territory. Therefore, values are one of the characteristics of culture.
Rules
Norms consist of expectations of how people should behave in various situations. Every culture has methods, called sanctions, to enforce its norms. Penalties vary depending on the importance of the standard. The norms that a society formally imposes have the rank of laws and are characteristic of the culture of that society.
Change
Change in culture has come to mean any innovation that is new and is seen as useful to a group of people and is expressed in their behavior, but does not exist as a physical object. Humanity is in a period of accelerated global cultural change, driven by the expansion of international trade, the media and, above all, the human population explosion, among other factors.
Cultures are internally affected by both factors that promote change and factors that oppose change. These factors are related to both social structures and natural events and are involved in the perpetuation of cultural ideas and practices within current structures, which are themselves subject to change.
Social conflicts and the new technologies that are developed can produce changes within a society by altering social dynamics and promoting new cultural models and stimulating or enabling generative action. These new social parameters may accompany ideological and other types of cultural changes. For example, the American feminist movement involved new practices that produced a change in gender relations, altering economic and gender structures.
Environmental conditions can also enter as factors. For example, after tropical forests returned at the end of the last ice age, plants suitable for domestication became available, leading to the invention of agriculture, which in turn brought with it many cultural innovations and changes in culture. social dynamics.
Characteristics of culture are externally altered through contact between societies, which can also produce or inhibit social changes and changes in cultural practices. Cultural ideas can be transferred from one society to another, through diffusion or acculturation.
In diffusion, the form of something, without necessarily implying its meaning, moves from one culture to another. For example, Western fast-food chains and culinary brands piqued the curiosity and fascination of the Chinese when the country opened its economy to international trade in the late XNUMXth century.
Acculturation has different meanings. Still, in this context, it refers to the replacement of traits from one culture by another, such as what happened to certain Native American tribes and many indigenous peoples around the world during the process of colonization. Related processes at the individual level include the adoption of a different culture by an individual and transculturation. The transnational migration of culture has played an important role in the union of different cultures and in the exchange of thoughts, ideas and beliefs.
Culture and art
One of the characteristics of culture is inseparable from artistic heritage, in the sense that it is an attachment to traditional values. This aspect of culture is much more marked in Europe and Asia than in America and especially in the United States, for obvious historical reasons.
When we talk about heritage, we most often think of built heritage and architecture, but it is also sculpture, painting, music, literature, folklore and language. For several years, UNESCO has developed a program in the direction of intangible heritage for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage with three key actions: the list of intangible heritage in need of urgent safeguarding; the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity; the Registry of Good Safeguarding Practices.
culture and language
Language is probably in human societies, allowing the best way to transmit a culture, both oral and written. An essential system of order through which coping and communication processes take place is language. Language is a symbolic medium that no person invents for himself, but is transmitted to him. Therefore, man may always have had only language as a transmitted behavior.
As a system of signs, language creates a public space that people draw upon when they speak and to which they always respond. If its cultural significance is to be understood, language must not only be seen as a means of communication, but also as fundamentally structuring human understanding of the world.
Cultural diversity
Cultural diversity is the presence of many different cultures, as opposed to cultural uniformity or the disappearance of cultural differences, which, in general, is similar to the decline of culture. Cultural diversity can also mean respect for the characteristics of other cultures. Sometimes the term “cultural diversity” is used to denote the existence of human societies or cultures in specific regions or in the world in general. The term "globalization" often refers to the negative impact on the diversity of the world's cultures.
In addition to the more obvious differences that exist between the characteristics of the culture of peoples, such as language, dress and traditions, there are also very important differences in the way societies organize themselves in their shared conception of morality and in the way they interact with their environment.
By analogy with biodiversity, which is considered essential for the long-term survival of life on Earth, it is possible to argue that cultural diversity can be vital for the long-term survival of humanity and that the preservation of indigenous cultures it can be as important for humanity as the conservation of species and ecosystems for life in general.
This argument is rejected by many people for several reasons: First, like most evolutionary problems in human nature, the importance of cultural diversity for survival may be an untestable theory, one that can neither be proved nor disproved.
Another argument put forward holds that it is unethical to deliberately keep societies less developed, as this will deny people within those societies the benefits of technological and medical advances enjoyed by those in the "developed" world.
As a final point, there are many people, especially those with strong religious beliefs, who claim that it is in the interest of individuals and humanity as a whole, that everyone respect the only model of society that they consider correct.
For example, evangelical fundamentalist missionary organizations such as the "Brazilian New Tribes Mission" actively work to reduce cultural diversity, seeking out remote tribal societies, converting them to their own faith, and inducing them to reshape their society according to its principles.
Heterogeneity of the culture of each society
In any society, high culture (elite) and popular culture (folklore) can be distinguished. In addition, there is a simplified and accessible semantic and artistic mass culture for all. It is capable of displacing both high and popular culture. There are also many subcultures of various social groups in the society.
high culture
Historically, high culture has always been the culture of the leading social class, that is, the nobility. Since the loss of power of the nobility after the French Revolution, attempts have been made to define high culture in terms of content and to combine it with the highest achievements of those who are culturally active and interested. So high culture became the favorite of the educated middle class.
Today, the term mainly refers to music, visual arts, literature, and performing arts (dance, theater). These cultural forms must meet certain aesthetic standards and correspond to applicable educational ideals. Universities since the XNUMXth century have played a decisive role, especially the emerging humanities.
High culture does not necessarily have to include all culturally highly developed areas. In Europe, for example, calligraphy (unlike in Asia), sports, circus arts or crafts are traditionally not included.
Popular culture or folklore
Popular culture or folklore are all collective productions of a people. It encompasses long-standing traditions of the people (material culture, cults, rites, customs, music, art, literature) and is based on tradition between generations that is expressed orally, but may also have been available in written or figurative form for some time.
The characteristics of popular culture or folklore are: Traditionality, generational transmission, understood as a continuity, where new facts are inserted without breaking with the past, building on that past; Dynamism, the changing characteristic, even if it is based on tradition; Functionality, the dynamic context (reason) that originated the fact, not constituting an isolated data.
Collective acceptance must be a generalized practice, which implies a collective identification with the fact, even if it comes from the elites. This criterion does not include the anonymity that often characterizes the folkloric fact and that has been considered an indicator of authenticity, because even if there is an author, as long as the fact is absorbed by popular culture, it must be considered folkloric.
To these can be added the criterion of spontaneity, since the folkloric fact does not arise from government decrees or within scientific laboratories; it is rather a creation that emerged organically within the broader context of the culture of a given community.
mass culture
The characteristics of mass culture or pop culture, is the culture of the majority, the culture of everyday life, entertainment and information that prevail in modern society. It includes phenomena such as the media (including television, radio, and the Internet), sports, film, music, popular literature, the visual arts, etc.
In the modern sense, for example in sociology and cultural studies, mass culture describes phenomena of society as a whole, encompassing almost all cultural branches. Mass culture differs from so-called high culture because of its popular character.
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