Concept of Culture

Introduction
In everyday life, we make use of the term ‘culture’. We speak about it very often in
context to ‘how culture exists’, ‘how culture is changing’ and ‘what are the elements that
represent our culture’. Now let us examine what exactly is ‘culture’.
Culture is all that man learns and acquires by virtue of being a member of society.

Do animals have a culture? Is their culture similar to that of humans?

In the case of animals, their genes play a very important role while in the case of humans,
learning, training and socialization play a more important role than just genes.

Different species of animals can survive only on a restricted diet. Example: Lion cannot
survive on grass. Man can survive on a variety of food items and is not dependent on a restricted
diet.
Animals have to eat in order to survive. But humans in certain situations can refuse
food, for certain hours, days and months. Example: Monks survive only on water or even without
both food and water for months.

This observation proves that man can transcend, to a certain extent, his biological needs
for spiritual and religious reasons but the animals are always rooted in their organismic needs.
Thus, culture intervenes in the satisfaction of biological needs.

In the case of sexual needs, man can deny it for religious, psychological and personal
reasons. This proves that man can control his sexual urge. Nature and culture intervene in the
satisfaction of the sexual urge. Example: Marriage through which this satisfaction is
institutionalized. In addition, humans also have incest taboos. Hence, culture undeniably
intervenes in the satisfaction of the sexual urges of man. However, animals have no taboos.

Both, humans as well as animals adapt to the environment. However, animals have no
external assets; thus, they have solely to depend totally on their biological organs. However,
humans have ‘culture’ which helps in adaptation to the environment. Example: Igloos protect
Eskimos. This is a cultural condition.

There is much more to the relationship between man and environment, other than just
adaptation. Man, not only adapts and adjusts to the environment, but also changes the
environment to suit his needs and preferences. Unlike animals, human beings also have the
ability to change their behaviour in response to a wide range of environmental demands. This
ability in humans is known as plasticity which has allowed humans to survive under a wide
variety of unfavourable ecological conditions.
Definition of Culture
Culture comes from the German word — ‘Kultur’ meaning ‘growing’. ‘Culture’ in social
anthropology means “knowledge”, it is the knowledge about humanity which is learnt or
acquired but not inborn.

Edward Tylor has given one of the oldest and a classical definition of culture as,
“Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and
other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.”

It suggests that culture includes tools, weapons, fire, agriculture, animal domestication,
metallurgy, writing, the steam engine, glasses, airplanes, computers, penicillin, nuclear power,
rock-and-roll, video games, designer jeans, religion, political systems, subsistence patterns,
science, sports and social organizations. For Tylor, culture includes all aspects of human activity:
from the fine arts to popular entertainment, from everyday behaviour to the development of
sophisticated technology. It includes plans, rules, techniques, designs and even the policies made
for better living.

Some of the features of culture are as follows:

(1) Every human group has a culture. It differs from society to society. It also has different
origins, that is, it is marked by uniqueness.
(2) Culture also provides each member of a group with a notion of identity, by telling you who
you are.
(3) Culture gives the person a sense of belongingness which means the person belongs to a
particular group, a particular society. Example – A person may belong to a Chakma community
or a Bengali community.
(4) Culture gives us a sense of pride.
(5) Culture is social as it occurs in a group.
(6) Culture is acquired – it is something man is not born with, but something in which a man is
born into. It is something man learns by virtue of being a member of society.
(7) Culture is learnt through the process of socialization.
(8) Culture is a social heritage – it is a social heritage as it is transmitted by and communicated
to other members of a society. When an individual is born into a society, the social symbols,
artefacts, etc. of his/her culture are passed on to him/her.
(9) Culture is gratifying as it satisfies the needs of its individuals. Example: Need for love and
security is satisfied by the institutions of family and marriage.
(10) Culture tends to be patterned. It involves repeating similar approved behaviour, so that it
has a recognizable form or structure. Example: Religious practices and customs are different in
different communities.
(11) Culture tends to be integrated. It has consistent premises, values or goals which give it
unity. Example: If there is a festival, everyone celebrates irrespective of their caste or religion,
thus culture is helpful in integrating people of different castes and religions.
(12) Culture can be institutionalized, it can exist and represent itself in a set of institutions and
thus enable to create a notion of order. Example: Institutions of family and marriage help people
have a stable and well-defined life.
(13) Culture is a ‘continuum’, which means that cultural traditions have accumulated without
any break in continuity. The structure of culture is transmitted from one generation to the next
and every generation adds, subtracts or changes what it inherits. This aspect of change and
continuity shows that it is a dynamic process and is not stagnant. Example: Marriage, customs
and traditions.
(14) Culture is super-organic, it is above society. People and societies come and go but culture
continues to survive. Culture is therefore super-individual and super-organic.
(15) Culture is symbolic. It has a range of symbols, which represent both: the material world
(dress, food) and non-material world (values, beliefs, customs). Symbols are conceptual devices
used to communicate ideas to people. Example: Different types of flags convey different
meanings to individuals. Culture is symbolic in nature; it includes the capacity to communicate
through symbols. Example: In the Indian society, ‘sindoor’ and ‘mangalsutra’ worn by women
symbolize that they are married.
(16) Culture has the ability to innovate, that is, to create. Example: In music and computers, etc.