The Concept of Culture - Essay Example

Culture
Culture is a paradigm that revolves around the social group of an individual which has been adopted from societies before. It is all the material that has been transferred from one generation to the next. Edward Tylor in 1871 defined culture as "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities acquired by man as a member of society" (Riley 2007). In other words, it revolves around all the customs and knowledge that a society possesses. Some even go to the extent of saying that culture forms a society. Culture in one society differs from the other depending upon the generation which left the culture behind. Culture nowadays is somewhat adapted from previous generations but it is now being diversified as globalization in this world is prevailing. Because of the diversity that exists in the world today, it has been found that culture from one country is spreading to the other country. Moreover, with the help of media and electronic means, different forms of culture in one society are being adopted by the other society (Sklair 1995; Harris 2009)

American society, for example, may include people speaking English, Latin, and French whereas, on the other hand, a society from the third world country of Pakistan would normally use the languages of Urdu, Sindhi, and Punjabi (Harris 2009). Here language can be used to denote the culture of these two societies which have been learned from one generation to the next. Culture is not a revelation from God but is rather learned and adopted from the previous generations. It is seen that a child born in the third world country of Afghanistan can move to the United States and adopt the culture there irrespective of the fact that he was born in Afghanistan. A process through which culture is transferred from one group to the other by generation is known as enculturation. Mostly this culture is adopted after seeing elders and media which is now playing an important role in spreading the culture of the society. It is seen that culture is not specified to a single group of the society but it is spread all over a single society. A society in the United States would include people who know all the gestures and language which is being used widely in it. In other words, the culture in these societies is shared amongst different people of different ethnicity (Hannerz 1992). Ethnicity not always forms a culture but here again, it can be said that the ethnicity of an individual plays an important role in the adoption of culture. An individual born in the jungles would know the symbols and language used in the jungles only whereas an individual born in the city would know the culture of the city. In cultural studies, it can be helpful to analyze a culture before giving out a conclusion on the people belonging to that culture so that their way of living is clearly known to the anthropologist (Cohen 2004; Sklair 1995).

Culture cannot be compared to the behaviors of the individual living in the society as behaviors of an individual depend on the individual himself. An individual can learn culture but his behavior about certain things is crafted by his own will. It has also been noted that cultural studies can never remain the same because of the changing nature of the culture. Culture can be formed or adopted by different kinds of actions. Women who previously wanted to become home workers now prefer to be workers. In other words, culture can be determined by the norms of the society as they exist at a particular instance. In cultural studies, it can be analyzed that individuals do adopt culture from their previous generation but at some instances of their lives, they may have differing opinions on certain aspects from their previous generation. This again involves the complex patterns of behavior that one might follow in order to change the existing culture. For example, people from previous generations may not consider it a big deal to kill endangered species whereas a generation from the current society may consider it wrong to kill that species. As cultures are being changed all over the world with the help of different vehicles it is seen that the cultures of different societies are being amalgamated. Culture in some studies has been referred to as dynamic because of its changing nature (Sklair 1995; Ahmed 1999).

Culture is a complex pattern of knowledge that has been adopted from the previous generations in the societies. It is this culture that helps to determine the identity of individuals existing in the society. Cultural studies use different approaches to culture to find out about the individuals and how they react in certain situations. Nowadays it is seen that culture is being widely adopted in different societies and it is being amalgamated because of the increased globalization pattern in the world.  Culture constitutes all the factors that help an individual to be identified in reference to his society. His language, gestures, and symbols all constitute the culture that he belongs to (Sklair 1995; Ahmed 1999).