Culture: A Definition
Edward Tylor’s 1871 definition of culture:
Culture or Civilization, taken in its wide
ethnographic sense, is that complex whole
which includes knowledge, belief, art,
morals, law, custom, and any other
capabilities and habits acquired by man as a
member of society.
Commonly accepted modern definition:
Learned, shared behavior.
Other takes:
Lewis Binford (Leslie White): “Man’s extrasomatic
means of adaptation.” 1968
Clifford Geertz: "... an historically transmitted pattern of
meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited
conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of
which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop
their knowledge about and attitudes toward life“ 1973
The Norm concept of behavior
 Derived from
“normal.”
 A statistical
concept.
 Corresponds to
“real culture.”
 Folkways and
mores.
The value concept
 Commonly held standards of behavior.
 Often cannot be explicitly articulated by actors except
when passing judgment on others. Therefore it is an
internal (mental or cognitive) standard.
 Corresponds to “ideal culture.”
 Often confused semantically with the belief concept.
Example:
In 2004, a law was
implemented
banning headscarves
from French public
schools.
The “law of secularity
and conspicuous
religious symbols”
Points of justification:
Headscarves violated the legally
enshrined French values of:
 Laïcité “secularity”
 Francité “Frenchness”
 Egalité “Equality”
One should be able to express a value with
a minimum of terms.
Beliefs: colonics
Some Categories of Beliefs
 Pollution beliefs.
 Numerology.
 Religious Cosmology.
 Cosmography.
 Conspiracy theories (911, Kennedy
assassination, Illuminati, Freemasons,
etc.).
 Animism and animatism.
Examples of beliefs from the media:
 It is possible to catch an arrow in f light.
 It is possible to duck a shoulder-launched
missile or rocket-propelled grenade.
 Serial killers are always White (and
intelligent).
 Divorces are most often initiated by men for
the purpose of dumping their old wife for a
young hottie.
 Trafficking in women for sex is rampant in the
US.
Three Levels of Cultural Analysis
What People Think They Do
What People Say They Do
What People Actually Do