Friday, January 25, 2013

My Definition of Culture


          Culture is the way society chooses to act, dress, and think. I believe that culture is rapidly changing, mostly because of the development of new technology that betters society. Additionally, I think it is important to know other societies cultures’ because we can learn a lot on how they faced the same challenges that we continue to face today. Although not all of their cultures succeeded in their purpose, we can still learn from their experience and work to develop our culture in a way that may let it succeed.

          Different authors actually have the same definition of culture. For instance, Mathew Arnold talks about how culture is science and how we as a society strive for perfection. Obviously, science is a way that people think. My definition of culture talks not only about how culture includes what people think, but how to turn their thoughts into ideas that better society. Raymond Williams, founder of cultural studies, even believed in the idea of culture evolving into something different then it was before. Actually, he believed that culture tested itself out. If societies did not grasp the new culture, it would change until the society chose to act, dress, or think using that type of culture. Finally, Arnold is an informative writer who agrees with culture also being a history lesson that society should appreciate. My definition of culture states that society should learn from cultures because those cultures may give better insight into what our current one should be like.

          Culture is complex word to define because it takes on many different meanings. The most important meaning is that it is used to describe a wide range of people that all have something in common. Because culture must be common among a group of people it must evolve so that more people will want to adopt it. History should help shape culture since mistakes should not be made more than once, or what is the importance of history.