'''Cultura''', care vine de la cuvântul latin ''colere'' ce se traduce prin "a cultiva"/"a onora" se referă în general la activitate umană. Definiţia UNESCO considera cultura drept "o serie de caracteristici distincte a unei societăţi sau grupă socială în termeni spirituali, materiali, intelectuali sau emoţionali".

Cultura reprezintă o moştenire ce se transmite cu ajutorul codurilor de comunicaţie specifice cum sunt gesturile ori cuvintele, scrisul şi artele, mass media (presa, radioul, televiziunea), media interactivă (telefonul). În acelaşi fel se transmit gesturile, ritualurile, cunoştinţele teoretice, normele abstracte, religia. Cultura poate fi însuşita prin diverse forme ale memoriei subiective (reflexe, cuvinte, imagini) dar şi prin intermediul memoriei obiective(obiecte, peisaje,cărţi, numere, reguli).

Uzul popular al cuvântului cultură în multe societăţi occidentale poate reflecta chiar caracterul stratificat al acelor societăţi. Mulţi folosesc acest cuvânt pentru a desemna bucătăria, arta sau muzica. Alţi folosesc eticheta de "cultură înaltă" pentru a o distinge pe aceasta de cultura "joasă", desemnând toate bunurile de consum care nu aparţin acestei elite. 

==Definiţii istorice==

Teoreticienii culturii din secolul al optsprezecelea şi începutul secolului al 19-lea şi foarte mulţi dintre cei de azi identifică cultura şi civilizaţia pe care adesea le opun naturii. Astfel oamenilor cărora le lipsesc semnele culturii înalte par adesea mai naturali şi observatorii critică sau dimpotrivă apără elementele culturii înalte care ar inhiba "natura umană". 

La sfârşitul secolului al XIX-lea antropologii au propus o definiţie mai amplă a culturii, definiţie care să poată fi aplicată mai multor tipuri de societăţi. Ei au definit cultura drept natura umană şi au observat că aceasta îşi are rădăcinile în capacitatea universal umană de a clasifica experienţele, de a le codifica şi de a comunica simbolic. În consecinţă, societăţile izolate dezvoltă culturi propri, originale, dar componente ale  diferitelor culturi locale se pot răspândi cu uşurinţă  de la o comunitate la alta.

Noua disciplină, denumită Antropologie culturală trebuia să găsească definiţii ale culturii care să poată fi utilizate atât metodologic cât şi teoretic. Antropologii fac distincţie între cultura materială şi cea simbolică nu doar pentru că fiecare reflectă tipuri diferite de activitate umană, ci mai ales pentru că ele alcătuiesc corpusuri de date diferite care cer diferite metodologii.

Un alt mod comun de înţelegere a culturii este prin definirea acesteia în funcţie de părţile ei componente: Valori (idei), Norme (comportamente), şi Artefacte (lucruri, sau părţi ale culturii materiale). 

Valorile sunt idei despre ceea ce poate fi important în viaţă. Ele ghidează restul culturii. Normele sunt expectaţii ale comportamentului diferit al oamenilor în diferite situaţii. Fiecare cultură are metode diferite (sancţiuni) pentru a-şi impune normele. Sancţiunile variază şi ele în funcţie de importanţa normei. Normele cele mai importante formalizate de sancţiuni se numesc legi. Artefactele derivă din valorile culturale şi din norme.

De regulă, arheologii se concentrează asupra culturii materiale, iar antropologii culturali asupra celei simbolice, cu toate că ambele grupuri sunt interesate de interacţiunea celor două domenii. În plus, antropologii înţeleg prin cultură nu doar bunuri de consum, ci şi procesul de producere al acestora; ei dau un sens atât bunurilor de consum, cât şi relaţiilor sociale sau practice generate de acestea. 

La începutul secolului al XX lea antropolgii înţelegeau prin cultură nu doar un set de activităţi sau procese separate ci şi modele, pattern-uri ale acestor produse sau activităţi. În plus, ei presupuneau că asemenea modele aveau graniţe clare, astfel încât oamenii confundau cultura cu societatea care le producea. 

În societăţile mai mici în care oamenii intră în relaţii de vârstă, gen, familie sau grup de descendenţă, antropologii cred că oamenii au mai mult sau mai puţin acelaşi set de convenţii şi valori. De aceea, s-a folosit termenul de subcultură pentru a identifica culturile care sunt parte a unei categorii integratoare. Deoarece acestea reflectă poziţia unui segment al societăţii faţă de celelalte segmente şi faţă de întregul ei, adesea revelează procese de dominaţie şi rezistenţă.

==Subiecte apropiate==

Studiile culturale au apărut la sfârşitul secolului al XX-lea prin reintroducerea gândirii marxiste în sociologie şi prin articularea unei teorii sociologice în domeniul criticii sau teoriei literare cu scopul de a se concentra asupra analiziei subculturilor în societăţile capitaliste.  

Azi antropologii şi-au concentrat cercetările asupra proiectului studiilor culturale. Majoritatea resping însă identificarea culturii cu bunurile de consum şi noţiunea unei culturi cu graniţe, stratificată, deci implicit şi pe cea de subcultură. În locul ei, se propune modelul unei reţele complexe de pattern-uri variabile, care leagă oamenii aflaţi în poziţii diferite sau formaţiile sociale aflate pe scări diferite. Potrivit acestei idei, fiecare grup îşi poate construi o identitate culturală proprie. 

Un sistem cultural (sau mai simplu spus o cultură) poate fi considerat ca făcând parte dintr-un sistem social şi este ierarhic similar unui sistem economic, politic sau legal.

==Culturi ale unor ţări==

*Australiană 
*Belgiană
*Braziliană 
*Canadiană
*Chineză
*Egipteană
*Estonă
*Finlandeză 
*Franceză 
*Indiană 
*Indonesiană
*Iraniană
*Italiană
*Japoneză
*Mexicană
*Olandeză
*Portugheză
*Britanică

Vezi Antropologie Culturală/Socială

 

ay:Yati

bat-smg:Koltūra

'''Culture''' (from the Latin ''cultura'' stemming from ''colere'', meaning "to cultivate")<ref>Harper, Douglas (2001). [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=culture Online Etymology Dictionary].</ref> generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. Cultures can be "understood as systems of symbols and meanings that even their creators contest, that lack fixed boundaries, that are constantly in flux, and that interact and compete with one another"<ref>Findley, Carther Vaughn and John Alexander Rothney (2006). ''Twentieth-century World.'' Sixth edition, p. 14. ISBN 978-0618522637.</ref>

Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society."<ref>Williams, Raymond. ''Keywords'', "Culture"</ref> As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, norms of behavior such as law and morality, and systems of belief as well as the art.

Cultural anthropologists most commonly use the term "culture" to refer to the universal human capacity and activities to classify, codify and communicate their experiences materially and primatologists have identified aspects of culture such as learned tool making and use among humankind's closest relatives in the animal kingdom).<ref>Goodall, J. 1986. ''The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior.''</ref>
thumb|200px|right|''Farhang'' culture has always been the focal point of Iranian [[civilization. Painting of Persian women musicians from ''Hasht-Behesht Palace'' ("Palace of the 8 heavens.")]]
right|200px|thumb|[[Ancient Egyptian art.]]

==Culture concept(s)==
===Culture and anthropology===
thumb|150px|left|Nineteeth century anthropologist [[Edward Tylor was one of the first English-speaking scholars to use the term culture in anthropology.]]
Culture is manifested in human artifacts and activities such as music, literature, lifestyle, food, painting and sculpture, theater and film.<ref name="Williams">Raymond Williams (1976) ''Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society''. Rev. Ed. (NewYork: Oxford UP, 1983), pp. 87-93 and 236-8.</ref> Although some scholars identify culture in terms of consumption and consumer goods (as in high culture, low culture, folk culture, or popular culture),<ref>John Berger, Peter Smith Pub. Inc., (1971) ''Ways of Seeing''</ref> anthropologists understand "culture" to refer not only to consumption goods, but to the general processes which produce such goods and give them meaning, and to the social relationships and practices in which such objects and processes become embedded. For them, culture thus includes art, science, as well as moral systems.

Various definitions of culture reflect differing theories for understanding, or criteria for evaluating, human activity. Writing from the perspective of social anthropology in the UK, Tylor in 1874 described culture in the following way: "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."<ref>Tylor, E.B. 1874. ''Primitive culture: researches into the development of mythology, philosophy, religion, art, and custom''.</ref>'''

More recently, the United Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) (2002) described culture as follows: "... culture should be regarded as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, and that it encompasses, in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs".<ref>UNESCO. 2002. [http://www.unesco.org/education/imld_2002/unversal_decla.shtml] Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity.</ref>

While these two definitions cover a range of meaning, they do not exhaust the many uses of the term "culture." In 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in ''Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions''.<ref>Kroeber, A. L. and C. Kluckhohn, 1952. ''Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions.''</ref>

These definitions, and many others, provide a catalog of the elements of culture. The items cataloged (e.g., a law, a stone tool, a marriage) each have an existence and life-line of their own. They come into space-time at one set of coordinates and go out of it another. While here, they change, so that one may speak of the evolution of the law or the tool.

A culture, then, is by definition at least, a set of cultural objects. Anthropologist Leslie White asked: "What sort of objects are they? Are they physical objects? Mental objects? Both? Metaphors? Symbols? Reifications?" In ''Science of Culture'' (1949), he concluded that they are objects "''sui generis''"; that is, of their own kind. In trying to define that kind, he hit upon a previously unrealized aspect of symbolization, which he called "the symbolate"—an object created by the act of symbolization. He thus defined culture as "symbolates understood in an extra-somatic context."<ref>White, L. 1949. ''The Science of Culture: A study of man and civilization.''</ref> The key to this definition is the discovery of the symbolate.

===Culture as civilization===
thumb|200px|right|The famous "El Castillo" (The castle), formally named "Temple of Kukulcan", in the archeological city of Chichén-Itzá, in the state of Yucatán, Mexico.
Many people have an idea of "culture" that developed in Europe during the 18th and early 19th centuries. This notion of culture reflected inequalities within European societies, and between European powers and their colonies around the world. It identifies "culture" with "the Leavisites regard culture as simply the result of "the best that has been thought and said in the world.”<ref name=anarchy>Arnold, Matthew. 1869. [http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/nonfiction_u/arnoldm_ca/ca_all.html ''Culture and Anarchy.'']</ref> Arnold contrasted mass/popular culture with social chaos or anarchy. On this account, culture links closely with social cultivation: the progressive refinement of human behavior. Arnold consistently uses the word this way: "...culture being a pursuit of our total perfection by means of getting to know, on all the matters which most concern us, the best which has been thought and said in the world."<ref name=anarchy />

In practice, ''culture'' referred to élite activities such as classical music, and the word ''cultured'' described people who knew about, and took part in, these activities. These are often called "ruling social group,<ref>Bakhtin 1981, p.4</ref> to distinguish them from mass culture or popular culture.

From the 19th century onwards, some social authentic unblemished lives, uncomplicated and uncorrupted by the highly-stratified capitalist systems of the West.

Today most social scientists reject the nature. They recognize non-élites as just as cultured as élites (and non-Westerners as just as civilized)&mdash;simply regarding them as just cultured in a different way.

Williams<ref>Williams (1983), p.90. Cited in Shuker, Roy (1994). ''Understanding Popular Music'', p.5. ISBN 0-415-10723-7.</ref> argues that contemporary definitions of culture fall into three possibilities or mixture of the following three:
*"a general process of intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic development"
*"a particular way of life, whether of a people, period, or a group"
*"the works and practices of intellectual and especially artistic activity".

===Culture as worldview===
During the Romantic era, scholars in nationalist movements — such as the nationalist struggle to create a "Germany" out of diverse principalities, and the nationalist struggles by ethnic minorities against the worldview." In this mode of thought, a distinct and incommensurable worldview characterizes each ethnic group. Although more inclusive than earlier views, this approach to culture still allowed for distinctions between "civilized" and "primitive" or "tribal" cultures.

By the late 19th century, anthropologists had adopted and adapted the term ''culture'' to a broader definition that they could apply to a wider variety of societies. Attentive to the theory of resistance.

In the 1950s, workplace.

===Culture as symbols===
thumb|200px|An album leaf painting by [[Ming Dynasty|Ming artist Chinese viewed painting as a key element of high culture.]]
The symbolic view of culture, the legacy of Clifford Geertz (1973) and Victor Turner (1967), holds symbols to be both the practices of social actors and the context that gives such practices meaning. Anthony P. Cohen (1985) writes of the "symbolic gloss" which allows social actors to use common symbols to communicate and understand each other while still imbuing these symbols with personal significance and meanings.<ref>Cohen, A. 1985. ''The Symbolic Construction of Community.''</ref> Symbols provide the limits of cultured thought. Members of a culture rely on these symbols to frame their thoughts and expressions in intelligible terms. In short, symbols make culture possible, reproducible and readable. They are the "webs of significance" in Weber's sense that, to quote Pierre Bourdieu (1977), "give regularity, unity and systematics to the practices of a group."<ref>Bourdieu, P. 1977. ''Outline of a Theory of Practice.''</ref> Thus, for example:

*''"Stop, in the name of the law!"''—Stock phrase uttered to the antagonists by the sheriff or marshal in 20th century American Old Western films
*''Law and order''—stock phrase in the United States
*''Peace and order''—stock phrase in the Philippines
*''Ordnung muss sein / Order must be'' — stock phrase in the Germany, Austria

==Cultures within a society==
Large societies often have race, class, or occupational, political, sexual, or a combination of these factors.

In dealing with immigrant groups and their cultures, there are various approaches:

* Leitkultur (core culture): A model developed in Germany by Bassam Tibi. The idea is that minorities can have an identity of their own, but they should at least support the core concepts of the culture on which the society is based.
* Melting Pot: In the United States, the traditional view has been one of a melting pot where all the immigrant cultures are mixed and amalgamated without state intervention.
* Monoculturalism: In some European states, culture is very closely linked to nationalism, thus government policy is to assimilate immigrants, although recent increases in migration have led many European states to experiment with forms of multiculturalism.
* Multiculturalism: A policy that immigrants and others should preserve their cultures with the different cultures interacting peacefully within one nation.

The way nation states treat immigrant cultures rarely falls neatly into one or another of the above approaches.  The degree of difference with the host culture (i.e., "foreignness"), the number of immigrants, attitudes of the resident population, the type of government policies that are enacted, and the effectiveness of those policies all make it difficult to generalize about the effects. Similarly with other subcultures within a society, attitudes of the mainstream population and communications between various cultural groups play a major role in determining outcomes.  The study of cultures within a society is complex and research must take into account a myriad of variables.

==Cultures by region==

Regional cultures of the world occur both by migration, technologies. Thus, culture is dependent on communication. Local cultures change rapidly  with new communications and transportation technologies that allow for greater movement of people and ideas between cultures.<ref>Devyani Mani [http://www.uncrd.or.jp/hs/doc/02a_mani_culture.pdf "Culture as a Key Element of Human Security"]. United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD). Retrieved on: July 15, 2008</ref>

==Belief systems==

thumb|left|250px|The main entrance to the [[Angkor Wat temple proper, seen from the eastern end of the Naga causeway. Founded in the 12th century, the temple appears today on the flag of Cambodia.]]
Religion and other belief systems are often integral to a culture. Religion, from the Latin ''religare,'' meaning "to bind fast", is a feature of cultures throughout human history. The ''Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion'' defines religion in the following way:

<blockquote>... an institution with a recognized body of communicants who gather together regularly for worship, and accept a set of doctrines offering some means of relating the individual to what is taken to be the ultimate nature of reality.<ref>Reese, W.L. 1980. ''Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion: Eastern and Western Thought,'' page 488.</ref></blockquote>

Religion often codifies behavior, such as with the five precepts of Buddhism.  Sometimes it is involved with government, as in a theocracy. It also influences arts.  

Western culture spread from Europe most strongly to Australia, Canada, and the United States. It is influenced by ancient Greece, ancient Rome and Christianity.  Western culture tends to be more individualistic than non-Western cultures.  It also sees man, god, and nature or the universe more separately than non-Western cultures.  It is marked by economic wealth, literacy, and technological advancement, although these traits are not exclusive to it.

===Abrahamic religions===
Judaism is one of the first, recorded monotheistic faiths and one of the oldest religious traditions still practiced today.  The values and history of the Jewish people are a major part of the foundation of other Abrahamic religions such as Christianity, Islam, as well as the Bahá'í Faith.  However, while sharing a heritage from Abraham each has distinct arts (visual and performance arts and the like).  Of course some of these are regional influences among the nations the religions are present in, but there are some norms or forms of cultural expression distinctly emphasized by the religions.

Christianity has been important to European and New World cultures for at least the last 500 to 1,700 years.  Modern philosophical thought has very much been influenced by Christian philosophers such as St. Thomas Aquinas and Erasmus and Christian Cathedrals have been noted as architectural wonders like Notre Dame de Paris, Wells Cathedral, and Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral.

Islam has had influence over much of the North African, Middle and Far East regions for almost 1,500 years, sometimes mixed with other religions.  For example, Islam's influence can be seen in diverse philosophies such as The Madman of Layla, The Conference of the Birds, and the Masnavi in addition to art and architecture such as the Umayyad Mosque, Dome of the Rock, Faisal Mosque, and the many styles of Arabesque. Judaism and the Bahá'í faiths are usually minority religions among the nations but still have made distinctive contributions to the cultures of the nations and regions.

The mainstream anthropological view of ‘culture’ implies that most people experience a strong resistance when reminded that there is an animal as well as a spiritual aspect to human nature.<ref name="AnthropologyTodayApr07">Jonathan Benthall ''[http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8322.2007.00494.x Animal liberation and rights]'' ''Anthropology Today'' Volume 23 Issue 2 Page 1 - April 2007</ref>

===Eastern religion and philosophy===

thumb|A statue in [[Bangalore, India depicting Siva meditating.]]
Philosophy and religion are often closely interwoven in Eastern thought.  Many Asian religious and philosophical traditions originated in India and China and spread across Asia through Mahāyāna branch of which spread north and eastwards from India into Tibet, China, Mongolia, Japan, and Korea and south from China into Vietnam. Theravāda Buddhism spread throughout Southeast Asia, including Sri Lanka, parts of southwest China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand.

statecraft and the arts throughout Asia. Sikhism, founded in India during the 16th and 17th centuries, is a monotheistic religion with a belief in one, universal, non-anthropomorphic God.

During the 20th century, in the two most populous countries of Asia, two dramatically different political philosophies took shape. communist philosophy became a powerful secular belief system in China. Increasingly Christianity is gaining a foothold in Chinese culture, developing heretofore unforeseen changes in both Christianity and Chinese culture.

===Folk religions===

Folk religions practiced by tribal groups are common in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.  Their influence can be considerable; may pervade the culture and even become the state religion, as with Shintō.  Like the other major religions, folk religion answers human needs for reassurance in times of trouble, healing, averting misfortune, and providing rituals that address the major passages and transitions in human life.

===The "American Dream"===
The gain a better life.<ref>Boritt, Gabor S. ''Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream,'' p. 1.</ref> This notion is rooted in the belief that the United States is a "city upon a hill, a light unto the nations,"<ref>Ronald Reagan. [http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1989/011489a.htm "Final Radio Address to the Nation"].</ref> which were values held by many early European settlers and maintained by subsequent generations.