The meaning of culture in definition and personal experince.

TOPIC: #1 What is culture/Do I have one?

TITLE: The meaning of culture in definition and personal experience

SOURCE: Personal family experience

RELATION: Conformity and Conflict (Spradley) pp. 3-4
Cultural Anthro (Robbins) pp. 5-7

What exactly is culture, and can it really be defined? I think culture as a concept is easy to explain, for example, James Spradley defines culture in Conformity and Conflict as "the learned and shared knowledge that people use to generate behavior and interpret experience." But to really understand the ideas behind the behavior and interpretations is not as easy as a concise book definition. Richard Robbins says that "humans dwell in worlds that they themselves create by giving meanings to things, events, activities and people," and it is the meaning behind these that shapes specific cultures.

In order to identify what culture is from a inside perspective requires a balance between objectivity and subjectivity. We classify portions of culture that we can see (explicit culture), for example clothing and food. There is also another aspect of culture that is not as obvious, which we call tacit culture. Tacit culture could be small phonemic differences in language. For example, most humans can make a click sound with their tongue (like calling a horse) and it is just that, a sound. However, for the !Kung bushmen, these clicks have a greater meaning, and represent the main part of their language.


My personal culture has had a great influence on the way I see the world. I am a twin, raised by a single mother (father died from alcohalism, and I never knew him at all). This family dynamic has impacted me in that we did not have a strong father figure. My greadfather lives very close by, and so we did get a male influence, but the relationship of a grandparent as opposed to a parent creates a certain amount of distance. For the most part, we have a very small family. We have are a few aunts and cousins living on the east coast, but we do not have strong ties and I personally have only traveled to visit my aunt and uncle in New Jersey once, and haven't had the chance to meet many of my more distant cousins. It was me, my mother and sister in the same house for 22 years, with our grandfather a couple of cities over. My mothers brother married and had two children (my cousins), but after he was diagnosed with ALS his wife decided to leave him, thus we only saw our cousins at Christmastime, and even less after he passed away. So although I am not a religious person, I am very enthusiastic about these holidays. I have no problem participating, although I do not view these days with the same meaning as those who may be more religious. To some they are a representation and celebration of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, but to me these holidays bring the opportunity to be reunited with what little family I have in the area, as well as the nostalgia and excitement of growing up. Christmas eve is usually spent with my cousins (their mother chooses not to participate with our family) and grandfather, and Christmas day with me, my sister and mother, and my grandfather. It feels like celebrating twice to me. This has been the normal family tradition for us for several years. One of the things I enjoy most on Christmas day is that my sister and I still wake up early to dig through our stockings, before passing out again until our grandfather arrives. as childish as it may see to others, it is tradition for us.

I would say this Holiday although explicit to the Christian religion is more tacit to me, as it is more of a feeling than a practice. I still plan to celebrate with my children should I decide to have any, and so their knowledge of what Christmas really is will be different from other point of view. I find a subtle difference sometimes in what is explicit and what is tacit, which again shows that some aspects of culture prove very difficult to define.