© Peter S. Morris, All rights reserved.
According to Raymond Williams, "Culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language." Williams came to this conclusion after researching the enormous variety of definitions and meanings that this word has carried during its history in English and other European languages. Therefore, any attempt to perfectly define the word culture is a futile exercise. Since the idea of culture is central to the study of geography, however, we need to at least arrive at a general agreement in this course over what we mean by this term. Here goes: Culture is the sum of learned behavior and beliefs practiced by groups of human beings and their members.
Historical Evolution of Culture's Meaning
Culture derives from the Latin root colere, which basically means to tend, or to cultivate. Thus, culture was originally a noun of process geared to describing the fostering of the growth of something, especially a plant or an animal (e.g., Julius Caesar was an expert in the culture of olives).
During the 16th century in England, this notion of culture as the tending of the growth of something was applied to the development of human beings, especially the mind or intellect of an individual. Still a noun of process, culture was somewhat analogous to the process of education (e.g., Reading Shakespeare is a necessary component in the culture of one's mind). By the 19th century this notion of culture as a process of growth and development had expanded to include entire societies, as well as individuals. Specifically, culture was seen as something that not every one or every society had obtained, and the various societies and nations of the world could thus be ranked according to how cultured they were. Reflecting the egotism of imperial Britain, English society was seen as being the most cultured society in the world; to become cultured, one needed to possess a knowledge of the arts, letters, and sciences of the "Western" world (e.g., British colonialism has brought culture to the people of India).
The 20th century saw the notion of culture become greatly altered. No longer do most people see the world as having only one culture, which individuals and groups possess in varying quantities. Rather, we now see the world as containing multiple cultures. In fact, every group has its own culture or "way of life," often including multiple subcultures (e.g., Carl Sauer, a geographer who was the product of Midwestern American culture, spent much of his career studying the cultures of Latin America).
Final Comments
I have taken the time to lay out this linguistic history in an effort to prevent any confusion that may exist over what we mean in this class about culture or cultural geography. After all, my 1990 Webster's Desk Dictionary still defines culture in the 19th-century sense. Specifically, it states that culture is "a particular stage of civilization," with civilization being defined as "an advanced state of human society in which a high level of culture and science has been reached." This is not what we mean by culture in this class. Instead, we take culture to mean the way of life of a particular group of people. Four things, in particular, should be kept in mind.
Culture applies to groups. The behaviors and beliefs of a single person do not constitute a unique culture. Instead, culture is a concept shared by multiple people, although not necessarily as a so-called ethnic or national group. In fact, an individual may belong to multiple cultures simultaneously. For example, one may belong to both the "corporate culture" of his/her place of employment, as well as his/her national culture. Think, for example, of the many cultures or subcultures that one might use to describe an espresso-drinking, mountain-bike riding, part-time musician, full-time Microsoft employee with genealogical ties to northern Italy and South Korea, and family living in San Diego.
Culture is learned. Earlier, I defined culture as the sum of learned behavior. Behaviors that are instinctual or innate are not elements of a particular culture. For example, the mere fact that people eat is not part of culture, but the particular types of food that a group of people eat, and the methods used to obtain, prepare, and consume that food, are indeed a major component of that group's culture.
Culture includes beliefs, values, and ideas, as well as material artifacts and behaviors. For example, the beliefs in private property and the freedom of the individual to succeed (or fail) on his/her own without outside interference is as much a part of American culture as are "Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie, and Chevrolet"—to quote a popular advertising campaign from the 1970s.
Culture changes over time. No culture is static. Rather, all cultures are constantly evolving, albeit at different speeds, in response both to contact with the ideas, technologies, and practices of other cultures, and to innovations that may arise within the culture. This cultural evolution, and the diffusion of ideas between different cultures, is a major theme of human geography.