Culture (Latin: cultura, lit. "cultivation") is a modern concept based on a term first used in classical antiquity by the Roman orator, Cicero: "cultura animi". The term "culture" appeared first in its current sense in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, to connote a process of cultivation or improvement, as in agriculture or horticulture. In the 19th century, the term developed to refer first to the betterment or refinement of the individual, especially through education, and then to the fulfillment of national aspirations or ideals. In the mid-19th century, some scientists used the term "culture" to refer to a universal human capacity. For the German nonpositivist sociologist Georg Simmel, culture referred to "the cultivation of individuals through the agency of external forms which have been objectified in the course of history".
In the 20th century, "culture" emerged as a central concept in anthropology, encompassing the range of human phenomena that cannot be attributed to genetic inheritance. Specifically, the term "culture" in American anthropology had two meanings: (1) the evolved human capacity to classify and represent experiences with symbols, and to act imaginatively and creatively; and (2) the distinct ways that people living in different parts of the world classified and represented their experiences, and acted creatively. Distinctions are currently made between the physical artifacts created by a society, its so-called material culture and everything else, the intangibles such as language, customs, etc. that are the main referent of the term "culture".
Read more about Culture: Etymology, Cultural Change
Other articles related to "culture":
... Yayoi culture quickly spread to the main island of Honshū mixing with native Jōmon culture ... This was possible due to the introduction of an irrigated, wet-rice culture from the Yangtze estuary in southern China via the Ryukyu Islands or Korean Peninsula ...
... The College of Culture and Science is composed of two departments School of Humanities and Social Sciences and Graduate School of Culture and Technology ... The Graduate School of Culture and Technology also provides master and doctoral degree programs for the purpose of producing manpower of the nation’s cultural industry with. 1 research professor, 40 lecturers), the Graduate School of Culture and Technology also has 4 full-time faculties, 5 visiting professors, 7 adjunct professors, and 89 master ...
... following within a particular region or culture if it has some unusual significance to that region or culture ... Another example is the place of The Wizard of Oz (1939) in American and British gay culture, although a widely viewed and historically important film in greater American culture ... Singin' in the Rain is another film adopted by American gay culture which used to regularly be shown during the 1980s and early 1990s for extended runs ...
... The city showcased the power and prestige of Greek rule, and became a seat of learning and culture, centered at the famous Library of Alexandria ... Greek culture did not supplant native Egyptian culture, as the Ptolemies supported time-honored traditions in an effort to secure the loyalty of the populace ...
... illegal, it is often also an integral part of modern popular culture ... Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche himself meditated about the "fight against culture", wondering what could justify culture if it were to be destroyed in such a "senseless" manner (the arguments are ... In this case, culture cannot be legitimised by art achievements, and Nietzsche writes "I {also} know what it means fighting against culture" ...
Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“In society, in the best institutions of men, it is easy to detect a certain precocity. When we should still be growing children, we are already little men. Give me a culture which imports much muck from the meadows, and deepens the soil,—not that which trusts to heating manures, and improved implements, and modes of culture only!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The future is built on brains, not prom court, as most people can tell you after attending their high school reunion. But you’d never know it by talking to kids or listening to the messages they get from the culture and even from their schools.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1953)
“Education must, then, be not only a transmission of culture but also a provider of alternative views of the world and a strengthener of the will to explore them.”
—Jerome S. Bruner (20th century)