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":
... 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 ...
... 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 support of the Ministry. 13 visiting professors, 1 research professor, 40 lecturers), the Graduate School of Culture and Technology also has 4 full-time faculties, 5 visiting professors, 7 ...
... Yayoi culture quickly spread to the main island of Honshū mixing with native Jōmon culture ... due to the introduction of an irrigated, wet-rice culture from the Yangtze estuary in southern China via the Ryukyu Islands or Korean Peninsula ...
... of a cult following within a particular region or culture if it has some unusual significance to that region or culture ... 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 ... is another film adopted by American gay culture which used to regularly be shown during the 1980s and early 1990s for extended runs ...
... Though vandalism in itself is illegal, it is often also an integral part of modern popular culture ... Friedrich Nietzsche himself meditated about the "fight against culture", wondering what could justify culture if it were to be destroyed in such a "senseless ... 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:
“There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“Here in the U.S., culture is not that delicious panacea which we Europeans consume in a sacramental mental space and which has its own special columns in the newspapers—and in people’s minds. Culture is space, speed, cinema, technology. This culture is authentic, if anything can be said to be authentic.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“There is something terribly wrong with a culture inebriated by noise and gregariousness.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)