What is Culture?
Culture is the shared values, norms, symbols, language, objects, and way of life that is passed on from one generation to the next.
Culture is what we learn from our parents, family, friends, peers, and schools. It is learned and not biologically determined. In other words, you are born with drives, not culture. We need drives in order to survive.
Humans have biological drives, which are the innate urges that require some action on our part if we are to survive.
Drives include: the need to urinate, breathe, eat, drink, and sleep. However, culture comes into play when you think about how we do these things. Consider the way your home looks compared to homes in another state or country. Consider the way your family prepares meals compared to the way someone in a different country prepares meals. Drives exist in everyone, but culture varies.
Here is another example:
Whether we choose to urinate in an enclosed bathroom, behind a tree, or out in public depends as much on our cultural traditions as it does on our biology.
Likewise, we may eat ground beef, snails, worms, fermented cabbage, fish eggs, or animal lard depending on our cultural assumptions. If your culture teaches you that snails are tasty, then you're likely to follow those cultural traditions.
Culture can be divided into five main components.
1. Physical Objects (Material Culture)
2. Symbols (Non-material culture)
3. Language (Non-material culture)
4. Values (Non-material culture)
5. Norms (Non-material culture)
