What is "Culture"?

Many people have asked me, “So what is culture anyways?” That seems like such a simple question, but in reality it is one of the hairiest questions I have come across. In 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions. With that in mind, here are a few definitions on the web:

• a particular society at a particular time and place; such as "early Mayan civilization"
• the tastes in art and manners that are favored by a social group; “he is a cultured man”
• acculturation: all the knowledge and values shared by a society
• the attitudes and behavior that are characteristic of a particular social group or organization; "the developing drug culture"; "the reason that the agency is doomed to inaction has something to do with the FBI culture".

All are correct, yet none of them encompass everything that the English word, “culture” refers to.

For anthropologists and other behavior scientists, such as sociologists and psychologists, the term “culture” refers specifically to the full range of learned human behavior patterns. The term was first used in this way by the pioneer English Anthropologist Edward B. Tylor in his book, Primitive Culture, published in 1871.  Tylor said that culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." Since Tylor’s time, this concept of culture has been the guiding premise of anthropology, the study of human culture.

Human beings are not born with a full set of instincts like animals, yet we thrive. Many anthropologists believe that culture is the key, the way that each group of humans “fills in the blanks” in our instincts. We are born completely helpless, and over the course of one to two decades of living with our parents, we learn practically everything that we need to know to survive in the world. While many animals teach their young specific skill such as hunting, no animal comes close to the depth and complexity of human culture.

“Culture” can mean many things, but anthropologists generally agree that culture is the full range of learned human behavior patterns.