Cultural refers to a wide range of intangible aspects of social life, including values, beliefs, systems of communication, food, music and art. A group’s culture serves to define its members as a collective and foster the development of unique characteristics that are used to distinguish its society from others. It may also serve as a mechanism for power and dominance, but it can also be a force for liberation and creativity.
Any functioning group of relating humans has a culture. This includes families, classrooms, school districts, universities, professional associations, types of organizations, ethnic communities, nations and supra-national bodies. In the past, academic historians have tended to divide culture into various categories and to define it as a particular set of values and traditions. The anthropological approach to culture has broader definitions that encompass a greater range of social patterns.
A key element of the anthropological approach is that it focuses on human behaviors and interactions, rather than examining individual traits. This perspective allows historians to look at the way different cultures are characterized by a combination of variables such as in-group and out-group collectivism, institutional and structural forms of power and authority, and human orientation.
Historians who embrace this broader perspective on culture tend to be interested in exploring both short-term events and long-term processes. This new understanding of the importance of culture has led to a number of significant reinterpretations of historical moments and long-term developments.
For example, many of the earliest practitioners of cultural history were concerned with the impact of religion on political and social life in early modern Europe. One of the most influential of these was British scholar and poet Matthew Arnold, who interpreted the term “culture” as the cultivation of the humanistic ideal. More recently, scholars such as David Sabean and Carlo Ginzburg have reinterpreted the history of religious conflicts as a debate between cultural values rather than between competing theological doctrines.
Another important aspect of the new cultural history is its emphasis on language as a vitally important cultural force. This perspective reflects the work of Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, who defined language as the system of signs that enables humans to communicate with each other. New cultural historians are also likely to be interested in the ways that a particular language shapes individual perception and consciousness.
The new cultural history also places a renewed emphasis on the concept of semiotics. This approach, pioneered by French sociologist Georges Canguilhem and American philosopher Jacques Derrida, examines the ways that meanings are constructed and conveyed through symbols in particular contexts. It allows scholars to examine how cultural factors can interact with and be shaped by underlying economic or other environmental factors. This view of the interplay between cultural and other forces has made it possible to re-link anthropological and sociological studies of culture with the long tradition of textual analysis. It has also allowed historians to consider the role of culture in processes such as globalization and acculturation.