Culture is the cumulative deposit of beliefs, attitudes, values, habits, customs, and traditions that make up a group’s way of life. It includes all social and behavioral practices, values and beliefs, notions of time, roles, relationships, space, and a group’s ideas and concepts of the universe.
It is a system of beliefs and behavior that a person or group has acquired through social learning. A person or group may acquire their culture from their parents, community, religion, education, or environment. The concept of cultural has been used to describe a range of aspects of human activity, including the arts, education, cuisines, customs and traditions, music, and social and behavioral norms and rules. It has also been used to describe the overall atmosphere or feeling that is created by a particular group.
The term has been applied to the various disciplines of anthropology, sociology, and history. It is a development in historical research which seeks to respond to the perceived rigidity of the pre-social history narratives and asserts the relevance, if not primacy, of perspectives, foci, and agency that would have been viewed as peripheral at best and ridiculous at worst. It includes studies of gender, more focused race studies, and a whole range of other subjects that were previously considered trite at most.
Historically, the concept of culture has been contrasted with the state of nature as defined by philosophers Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It has been used to distinguish civilizations from less complex societies, and to classify some cultures as superior to others.
A person’s culture is a reflection of his or her worldview, beliefs, and values. It is the basis for how a person sees his or her place in the universe, and it shapes the way that person thinks, feels, wishes, values, and behaves. People can have different perceptions of the same culture, and these differences can lead to conflict.
It is impossible to define a culture completely, and the term can be interpreted in many ways. It can be used to describe a particular area of the world, such as Western culture, Middle Eastern culture or Chinese culture. It can also be used to describe a particular social class or ethnicity, such as the “high culture” of the upper classes and the “low culture” of the working class.
It is important for an enterprise to develop a level of cultural awareness because the more a company expands outward into global markets, the more it needs to understand how different cultures perceive its activities and products. Understanding these differences can help to avoid miscommunications and misunderstandings that could lead to problems and lost sales. In addition, it can be helpful to build a culture of diversity and inclusion by encouraging employees to participate in cultural activities, such as participating in a local festival or attending an international conference. Developing cultural awareness can help to foster better business connections around the world and increase overall success.