What is Culture?

Culture is defined as a system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts transmitted through learning across generations. A skit demonstrates that tools, like a fishing rod versus a power drill, are learned and passed down as appropriate for specific tasks, illustrating that if something isn't learned, it isn't culture.

Culture is an attribute of individuals as members of groups, meaning it is shared. A humorous example of parents telling their children to eat their vegetables by referencing starving children highlights the shared cultural values and historical perspectives within a family group.

Culture is symbolic, meaning it uses verbal or non-verbal symbols that arbitrarily represent something else without a necessary or natural connection. The video provides examples of symbolic gestures (emblems) and explains that language itself is a symbol system, emphasizing that symbolic thought is unique to humans and crucial for cultural learning.

Anthropologists define culture broadly to include features often considered trivial, as the most significant cultural forces are those affecting daily life and particularly children during enculturation. This broad view considers even seemingly small aspects as part of a culture's scope.

Cultures are integrated, organized around a set of core values. New ideas that do not align with these core values are often rejected. A skit depicts a clash between a missionary trying to introduce a new religion and indigenous people who reject it because its values and concepts do not fit with their existing, integrated way of life and spiritual beliefs.