Friday, February 1, 2013

What is culture?

What is culture?  Can you even give it a single definition?  What am I even talking about?  I am talking about being cultured, embracing culture.  But what is one man's definition of such a broad topic?  In order to gain a true understanding of culture I believe it takes the collaboration of many cultured minds.

This whole time I've been speaking about two different things.  Culture and being cultured.  Culture, my best definition at least, is the lifestyle and daily actions of a group of people that share similar backgrounds.  I know, that sounds like the definition of a nation, I told you I was trying my best.  But when you think about it most people that share a nation share a lot of the same culture as well.  They go hand in hand, in my opinion.  It was put best by some hot shot author whose definition of culture I read.  I would like to quote him but I forgot to bring my book with me, I am sorry Dr. Melzow.  His statement went something like, "Culture is not the pre-packaged things you come to expect from an area but the subtle nuances of the population." Once again, please excuse my horrible etiquette, I will include an exact quote in my next blog post.

It is impossible to understand the word cultured unless you understand the word culture because, in my opinion, being cultured is having an understanding of many cultures besides (and including) your own. I am again incredibly sorry but I am about to quote another intellectual without any material.  "Being cultured is knowing the best things that have been done and said."  Or something along those lines, but irregardless it is a near perfect definition if you're asking me...oh wait, this is my blog...

You are asking me...

No comments:

Post a Comment