What is culture?

Question

I'm not looking for a dictionary definition - I know what the word means - I'm looking for your own explanation as to what culture is for you in an international context.

The culture I'm talking about is the one that generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance.

i.e. I'm not talking about yoghurt.

The cleverest answer gets selected as best.

I'm looking for something more than just a definition. I said this in the original question.

Try to think of something clever such as :

"Culture is like jam, the more you have of it the more you spread it" or "culture is what happens when you close your books".

Answer 1

CULTURE IS MEASURED BY HOW WE PROJECT OUR-SELF IN THE SOCIETY.

Answer 2

I recommend you to have a look at Giddens' "Sociology".
He talks about the cultural universals: those values and patterns of behaviour in human societies that apply to every society: the existence of gifts, dancing, marriage (in different ways) rules against incest, etc.
The rest of social values and that shape the patterns of behaviour of a society (of course, then the problem of defining a society comes) are culture.
Sorry I didn't come about with a "dictionary" definition but an empirical one.

Answer 3

I learned not so long ago that "culture" can be thought of as a "solution" to survival. Now take this theory and apply it across the thousands of cultures all over the world, including non-human, animal, aquatic, etc. and we can see how many different solutions we have to make it from one day to the next.

Answer 4

The concept of growing involves the idea of the thing that was planted comes to life in the prepared soil and begins to develop in accordance with an internally driven life cycle involving birth, growth, maturity, decline, and death. This internally driven life cycle, however, can be influenced by manipulating the environment in which the plant grows. In terms of human culture, our children are born with certain innate tendencies, urges and capacities. But what our children become is not totally driven by these internal or innate tendencies and urges. They are strongly influenced by their experiences as they interact with the people and things around them. This leads us to the idea of cultivating.

The concept of cultivating builds upon the idea that not plant grows entirely on it's own. All plants are dependent upon their environment. Too much or too little water, the right or wrong kind of soil, too much sun or too much shade - all of these factors outside of the plant determine how it will grow and whether or not it will be able to complete its normal and natural life cycle. In terms of human culture, we cultivate, shape, influence, and direct the lives of our children. We want to influence, in a positive way, the course of our children's lives. We not only take care of our children as they grow, we attempt to influence or direct the course of their growth. We have definite ideas about what is good for them and bad for them. We have definite aspirations about what it means for them to succeed and to live a good life. All of these ideas and aspirations are embedded within the culture in which we live.