Culture

Definition & its components

Defined in varied perspectives, but in this context; Culture will refer to modes of thinking and doings of a given people. In that perspective, culture will be characterized by a people’s traditions, life out-look, music and dance, modes of ownership, customs and beliefs, eating manners, production practices, aesthetic values, modes of communication and other perspectives.
The given description of culture is non-exhaustive and one will notice that some of its components mentioned are not mutually exclusive and that some are embedded in others such as music- this is embedded in aesthetic values.

One can satisfactorily argue that culture helps us to perceive and understand really, assist us in attaching value to things, give us identity, determine our behavior, helps us to communicate, determine our roles and hierarchy in society and is instrumental in the way we produce and consume. It is on these grounds that specific roles have been put forward as functions of culture.

Scholars have argued that culture performs several functions including;

• It provides people with lenses of perception and cognition
• motives for behavior
• Criteria for evaluation
• A mode of communication
• A system of production and consumption
• A basis of identity
• A basis of stratification

Other sources argue that culture is distinct from nature; its knowledge, communication, a system of mediation, a system of practices, a system of participation, and is made of acts of predicting and interpreting.

All in all, we a comprehensive conclusion can be made to suggest that, culture is a whole people’s way of life that shapes one’s being, thinking and doing. In that respect, culture can therefore not be taken lightly.