What is culture?

Culture: A specific set of social, educational, religious and professional behaviors, practices and values that individuals learn and adhere to while participating in or out of groups they usually interact with.
Source:  Diversity Rx Website. Supported by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), Resources for Cross Cultural Health Care (RCCHC), Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

An Anthropological Perspective of Culture

• Topical: Culture consists of everything on a list of topics, or categories, such as social organization, religion, or economy
• Historical: Culture is social heritage, or tradition, that is passed on to future generations
• Behavioral: Culture is shared, learned human behavior, a way of life
• Normative: Culture is ideals, values, or rules for living
• Functional: Culture is the way humans solve problems of adapting to the environment or living together
• Mental: Culture is a complex of ideas, or learned habits that inhibit impulses and distinguish people from animals
• Structural: Culture consists of patterned and interrelated ideas, symbols, or behaviors
• Symbolic: Culture is based on arbitrarily assigned meanings that are shared by a society

Source: John H. Bodley, From Cultural Anthropology: Tribes, States, and the Global System, 1994