Culture Essay Examples and Research Papers

The word culture is derived in Latin origin in the mid 1500c, meaning to cultivate the soil as in agriculture. Over 600 years it has moved from agriculture to people. The Origins of Culture begins with the sum of attitudes, customs, and beliefs that distinguishes one group of people from another.

Culture is transmitted through language, material objects, rituals, institutions, and art, from one generation to the next. (Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003) When you think of the word Culture you may imply a lot of different things. Many would say culture is involving people, beliefs, or even cultural traits. Some would say culture touches a more intellectual feeling, one only someone of the “culture” could endure. There are so many different things to know when it comes to culture, beginning with their way of life. In discrete cultures, you could experience many things that have never occurred in other countries.

The world culture didn’t surface until the mid-15 centuries. mid-15c., ‘the tilling of land,’ from Middle French culture and directly from Latin cultura ‘a cultivating, agriculture,’ figuratively ‘care, culture, an honoring,’ from past participle stem of colere ‘to tend, guard; to till, cultivate’. The figurative sense of ‘cultivation through education’ is first attested c. 1500. Meaning ‘the intellectual side of civilization’ is from 1805; that of ‘collective customs and achievements of a people’ is from 1867. (2001-2018 Douglas Harper) Culture can specify symbols, languages, norms, etc. People look at symbols and realize that regardless if you recognize them or not, they all have a specific meaning. For example, looking at a cross people would voice that is a symbol of Christianity. This represents someone’s beliefs in their religion, in many countries controlled by place of residency. Their leaders communicate to them about their beliefs known as ministers, or in other cultures known as a priest/pastor.

When speaking on culture the art of foreign language is atop much of the argument. Language is a major element that defines culture. Depending on the culture, people can communicate with each other using words, signs, sounds, and/or symbols. The most common languages that people use to communicate with each other is English, Spanish, French, etc. Often you will hear people speak and not understand even in your language due to an accent. Understanding how people communicate is an exceeding gesture because not everyone can communicate by speaking. Communicating through eye contact or even sign language is a developing gesture. At a very young age, I was taught that eye contact is the only way to have a conversation with another being. That’s part of the American “culture” they would say. Many countries outside of the U.S consider it disrespectful for a citizen to even consider eye contact with authority. That would be against the norms. Norms are expectations of behavior.

Food is one of the many reasons people love to travel and try the different things that cultures have to offer. The best thing about food is that you get a variety of different types of food and flavors. Different cultures have different ways of serving. In some cultures, they give out their takeout food wrapped up in newspaper, and, they serve the food ONLY with their right hand. It might be kind of exciting to see the choice of foods made in front of you in other cultures at this day and age of life. Many countries eat insects and animals, while much of our food is processed. The majority of people eat animal/meat in some way, BUT, in some cultures, you can see an animal’s tail, head, eyeballs, feet, and sometimes the entire body. Some may say that that is disgusting but some may love it.

Music is another big key factor in defining culture. Everyone listens to different genres of music every day. A lot of cultures have music that they dance, meditate, and even sing to. With all the different genres that we hear every day it’s pretty cool to hear the different sounds each can contain. Music is something that brings people together, especially in a lot of different cultures. You have people that get a certain feeling while listening to music, and of course the dancers.

A tradition for a family is the culture in itself. I know I have quite a few traditions in my family. Traditions are usually passed down from one generation to another, continuing the morals of the ancestors set here before you. Some families do things that are unique to them such as having family come over for the holidays, celebrating Christmas, or thanksgiving. Usually, that’s something that my family likes to do because it’s been a traditional thing since long before I was born. In different countries, during the holidays they have a huge festival not with just their families but the whole country is involved. Even getting married is a traditional thing. If you’ve never heard of the term “jumping the broom”, it’s a tradition for African American newly wedded couples as basically stepping into a new world together. You also have the bride who traditionally is supposed to wear a white dress, but when you see brides from different countries they don’t always wear white dresses because in their culture/country it’s not a part of their tradition to do so. Traditions are important to the culture and lives of each heritage, and they need to continue to be passed along to upcoming generations.

The word itself… “Culture”… It carries so much symbolism that not even this entire essay could grasp the entire origin of the word. Life has its lessons, it has its normality’s, its traditions, and each and every step-up circle back to the same word. Culture. It withholds such a broad narrative to itself and is quite a lot to feed off of. It is religion, it is music, it is food, most of all, it is the people.