Culture Overview - Concepedia

Principles

Definition

Culture is a shared system of beliefs, values, norms, customs, and behaviors developed and transmitted within a group or society. This complex concept serves as a framework for understanding collective identity, practices, and the interpretation of the world, significantly influencing social interactions, institutions, and historical development.

Ontological type

Theoretical Frameworks

Key Components

Change and Transmission

Key developments

Key Figures

Comparative Cultural Foundations era

Leslie A. White[1] was a leading figure in the Comparative Cultural Foundations era, with affiliations at University at Buffalo, State University of New York[3] and the University of Michigan[4]. In Energy and the Evolution of Culture[7] (1943) and History, Evolutionism, and Functionalism: Three Types of Interpretation of Culture[8] (1945), White argued that cultural patterns arise from energetic processes and that evolutionist, functionalist, and historical interpretations offer systematic ways to compare cultures, a turn that helped institutionalize cross-cultural analysis in museums, colonial administrations, and university departments. William F. Ogburn[2] was active at the University of Washington[5] and Columbia University[6] during this era. His 1923 works Social Change. With Respect to Culture and Original Nature[9] and Social Change With Respect to Culture and Original Nature[10] advanced sociocultural dynamicism, linking shifts in technology, social organization, and culture, and laid groundwork for the era's emphasis on culture as a framework for understanding social change.

Systemic-Interpretive Synthesis era

Clifford Geertz [1] was associated with Johns Hopkins University [3] and the University of California, Berkeley [4] during the Systemic-Interpretive Synthesis era, shaping how culture could be analyzed as organized meanings. In The Interpretation of Cultures [7], Geertz advanced thick description and the view of culture as embedded in social patterns, a shift that reframed cultural analysis as an interpretive project central to understanding rituals, norms, and daily practices in this era. Victor Turner [2] held appointments at Cornell University [5] and the University of Chicago [6] during this period. In The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure [8], Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society [9], and Two Dimensional Man: An Essay on the Anthropology of Power and Symbolism in Complex Society [10], Turner argued that ritual forms and symbolic action structure power dynamics in complex societies, a contribution that opened interpretive pathways for understanding how meanings are produced, reproduced, and contested within institutions and lifeworlds.

Mediated Global Practices era

Geert Hofstede [1] is associated with Maastricht University [3] and the Transnational University Limburg [4] in this era. His key contributions center on Culture's Consequences, as articulated in Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values [8], Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations across Nations [7], and Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context [9], which jointly established cross-national value dimensions and contextualized their relevance for organizations and policy, shaping intercultural competence and data-driven analysis in this mediated global era. Robert D. Putnam [2] is associated with Harvard University [5] and the University of British Columbia [6] in this era. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community [10] by Putnam [2] underscores how social networks and civic life underpin democratic participation in a mediated global age.