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Definition: Culture |
CultureNoun1. A particular civilization at a particular stage. 2. The tastes in art and manners that are favored by a social group. 3. All the knowledge and values shared by a society. 4. (biology) the growing of microorganisms in a nutrient medium (such as gelatin or agar); "the culture of cells in a Petri dish". 5. A highly developed state of perfection; having a flawless or impeccable quality; "they performed with great polish"; "I admired the exquisite refinement of his prose"; "almost an inspiration which gives to all work that finish which is almost art"--Joseph Conrad. 6. The raising of plants or animals: "the culture of oysters". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "culture" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Etymology: Culture \Cul"ture\, noun. [French culture, Latin cultura, from colere to till, cultivate; of uncertain origin. Compare to Colony.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
19th Century Satire | A degree of mental development that produces tailor-made women, fantastically-sheared poodles and dock tailed horses. Source: Foolish Dictionary, 1904. |
Building & Civil Engineering | A feature of the terrain that has been constructed by man. Included are such items as roads, buildings, and canals; boundary lines, and, in a broad sense, all names and legends on a map. Source: European Union. (references) |
| All features constructed on the surface of the earth by man, such as cities, railways, canals, etc. Source: European Union. (references) | |
Federal Student Aid | The set of shared attitudes, values, goals and practices of an organization. (references) |
Medicine | Technique of growing and maintaining cells, tissues and organs under artificial conditions. Source: European Union. (references) |
Public Administration | System of shared values(what is important)and beliefs(how things work)that interact with a company's people, organizational structures, and control systems to produce behavioral norms(the way we do things around here). Source: European Union. (references) |
Statistics | A general term which refers to the beliefs, traditions, attitudes, and way of life shared by a people. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
There are separate pages about "The Culture" in the novels of Iain M. Banks and about the sociological term "Cultural Creatives". Another one is about the Jamaican reggae group; see Culture (band).
The word culture comes from the Latin root colere, to inhabit, cultivate, or honor. In general it refers to human activity; different definitions of culture reflect different theories for understanding, or criteria for valuing, human activity. In 1952 Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of over 200 different definitions of culture in their book, Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions.
The popular use of the word culture in many Western societies reflects the fact that these societies are stratified. Many use the word culture to refer to elite consumption goods and activities such as fine cuisine, art, and music. Some label this as "high" culture to distinguish it from "low" culture, meaning non-elite consumption goods and activities.
18th and early 19th century scholars, and many people today, often identified culture with "civilization" and opposed both to "nature." Thus, people lacking elements of "high culture" were often considered to be more "natural," and elements of high culture were often criticized, or defended, for repressing human nature.
By the late nineteenth century, anthropologists argued for a broader definition of culture that they could apply to a wide variety of societies, they began to argue that culture is human nature, and is rooted in the universal human capacity to classify experiences, and encode and communicate them symbolically. Consequently, people living apart from one another develop unique cultures, but elements of different cultures can easily spread from one group of people to another. Anthropologists have thus had to develop methodologically and theoretically useful definitions of the word. Technically, anthropologists distinguish between material culture and symbolic culture, not only because each reflects different kinds of human activity but because they consitute different kinds of data that require different methodologies. As a rule, archeologists focus on material culture, and cultural anthropologists focus on symbolic culture, although ultimately both groups are interested in the relationship between these two dimensions. Moreover, anthropologists understand "culture" to refer not only to consumption goods, but to the general processes by which such goods are produced and given meaning, and the social relationships and practices in which such objects and processes are embedded.
In the early twentieth century anthropologists understood culture to refer not to a set of discrete products or activities (whether material or symbolic) but rather to underlying patterns of products and activities. Moreover, they assumed that such patterns were clearly bounded (thus, some people confuse "culture" for the society that has a particular culture). In smaller societies in which people were divided by age, gender, household, and descent group, anthropologists believed that people more or less shared the same set of values and conventions. In larger societies in which people were further divided by region, race or ethnicity, and class, they believed that members of the same society often had highly contrasting values and conventions. They thus used the term subculture to identify the cultures of parts of larger societies. Since subcultures reflect the position of a segment of society vis a vis other segments and the society as a whole, they often reveal processes of domination and resistance.
Cultural studies developed in the late 20th century, in part through the reintroduction of Marxist thought in sociology, and in part through the articulation of sociology and other academic disciplines such as literary criticism, in order to focus on the analysis of subcultures in capitalist societies. Following the non-anthropological tradition, cultural studies generally focus on the study of consumption goods (such as fashion, art, and literature). Because the 18th and 19th century distinction between "high" and "low" culture is not appropriate to the mass-produced and mass-marketed consumption goods with which cultural studies is concerned, these scholars refer instead to popular culture.
Today some anthropologists have joined the project of cultural studies. Most, however, reject the identification of culture with consumption goods. Furthermore, many now reject the notion of culture as bounded, and consequently reject the notion of subculture. Instead, they see culture as a complex web of shifting patterns that link people in different locales, and link social formations of different scales.
(see Culture theory, Culture jamming)
Culture of countries
- Albania
- Australia
- Belgium
- Canada
- Chile
- China
- Denmark
- Egypt
- France
- India
- Japan
- Korea
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Pakistan
- Peru
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Wales
Other cultures
See also:
- Assyro-Babylonian culture
- Cassette culture
- Cemetery H culture
- Culture and politics of Toronto
- Culture of Stockholm
- Culture of Sydney
- Culture of the Maori
- Dominator culture
- Esperanto culture
- European Capital of Culture
- European City of Culture
- Hacker culture
- House of Culture Incident
- Indus Valley Culture
- La Tene culture
- Natufian culture
- Political Culture of Canada
- Political culture of Quebec
- Queer culture
- Underground culture
- Warsaw Palace of Culture
- Weimar Culture
- World Values Survey
Quotations
- "Culture is the sum of all the forms of art, of love and of thought, which, in the course of centuries, have enabled man to be less enslaved", Andre Malraux
- "When two cultures collide is the only time when true suffering exists", Hermann Hesse
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Culture."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Culture is a Jamaican roots rock reggae group founded in 1976. Originally they were known as the African Disciples.
The members of the trio are:
- "Share the riches with the poor
- Before they share the poverty with you" [Culture, Share the Riches]
- Joseph Hill (Culture) (lead vocals)
- Albert Walker (backing vocals)
- Kenneth Dayes (backing vocals)
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Culture (band)."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In biology, a culture refers to a growth of bacteria or other microorganisms which is grown in a laboratory. A Petri dish is often used to grow bacterial cultures.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Culture (biology)."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
It has been said in jest that a fair percentage of Canadian culture rests in the effort to distinguish itself culturally from its southern neighbour, the United States. However, while the two regions share some aspects of a common cultural heritage, there is certainly a separately identifiable "Canadian culture." This is marked by such elements as a greater integration of Native American cultures than elsewhere in the Americas; the retention of traditions descended from those of French settlers; and a notable infusion of Celtic settlers in later phases of the region's history.One matter of contention in the effort to study Canadian culture rests in the fact of Canada's bilingualism; there is little reason to question the distinct identity of the English- and French-speaking peoples of Canada. However, John Ralston Saul conjectures that Gabrielle Roy and Denys Arcand are better known in anglophone Canada than in France, and more French-Canadians than Americans know of Margaret Laurence and Atom Egoyan.
Canadian art
See Art in Canada.
Canadian literature
See Canadian literature and List of Canadian writers.
Canadian theatre
Canada has a thriving stage theatre scene, especially around Toronto. Theatre festivals draw many tourists in the summer months, especially the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario Ontario, and the Shaw Festival in Niagara On The Lake, Ontario. The Famous People Players are only one of many touring companies that have also developed an international reputation.
See Theatre in Canada.
Canadian film and television
Although often eclipsed at cinemas abroad and at home by Hollywood, Canada has a vigorous film industry that has produced a variety of well-known films, actors, and auteurs. In fact, this eclipsing may sometimes be creditable for the rather bizarre and quite innovative directions of the works of such auteurs as Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, 1997) and David Cronenberg. Also, the distinct French-Canadian society permits the work of directors such as Denys Arcand and Denis Villeneuve. However because of the closeness of the giant American TV and film industries, distinctively Canadian productions are relatively thin on the ground, compared with the situations in Britain or Australia. Canadian TV stations usually fill their prime times with US shows, often running at the same time as they are broadcast in the US.
A number of Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood significantly contributed to the creation of the motion picture industry in the early days of the 20th century. Over the years, many Canadians have made enormous contributions to the American entertainment industry, although they are frequently not recognised as Canadians (see Famous Canadians).
Canada's film industry is in full expansion as a site for Hollywood productions. The series The X-Files was famously shot in Vancouver as is Stargate SG-1, and The Outer Limits. The American Queer as Folk is filmed in Toronto. Montreal, due to its European appearance, has served in a great variety of mainstream movies, attracting the loyalty of industry people such as Bruce Willis; there are plans to build the world's biggest film studio on the outskirts of the city. The choice of location is usually due to cost, rather than a requirement for a 'Canadian atmosphere'. The frequent question of a Canadian, seeing a film crew on their local streets is "Which bit of America are we pretending to be today?".
Canadian television, especially supported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, is the home of a variety of locally-produced shows. French-language television, like French Canadian film is buffered from excessive American influence by the fact of language, and likewise supports a host of home-grown productions. The relative success of French-language domestic television and movies in Canada often exceeds that of its English-language counterpart.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's Canadian content regulations dictates that a certain percentage of a domestic broadcaster's transmission time per day must include content that is produced by Canadians, or covers Canadian subjects. This also applies to US cable television channels such as MTV and the Discovery Channel, which have local versions of their channels available on Canadian cable networks. Similarly, BBC Canada, while primarily showing BBC shows from the UK, also carries Canadian output.
One of the country's attempts to counteract the overwhelming influence of American media is the National Film Board of Canada/Office National du Film du Canada, "a public agency that produces and distributes films and other audiovisual works which reflect Canada to Canadians and the rest of the world".
Canadian comedy
Canadian TV is noted for cutting political satire such as This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Monday Report, Talking To Americans, and Royal Canadian Air Farce.
There are plenty of eminent Canadian humorists. The Kids in the Hall were a popular Canadian sketch group. Also the Second City Television show originated in the Toronto Second City operation, which produced many comedians that went on to success worldwide, including John Candy, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Katherine O'Hara, and others.
Other Canadian comics and comedy groups include Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, CODCO (the precursors to This Hour Has 22 Minutes), Maggie Cassella, and Elvira Kurt. The Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal is one of the world's most important comedy festivals.
Canadian music
Canada has developed its own brands of traditional musics, including the Scottish-derived Cape Breton Violin Music of the Maritimes, the Franco-Celtic styles of Quebec that often include foot percussion and a scat style called turlutte; and other national styles from the Ontario Valley to the west. Noted proponents are Buddy MacMaster and his niece Natalie of Cape Breton and Madame Bolduc of Quebec, whose recordings in the 1930s lifted her people through depressing times.
In the realm of popular music, Canada has produced a variety of internationally successful performers, such as the Barenaked Ladies, Dream Warriors, Guess Who, Rush, The Band, Finger Eleven, The Tragically Hip, Prozzak, Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette, Celine Dion, Roch Voisine, Avril Lavigne, Paul Anka, and Gordon Lightfoot.
See also: Music of Canada
Canadian stereotypes
Canadians are stereotyped by other nationalities as being nice, but rather dull-'decaffeinated Americans' being one description, while the definition of a Canadian as 'an American with healthcare and no gun' is another. One joke goes 'How do you get Canadians out of a swimmming pool? You ask them.' A Canadian politician remarked that Canada was supposed to have British government, French culture and American know-how, but instead ended up with French government, American culture and British know-how. Part of Canadian culture is a self-deprecating awareness of these stereotypes and assorted cultural highlights, for example Canadian French, Canadian English, eh, the RCMP, joual, poutine, winter, the Canadian Arctic, First Nations people and Inuit (to the extent to which the cultures of these groups are mapped onto that of the country as a whole), maple syrup, ice hockey, and beer.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Culture of Canada."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The culture of China has been influenced by China's long history and by diverse ethnic groups.
Architecture
I. M. Pei
Arts
Main article: Chinese art
Cinema
Main article: Cinema of ChinaMartial arts film - Wu Xia film
Literature
Main article: Chinese literatureChinese classic texts - Chinese poetry - List of Chinese language poets - List of Chinese proverbs
Music
Main article: Music of China
Opera
Chinese opera
Visual arts and design
Calligraphy - Chinese painting
Classics
Chinese astrology - Chinese calendar - Chinese classic texts - Chinese constellation - Chinese dragon - Chinese five elements - Chinese mythology - Chinese new year - Chinese philosophy - Confucianism - Confucius - Eastern philosophy - Futs-Lung - I Ching - Kirin - Lao Zi - Listing of noted Confucianists - Listing of noted Taoists - Lung - Lunisolar calendar - Mohism - Qi - Taoism - Yin Yang - Zhang San Feng
Cooking
Main article: Chinese cuisineAmerican Chinese cuisine - Boba milk tea - Cantonese cuisine - Cardamom - Chinese Buddhist cuisine - Chinese Islamic cuisine - Chiuchow cuisine - Chopsticks - Chop suey - Dim sum - Double steaming - Fingerroot - Five spice powder - Fortune cookie - Ginger root - Hakka cuisine - Hot salt frying - Hot sand frying - Hunan cuisine - Longan - Lychee - Mandarin cuisine - Monosodium glutamate - Shanghai cuisine - Soy sauce - Stir frying - Szechuan cuisine - Szechuan pepper - Taiwanese cuisine - Tofu - Wok
Education
- List of universities in Mainland China
- List of universities in Taiwan
- List of universities in Hong Kong
- Education in Hong Kong
Ethnic groups and regionalisms
- List of Chinese ethnic groups
- Ethnic groups in Chinese history
- Overseas Chinese
Games
Che Deng - Chinese checkers - Chinese dominoes - Go (board game) - Go proverb - Gwat Pai - Kap Tai Shap - Keno - Mah Jong - Pai Gow - Pai gow poker - Shanghai solitaire - Tangram - Tien Gow - Tiu U - Xiangqi
Handicraft
Joinery - Silk - Chinese paper art
History
Main article: History of ChinaOrigins of Chinese Civilization - Chinese prehistory - Dongyi - Hunn-Xianpi - Khitan - Jurchen - Tabgach - proto-Sino-Tibetan - Shang-Chu Kingdom - Yuezhi - Yue Kingdom - Nanyue Kingdom - Wu Kingdom
Hobbies
Chinese tea culture
Language
Main articles: Chinese language, Languages of ChinaChinese input methods for computer - Chinese numerals - Chinese written language - Classical Chinese - Pinyin
Martial Arts
Jeet Kune Do - Kung Fu - Leung Sheung - Martial arts - Nei chia - Nunchaku - Pakua Chuan - Qigong - Shaolin - Tai Chi Chuan - Wing Chun - Wing Tsun - Wong Fei Hung - Wushu - Yip Man
Mass media
Main articles: Media in China, Media in Hong Kong
Names
Chinese family name - Chinese name - Liu - Miao Hao - Nian Hao - Posthumous name - Shi Hao - Zi
Religion
Main article Religion in ChinaBodhidharma - Buddhism - Dalai Lama - Falun Gong - Gedun Drub - Guanyin - Mahayana Buddhism - Shang Ti - Shaolin - Sonam Gyatso - Tibetan Buddhism - Vajrayana - Yami - Zen
Social relations
Main article: Chinese social relations
Tourism
Forbidden City - Grand Canal of China - Great Wall of China - Marco Polo Bridge - Mount Huangshan - Mount Jiuhuashan - Mount Tianzhu - Terracotta Army - The Temple of Heaven - The Summer Palace
Traditional medicine
Main article: Chinese medicine
Units
Main aricle: Chinese unit
Other, to be inserted above
Abacus - Celestial globe - Chinese nationalism - Communism - Counting rods - Cultural genocide - Cultural Revolution - Eunuch - Fists of Righteous Harmony - Ganqing - Giulio Alenio - Hopping corpse - Jean Joseph Marie Amiot - Jiang Hu - List of famous Chinese people - Maoism - Mao suit - National Palace Museum - Qi Qiao Jie - Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong - Sima Guang - Sima Qian - Triad - Zhang Heng - Zhu Shijie
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Culture of China."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Japanese culture and language
Japan's isolation until the arrival of the "Black Ships" and the Meiji era produced a culture distintively different from any other, and echoes of this uniqueness persist today. For example, as Ruth Benedict pointed out in her classic study "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword", Japan has a shame culture (external reference standard) rather than the guilt culture (internal reference standard) that is more familiar in the West. Again in Japan inter-relationships between people are heavily influenced by "obligation" and "duty" in a way that is no longer true in the more individualistic and free-wheeling West. Finally, generalised conceptions of morality and desirable behaviour are relatively under-developed in Japan, where particular obligations to family, school, friends tend to guide behaviour.
Because of strong correlation between Japanese culture and language, the Japanese language has always played a significant role in Japanese culture. Nemawashi, for example, indicates consensus achieved through careful preparation. It reflects the harmony that is desired and respected within Japanese culture.
Japanese popular culture
Japanese popular culture not only reflects the attitudes and concerns of the present but also provides a link to the past. Popular films, television programs, comicss, and music all developed from older artistic and literary traditions, and many of their themes and styles of presentation can be traced to traditional art forms. Contemporary forms of popular culture, like the traditional forms, provide not only entertainment but also an escape for the contemporary Japanese from the problems of an industrial world. When asked how they spent their leisure time, 80 percent of a sample of men and women surveyed by the government in 1986 said they averaged about two and one-half hours per weekday watching television, listening to the radio, and reading newspapers or magazines. Some 16 percent spent an average of two and one-quarter hours a day engaged in hobbies or amusements. Others spent leisure time participating in sports, socializing, and personal study. Teenagers and retired people reported more time spent on all of these activities than did other groups.
In the late 1980s, the family was the focus of leisure activities, such as excursions to parks or shopping districts. Although Japan is often thought of as a hard-working society with little time for pleasure, the Japanese seek entertainment wherever they can. It is common to see Japanese commuters riding the train to work, enjoying their favorite comic books or listening through earphones to the latest in popular music on portable music players.
Japan has about 100 million television sets in use, and television is the main source of home entertainment and information for most of the population. The Japanese have a wide variety of programs to choose from, including the various dramas (police, crime, home, and samurai), cartoons, news, and game, quiz, and sports shows provide by the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (Nippon Hoso Kyokai--NHK) general station, the NHK educational station, and numerous commercial and independent stations. The violence of the samurai and police dramas and the scatological humor of the cartoons draw criticism from mothers and commentators. Characters in dramas and cartoons often reflect racial and gender stereotypes. Women news anchors are not given equal exposure in news broadcasts, and few women are portrayed on television in high career positions.
A wide variety of types of popular entertainment are available. There is a large selection of music, films, and the products of a huge comic book industry, among other forms of entertainment, from which to choose.
The culture of Japanese management
The culture of Japanese management, so famous in the West, is generally limited to Japan's large corporations. These flagships of the Japanese economy -- the business elite -- provide their workers with excellent salaries and working conditions and secure employment. A career with such a company is the dream of many young people in Japan, but only a select few attain these jobs. Qualification for employment is limited to the men and the few women who graduate from the top thirty colleges and universities in Japan.
Placement and advancement of Japanese workers is heavily based on educational background. Students who do not gain admission to the most highly rated colleges only rarely have the chance to work for a large company. Instead, they have to seek positions in small and medium-sized firms that can not offer comparable benefits and prestige. The quality of one's education and, more important, the college attended, play decisive roles in a person's career (see Education in Japan).
Few Japanese attend graduate school, and graduate training in business per se is rare. There are only a few business school programs in Japan. Companies provide their own training and show a strong preference for young men who can be trained in the company way. Interest in a person whose attitudes and work habits are shaped outside the company is low. When young men are preparing to graduate from college, they begin the search for a suitable employer. This process is very difficult: there are only a few positions in the best government ministries, and quite often entry into a good firm is determined by competitive examination. The situation is becoming somewhat less competitive, however, with a gradual decrease in the number of candidates. New workers enter their companies as a group on April 1 each year.
One of the prominent features of Japanese management is the practice of permanent employment (shushin koyo). Permanent employment covers the minority of the work force that work for the major companies. Management trainees, traditionally nearly all of whom were men, are recruited directly from colleges when they graduate in the late winter and, if they survive a six-month probationary period with the company, are expected to stay with the companies for their entire working careers. Employees are not dismissed thereafter on any grounds, except for serious breaches of ethics.
Permanent employees are hired as generalists, not as specialists for specific positions. A new worker is not hired because of any special skill or experience; rather, the individual's intelligence, educational background, and personal attitudes and attributes are closely examined. On entering a Japanese corporation, the new employee will train from six to twelve months in each of the firm's major offices or divisions. Thus, within a few years a young employee will know every facet of company operations, knowledge which allows companies to be more productive.
Another unique aspect of Japanese management is the system of promotion and reward. An important criterion is seniority. Seniority is determined by the year an employee's class enters the company. Career progression is highly predictable, regulated, and automatic. Compensation for young workers is quite low, but they accept low pay with the understanding that their pay will increase in regular increments and be quite high by retirement. Compensation consists of a wide range of tangible and intangible benefits, including housing assistance, inexpensive vacations, good recreational facilities, and the crucial availability of low-cost loans for such expenses as housing and a new automobile. Regular pay is often augmented by generous semiannual bonuses. Members of the same graduating class usually start with similar salaries, and raises and promotions each year are generally uniform. The purpose is to maintain harmony and avoid stress and jealousy within the group.
Individual evaluation, however, does occur. Early in workers' careers -- by age thirty -- distinctions are made in pay and job assignments. During the latter part of workers' careers, further weeding takes place, as only the best workers are selected for accelerated advancement into upper management. Those employees who fail to advance are forced to retire from the company in their mid-to-late fifties. Retirement does not necessarily mean a life of leisure. Poor pension benefits and modest social security mean that many people have to continue working after retiring from a career. Many management retirees work for the smaller subsidiaries of the large companies, with another company, or with the large company itself at substantially lower salaries.
A few major corporations in the late 1980s were experimenting with variations of permanent employment and automatic promotion. Some rewarded harder work and higher production with higher raises and more rapid promotions, but most retained the more traditional forms of hiring and advancement. A few companies that experienced serious reverses laid off workers, but such instances were rare.
Another aspect of Japanese management is the company union, which most regular company employees are obliged to join. The workers do not have a separate skill identification outside of the company. Despite federations of unions at the national level, the union does not exist as an entity separate from, or with an adversarial relationship to, the company. The linking of the company with the worker puts severe limits on independent union action, and the worker does not wish to harm the economic wellbeing of the company. Strikes are rare and usually brief.
Japanese managerial style and decision making in large companies emphasizes the flow of information and initiative from the bottom up, making top management a facilitator rather than the source of authority, while middle management is both the impetus for and the shaper of policy. Consensus is stressed as a way of arriving at decisions, and close attention is paid to workers' well-being. Rather than serve as an important decision maker, the ranking officer of a company has the responsibility of maintaining harmony so that employees can work together. A Japanese chief executive officer is a consensus builder.
To be covered
- May sick -- absenteeism indicative of new students or workers who have become tired of their new schoolwork or jobs.
See also
- 100-yen shop
- Anime
- Art and Architecture
- Bonsai
- Calendar
- Cinema
- Communications
- Customs
- Clothing (kimono, hakama, etc...)
- Cuisine (Sushi, Agedashi Tofu, Dashi, Soy sauce, etc...)
- Dance (traditional)
- Educational System
- Festivals
- Ikebana
- Language (Hiragana, Katakana, Kana, Romaji)
- Literature
- Manga
- Music
- Names
- New Year
- Origami
- Sports
- Tea Ceremony
- Television and Radio
- Tourism
References
- Library of Congress Country Studies: Japan
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Culture of Japan."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Māori culture is distinct from New Zealand culture as is primarily observed only in Māori society and social gatherings that have a significant Maori aspect. Generally the Māori language is spoken, though translations and explanations are provided when the primary participants are not Māori speakers.Many Māori cultural events traditionally take place on a Marae, an area of land where the Wharenui or meeting house (literally big house) sits. However such a venue, though traditional, is not essential and any place appropriate to the occasion can be used.
Significant Māori cultural events or activities include:
- The Haka - an action chant, often described as a "War Dance", but more a chant with hand gestures and foot stamping, originally performed by Warriors before a battle, proclaiming their strength and prowess and generally abusing the opposition. Now regularly performed by New Zealand representative Rugby and Rugby League teams before commencing a game. There are many different haka.
- Kapahaka groups often come together to practice and perform cultural items such as waiata or songs, especially action songs, and haka for entertainment. Poi dances may also form part of the repertoire. Traditional instruments sometime accompany the group, though the guitar is also commonly used. Many New Zealand schools now teach kapahaka as part of the Māori studies curriculum, though this was not always the case. Today, national kapahaka competitions are held where groups are judged to find the best peformers, these draw large crowds.
- The Powhiri or Māori welcome, where distinguished visitors are welcomed onto the Marae, or other place. The ceremony generally includes an aggressive challenge dance by a Māori warrior armed with a tiaha or traditional spear, who then offers a token of peace, such as a fern frond, to the leader of the visiting delegation. Acceptance of the token in the face of such aggression is a demonstration of the courage and honour of the visitor. Following the challenge there may be speeches of introduction, as well as karakea or prayers and the singing of waiata or songs.
- Tangi or funeral rites may take 2 or 3 days and include a lying-in-state where the whole whanau, or family, hold an all night vigil, with the deceased in an open coffin, to farewell them, before a church or marae funeral service and/or graveside interment ceremony. It is traditional for mourners to wash their hands in running water before leaving the cemetery. After the burial rites are completed, a meal is traditionally served. Mourners are expected to provide koha or gifts towards the meal.
- Koha are gifts, generally in kind and often of food or traditional items, though equivalent monetry donations are also called and accepted as koha in many circumstances.
Cultural Concepts
Māori have an number of cultural concepts that have been taken up into the predominant New Zealand culture.
The best known dramatic work that features the Māori culture is the acclaimed film, The Whale Rider.
- Whanau or extended family, this includes any relative, no matter how distant. The whole whanau are responsible for raising the children, not just the parents. The concept has more to do with social relationship and friendship than genetics and bloodlines, and is often difficult for tauiwi or non-maori to properly comprehend. While the Whanau is the smallest social unit, Hapu or village or settlement and Iwi or tribe are larger subdivisions.
- Meeting, with discussion and debate where all viewpoints are heard and considered before a decision is made.
- Apart from place names, many Māori words have also been taken up into New Zealand English language.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Culture of the Maori."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Culture of the United States
Customs and Culture
The Culture of the United States was originally the culture of the Native Americans of North America. U.S. culture as we understand it began with the arrival of European settlers and the official establishment of the American state in 1776.
As the United States is an immense country, with many residents and citizens are descended from relatively recent immigrantss, defining a common set of customs, traditions, behavior and way of life is difficult. Unlike many Old World nation-states, the United States does not have a homogenous population or a traditional homeland.
However, American culture can be interpreted as being largely based in Western European based culture with influences from the native peoples, Africans brought to the U.S. as slaves, and other more recent immigrants from Asia and elsewhere. Additionally, due to its large size and the value placed on individualism, there are many integrated but unique subcultures within the U.S.
General
Attitudes
America's formative years were in the late 18th century, and a great deal of American culture is couched in the ideals of The Enlightenment. The Declaration's mission statement about securing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; French revolution's ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity; and the national motto of E pluribus unum ("From many, one") reflect the country's values and social development. Another primary influence on American culture is the constant stream of new immigrants, many of whom had fled persecution or oppression in their home countries, and were seeking freedom (including religious freedom) and economic opportunity, leading them to reject totalitarian practices.
By and large, Americans value the ideals of individual liberty, individualism, self-sufficiency, altruism, equality, Judeo-Christian morals, free markets, a republican form of government, democracy, populism, pluralism and patriotism. (Americans often believe that their patriotism has nuances which differentiate it from nationalism and nationalism's negative connotations.)
There is a close relationship between America's political and economic traditions. The individual pursuit of self-interest leads to the best result both for the individual and for society as a whole is believe to be a successful formula for both economic success and optimal political function. Whether this is true is arguable (e.g. the United States government is not the most generous donor of international aid, and there are pockets of severe deprivation within the United States) but the U.S. economy is one of the most successful on earth, and many of its citizens enjoy comparatively high living standards.
The fact that the United States is the largest English-speaking marketplace allows firms to compete across the country and to enjoy economies of scale (cost reductions that arise from the huge scale of manufacturing) that reduce prices and benefit consumers. The relatively uniform commercial culture--with many large stores or "chains" operating nationwide--produces a commercial atmosphere which is relatively homogeneous throughout the country.
The population of the United States tends to be centered in large cities, in marked contrast to the demographics of a century ago, when the country was quite agrarian.
The United States is skeptical or hostile toward socialist and communist ideologies, but some of the related movements, such as the labor movement were accepted by the country, although not without dispute. The country was less affected by socialist ideas in the 20th century than was Europe, and the McCarthyism and The Cold War as a whole demonstrated a deeply felt hostility to communism, which was perceived as anti-individualistic. They are also evidenced in aspects of social policy, e.g. the absence of a national health care system and constant controversy about the size and role of the government, especially the federal government, in individuals' lives and in states' laws.
The American tradition of free-market capitalism has led the populace (and their leaders) to generally accept the dictates of the market and the alterations to society that a changing economy implies, although social and economic displacement are common. The result is a flexible, but money-minded, socio-economic system.
The American religious tradition is primarily Christian, but the Constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion and, again, the diversity of the population means that no one religion holds sway over the entirety of the population. Culture "wars" often have roots in religious differences, but religious violence is rare and on a small scale. America is a more church(-temple-mosque)-going country than most European countries.
Individual Americans can be ethnocentric, with little interest in the culture of other countries. For example, very few books from European countries or Japan are translated for sale in the United States and sales of those that are translated are slow. Imported television shows are rare except on PBS although remakes of foreign shows are more common, and imported films are less successful than homegrown versions, especially imports that are not spoken in English. Americans also tend to travel less than citizens of other countries, but that may be because the United States itself is so large and diverse that tourists need only visit another state for a new experience. American businesses, however, tend to be quite internationally sophisticated.
The insularity of the general population and the media means there can be limited understanding of and sensitivity towards other countries and cultures, and this has arguably produced problems for the United States.
Names
The residents of the United States refer to themselves as Americans and to their country as the United States or America. They generally resist using "America" to refer to the two major continents of the Western hemispheres which is a Spanish language designation. To Americans, "Yankees" are a baseball team in the New York, while to many foreigners, that term is synonymous with the American people. "The States" is a term generally used when referring to the country from some overseas vantage point. "USA" is a casual term, "U.S." is more common. USian is extremely rare within the country, and is used rarely internationally to denote the U.S. specifically, rather than the Americas as a whole, or to distinguish U.S. English from the whole English language.
Intra-National Allegiances
Because of the size and large population of the country, America is often described as a nation of joiners who tend to self-associate with non-familial groups. Individuals tend to perceive themselves as "free agents" rather than bound by family or clan ties.
Group allegiances are sometimes regional, but can also be related to a professional or fraternal organization. For example, residents of North Carolina are proud to be "Tar Heelers," Indiana residents are "Hoosiers" and many cities have a strong sense of civic identity, often reinforced by a innocuous but deeply felt rivalry with another local city.
Recent immigrants tend to congregate with other immigrants from their country of origin, often establishing neighborhoods in cities with popular names like "Chinatown", "Poletown" or "Little Saigon". Second- and third-generation descendants of immigrants tend to have looser affiliations with their ethnic groups.
America has tens of thousands of clubs and organizations, and if a group has a charitable or service orientation, Americans may volunteer their time through those groups. Examples of these groups include the Rotary Club, the Boy Scouts of America, the Moose International, and so on.
Media
America has the most elaborate and developed media apparatus in the world, consisting of highly developed radio, television, satellite, newspaper, magazine and Internet industries.
Television
Television often plays an important role in introducing children to new ideas and developing common views of the world. Many shows are broadcast over the entire U.S., delivered to the home via the air or by cable and thus have an influence on a very large set of the population as 98% of all American households have at least one television and in fact, the majority of households have more than one. It is through the mass media that Americans develop their sense of the rest of the world. The national broadcasts are in English, though many more urbanized areas of the country have some local broadcasts in languages other than English, such as Spanish or Chinese, and the Spanish-language Univision network is available in large parts of the country.
Newspapers
Newspapers have declined in their influence and penetration into American households over the years. The U.S. does not have a national paper per se, although the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are sold in most U.S. cities. USA Today is promoted as a national newspaper, but appeals largely to people who are on the road. Instead, metropolitan areas have their own local newspapers. Typically, a metropolitan area will support at most one or two major newspapers, with many smaller publications targeted towards particular audiences. Although the cost of publishing has increased over the years, the price of newspapers has generally remained low, forcing newspapers to rely more on advertising revenue and on articles provided by the major wire service, the Associated Press, for their national and world coverage.
Food
The types of food served at home vary the most and depend upon the region of the country and the family's own cultural heritage. Recent immigrants tend to eat food similar to that of their country of origin. Families that have lived for a few generations in the U.S. tend to eat some combination of that and the food common to the region they live in or grew up in, such as New England cuisine, Midwestern cuisine, southern cuisine, Tex-Mex cuisine and Californian cuisine.
The most stereotypical American meal is hamburger, French fries and a Coke. Fast food restaurants serving this meal are widespread throughout the United States and their rapid growth internationally has led to a backlash and accusations about the McDonald's-ization of the world.
See Cuisine of the United States for a complete list.
Clothing
Dress is usually casual and informal, and in the Western tradition of pants and a shirt, and dresses for women. The exception to the informality in major cities such as San Francisco and New York City, where many residents dress with polish and style. Social and business situations may call for tailored suits or other more elegant outfits. The strictest clothing convention applies to skirts and dresses; they are strictly reserved for women and girls.Jeans, a T-shirt and athletic shoes, with optional baseball cap, come close to being a national uniform.
The greatest variations in dress are related to climate. In Hawaii, the Hiawaiian shirt as an acceptable item of wear by men has received formal approval by the state legislature. In beach areas, especially in California, Hawaii and Florida, skimpy clothing, is considered acceptable in all but the most formal settings. Cowboy hats, Western boots and large silver belt buckles are found in southwestern and western regions of the United States, particularly Texas and Arizona. Easterners generally tend to dress more formally than Westerners. Residents of northern states wear heavy sweaters, warm, water-resistant boots, stocking caps and heavy coats or down parkas in the cold season.
Education
In the American educational system children are generally required to attend school from the ages of 5 or 6 until 16, with the majority continuing until they are at least 17 or 18, or have graduated from high school. The public education systems vary from one state to another but generally are organized as follows:
Additionally, many children attend schools prior to age 5. These pre-schools are often private and not part of the public educational system although some public school systems include pre-schools.
- Age 5: Kindergarten
- Ages 6-11: Elementary school. Children start in grade 1 and advance to grade 5 or 6.
- Ages 12-13 or 12-14: Junior high school or middle school (usually grades 7-9 or grades 6-8).
- Ages 14-17: High school.
Public Education. Public education in the United States is provided by the separate states, not the federal government. It is free, but unlike many other countries, the US has no standard nationwide curriculum. Rather it is up to the teachers and administrators of the school districts to determine what is and is not taught. Increasingly, statewide curricla are being developed. Also, as of 2003 there is increasing state and federal pressure to use standardized tests, which lead to a more uniform curriculum.
Funding of schools is often done on the local level, with money obtained from property taxes used to fund the public schools.
Private Education. Most of the private institutions have traditionally been religious institutions, such as Catholic schools, various Protestant schools and yeshivas. Some private secular schools, military schools and multi-lingual schools are available. Private secular and multi-lingual elementary education may cost $10,000 to $20,000 per year per student in large metropolitan areas, placing these schools out of reach of all but the most wealthy of middle and upper class families. Religous schools vary in price, from nearly free to costs on par with private secular schools. Poorer families may send their children to these lower priced schools for a religious education, or because they consider the schools better than the available public schools. Home schooling is allowed in many states and is an alternative for small minority of households. The motivation for home schooling is often religious.
Higher Education. As with the lower level public education system, there is no national public university system in the United States. Each state has its own public university system. There are also many privately run colleges, universities, and trade schools, some of them religiously affiliated. State university tuition ranges from the nearly free on up, but is generally significantly lower than at private schools, and often lower for state residents than for out-of-state students. The US does provide some federal grants and loans for higher education to many families.
Undergraduate degrees granted by institutions of higher education include associate's degrees from community colleges and bachelor's degrees from four-year schools.
Common graduate degrees are master's degrees or Ph.D.s, or specialized professional degrees such as a J.D for a lawyer, an MBA for a businessman or an M.D for a doctor.
The United States is a great center of higher education, boasting more than 1,500 universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher learning, the top tier of which include schools considered the most prestigious and advanced in the world. Among these are the eight Ivy League schools, and elite private universities such as Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University and Georgetown University.
Students seeking officership in the United States Military may enroll in ROTC courses at most colleges and universities, or in one of four service academies: United States Military Academy, the United States Naval Academy, the United States Air Force Academy or the United States Coast Guard Academy.
Additionally, the extensive system of public universities and colleges includes prestigious institutions like the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan, the College of William and Mary, and the University of Wisconsin.
Language
The primary, although not official, language of the United States is English, of the subtype American English. Other major languages are Spanish (due to the geographic proximity of the Spanish-speaking countries of Central and South America and the culture crossover of the borderlands), Hawaiian language, Korean language, Chinese language, Vietnamese language and Tagalog language, and to a certain extent French language (primarily in far north New England and Louisiana, due to the Acadian-Canadian influence). There are more than 300 languages besides English which can claim native speakers in the United States--some of which are spoken by the indigenous peoples (about 150 living languages) and others which were imported by immigrants. Homegrown creoles include Gullah and Cajun, both spoken in the southeastern United States. Deaf people and their affiliates primarily communicate via American Sign Language.
The demographics of the United States shows why American English is largely rhotic; the letter R gets pronounced in most words with that include "R," which is due to the split off from England in the 1600s when English was still rhotic. During this time, the King James Version of the Bible was written, and is referred to as such in the United States, not the authorized version. Somehow the specific King James Version phrases, like the words of Shakespeare and the English units of measure, still resonate for most Americans.
There are four major dialects in the United States--northeastern, south, inland north and midlands. The midlands accent extends from what were once the "Middle Colonies" across the Midwest to the Pacific.
Religion
According to the 2001 American Religious Identity Survey (ARIS) 76.5% of Americans, or 159,030,000 people, identify themselves as Christians; 13.2% or 27,539,000 identify as non-religious or secular. These two identifications total almost 90% of attested religious affiliations in the United States.
Other faiths represented include the 1.3% or 2,831,000 of Americans who identify themselves as Jewish; 0.5% or 1,104,000 who identify themselves as Muslim; 0.5% or 1,082,000 who identify themselves as Buddhists; 0.5% or 991,000 who identify as agnostic; 0.4% or 902,000 who identify as atheist; 0.4% or who 766,000 identify as Hindu; and 0.3% or 629,000 who identify as Unitarian Universalist.
According to the same study, the major Christian denomiations (making up the vast majority of faiths actively practiced in the United States) are (in order): Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Pentecostal (aka charismatic or evangelical), Episcopalian, Latter-Day Saints, Church of Christ and Congregational.
Accrording to other studies, as reported by the Statistical Abstract of the United States (the U.S. Census does not query about religion, so non-governmental sources are used), Americans' self-reported religious affiliations are 56% Protestant Christianity, 27% Catholic Christianity, 2% Judaism, 1% Orthodox Christianity, 1% Mormon Christianity, 5% "other specific" and 8% "other" or "did not designate." Some 68% of Americans are members of a place of worship, and 44% attend that place of worship regularly.
Work
Most people commute to work using automobiles rather than mass transit.
Most jobs are based on a 40-hour work week, that is, five days (Monday through Friday), eight hours per day. The United States has minimum wage laws requiring a minimum wage for many employees, though a number of employment sectors are excluded. Some states have higher minimum wages than the wage mandated by the federal government.
Paid vacations are usually two weeks. Other company benefits include sick days and personal days.
Americans usually retire at the age of 65, but may retire earlier if their pension plans permit it.
Housing
Immediately after World War II, Americans began living in increasing numbers in the suburbs, belts around major cities with higher density than rural areas, but much lower than urban areas. This move has been attributed to many factors such as the automobile, the availability of large tracts of land, the increasing violence in urban centers, and the cheapness of housing. These new single family houses were usually one or two stories tall, and often were part of large tracts of homes built by a single developer. In the last years of the 20th century increasing numbers of homes in America have been built in residential subdivisions governed by homeowner associations which maintain the facilities and enforce the agreements of the community. (See also gated community.)
Coupling rituals
The typical coupling in the United States involves two people of different sexes. Couples often meet through religious institutions, their work or school, or friends. There are many private firms providing dating services, services that are geared to assist individuals in finding partners.
The trend over the past few decades has been for more and more couples deciding to live together before or instead of getting married. The 2000 Census reported 9.7 million different-sex partners living together and about 1.3 million same-sex partners living together. These cohabitation arrangements have not been the subject of many laws regulating them, though many states now have domestic partner laws that confer some legal support for unmarried couples.
Marriage between individuals is only allowed between indviduals of different sexes and the marriage laws are established by each individual state. In many states it is illegal to cross state lines to obtain a marriage that would be illegal in the home state. Married couples typically reside in their own separate dwelling rather than living with others or with their parents.
Marriage Ceremony
The typical wedding involves a couple proclaiming their commitment to one another in front of their close relatives and friends and presided over by a religious figure such as a minister, priest or rabbi depending upon the faith of the couple. In Christian ceremonies, the general practice is for the bride's father to give away the bride to the groom. Secular weddings are also common, often presided over by a judge, Justice of the Peace or town clerk.
Divorce
Divorce, like marriage, is the province of the state government, not the federal government. Divorce laws vary from state to state, but all states allow for divorce of married couples. State law provides for child support where children are involved, and sometimes for alimony.
Death rituals
Deaths are generally thought to be an occasion for grieving by the majority of Americans. Funerals are held to honor the "passing away" of the individual. The dead are placed in a coffin and are generally embalmed and often displayed before being buried in the ground. Unlike some Western European countries where the body remains in the cemetery for a limited period of time, e.g. 20 years, in the United States there is typically no limit. Other traditions such as cremation have arisen in which the body is burned to ashes and the ashes are stored in an urn or scattered over a site significant to the deceased.
Gender roles
Since the 1970s, traditional gender roles of male and female have been increasingly challenged by both legal and social means. Today, there are far fewer roles that are legally restricted by one's sex, though there are still cultural means of inhibiting such roles. More and more women have entered the work place and at all levels, though women are still typically found at the lower, less influential roles in private companies. Most men however have not taken up the traditional homemaker role, nor have they taken many of the traditionally female jobs, such as receptionists and nurses.
Lifestyles
Family Arrangements
Nuclear family living patterns
Beginning in the early 20th century, the two-parent family known as the nuclear family was the predominant American family type. Children live with their parents until they go away to a college or university, or until they acquire their own jobs and decide to move out into their own apartment or home.
In the early to mid-20th century, the father typically was the sole wage earner and the mother was the children's principal care giver. Today, often both parents hold jobs. Dual-earner families are the predominant type for families with children in the US. Increasingly, one of the parents has a non-standard shift, that is a shift that does not start in the morning and end in the late afternoon. In these families, one of the parents manages the children while the other works.
Prior to school, adequate day care of children is necessary for dual-earner families. In recent years, many private companies and home-based day care centers have sprung up to fulfill this need. Increasingly, corporate sponsorship of day care is occurring as well as government assistance to parents requiring day care.
Single parent living patterns
Single-parent households are households consisting of a single adult, typically a woman, and one or more children. These types of households have been increasing in number and today, the majority of black households are single parent households. For whites, Hispanics, and other races, the predominant family household is still the two parent family.
In the single parent household, the mother typically raises the children with little to no help from the father. This parent is the sole bread winner of the family and thus these households are particularly vulnerable economically. They have higher rates of poverty, and children of these households are more likely to have educational problems.
Regional Distinctions
Rural living patterns
The population of rural areas has been declining over time as more and more people migrate to cities for work and entertainment. The 1970s and 1980s saw the closure of many smaller farms across the US as small farmers were no longer able to make a profit from farming. Even in the rural areas, electricity and telephone service are available to all but the most remote regions, due in part to rural electrical cooperatives and the New Deal rural electrification projects. As in the cities, children attend school up to and including high school and only help with farming during the summer months or after school. However, the school schedule throughout the US is based on the assumption that children will be needed to work on farms during the summer.
Suburban living patterns
Most Americans now live in what is known as the suburbs. The suburban nuclear family has been identified as part of the "American dream", a married couple with children owning a house in the suburbs. This archetype is reinforced by mass media, religious practices and government policies and is based on traditions from the white Anglo-Saxon cultures.
One of the biggest differences in suburban living is the housing occupied by the families. The suburbs are filled with single family homes separated from retail districts and industrial areas.
Urban living patterns
Aside from housing, which may include more apartments and semi-attached homes than in the suburbs or small towns, the major difference from suburban living is the diversity of many different subcultures with close proximity as well as retail and manufacturing buildings mixed with housing. Urban residents are also more likely to travel by mass transit, and children are more likely to walk or bicycle rather than being driven by their parents.
Variations
Variations in the majority traditions occur due to class, racial, ethnic, religious, regional and other groups of people.
Regional differences are explored in the New England, Mid-Atlantic States, U.S. Southern States, Midwest, Southwest United States and The West pages.
Culture: Arts and Entertainment
The development of the arts in America--music, movies, dance, architecture, literature and the visual arts--has been marked by a tension between two strong sources of inspiration: European sophistication and domestic originality. Frequently, the best American artists have managed to harness both sources.
American culture has a large influence on the rest of the world, especially the Western world. American music is heard all over the world, and American movies and television shows can be seen almost anywhere. This is in stark contrast to the early days of the American republic, when the country was generally seen as an agricultural backwater with little to offer the culturally advanced world centers of Asia and Europe. Nearing the end of its third century, nearly every major American city offers classical and popular music; historical, scientific and art research centers and museums; dance performances, musicals and plays; outdoor art projects and internationally significant architecture. This development is a result of both contributions by private philanthropists and government funding.
American culture also exhibits a tendency to hybridize pop culture and so-called high culture, and generally questions normative standards for artistic output. This is likely an effect of the country's egalitarian tradition, and the nation's history of constitutionally protected freedom of speech and expression, as enshrined in the First Amendment.
American Popular Culture
American popular culture has expressed itself through nearly every medium, including movies, music and sports. Mickey Mouse, Babe Ruth, screwball comedy, G.I. Joe, jazz, the blues, The Simpsons, Michael Jackson, Gone With the Wind, Michael Jordan, Indiana Jones, Catch-22--these names, genres, and phrases have joined more tangible American products in spreading across the globes.
It is worth noting, that while America tends to be a net exporter of culture, it absorbs many other cultural traditions with relative ease, for example: origami, soccer, anime, and yoga.
Exportation of Popular Culture
The United States is an enormous exporter of entertainment, especially sports, movies and music. This readily consumable form of culture is widely and cheaply dispersed for entertainment consumers world-wide.
For better or worse, many nations now have two cultures: an indigenous one and globalized/American popular culture. That said, what one society considers entertainment is not necessarily reflective of the "true culture" of its people. More popular syndicated programs cost more, so overseas entertainment purchasers often choose older programs that reflect various, and dated, stages of the United States cultural development. Pop culture also tends to neglect the more mundane and/or complex elements of human life.
Notable Cultural Figures
In American literature, authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe, and more recently, Ernest Hemingway, J. D. Salinger and Flannery O'Connor, mastered the "short story." Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler pioneered gritty detective fiction that has had great influence on other genres and in other countries. After World War I, authors like Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald developed new techniques for novels.
- Literature
Other noted American writers include Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Sinclair Lewis, Ayn Rand, Zora Neale Hurston, Henry David Thoreau, Rachel Carson, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Willa Cather and Toni Morrison.
U.S. poets with international fame (or notoriety) include: T. S. Eliot, Allen Ginsberg, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Ezra Pound, Charles Bukowski, Robert Lowell, Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, Ogden Nash, Shel Silverstein, William S. Burroughs, E. E. Cummings, Maya Angelou and Robert Frost.
American music has a long and diverse history and has been an important influence on popular music worldwide. Some of the U.S.A.'s more famous and important musicians and singers include Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Chuck Berry, Mariah Carey, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Kurt Cobain, Bing Crosby, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Duke Ellington, Eminem, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Benny Goodman, Jimi Hendrix, Billie Holliday, Buddy Holly, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Robert Johnson, Janis Joplin, B. B. King, Carole King, Jim Morrison, Madonna, Willie Nelson, Thelonius Monk, Stevie Nicks, Charlie Parker, Elvis Presley, Diana Ross, Paul Simon, Frank Sinatra, Tina Turner, and Hank Williams.
- Music
American classical composers include: Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, and Charles Ives
American inventor Thomas Alva Edison played an important role in the invention of motion pictures, and David Wark Griffith pioneered a filmic vocabulary that still dominates. Other famous American film directors include Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Robert Altman, John Ford, Spike Lee, Woody Allen, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
- Film
Iconic American actors include Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando, James Cagney, Bette Davis, James Dean, Harrison Ford, Robert De Niro, Clark Gable, Katharine Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Julia Roberts, Jimmy Stewart, Meryl Streep, Shirley Temple and John Wayne.
American dancers of note include: Martha Graham, Isadora Duncan, Jerome Robbins, Robert Joffrey, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Gregory Hines, Savion Glover.
- Dance
American visual artists of note include Thomas Hart Benton, Andy Warhol, Georgia O'Keeffe, Mary Cassatt, Frederic Remington, N.C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, Winslow Homer, Man Ray, Dorothea Lange, Robert Capa, Ansel Adams, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John James Audubon, Alexander Calder, Dale Chihuly, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Norman Rockwell, Dr. Suess, and Jackson Pollock. Major American architects include Frank Lloyd Wright, Albert Kahn, Buckminster Fuller, Louis Sullivan and Frank Gehry.
- Art
National holidays
New Year's Day January 1 Federal government holiday. Also observed by most businesses and schools. Martin Luther King Day 3rd Monday in January Federal government holiday. Also observed by most businesses and schools. Inauguration Day January 20th (following presidential election) Observed by the federal government. Groundhog Day February 2 Not generally observed by businesses. Valentine's Day February 14 Not generally observed by businesses. Presidents Day 3rd Monday in February Federal government holiday. Also observed by most businesses and schools. St. Patrick's Day March 17 Not generally observed by businesses. April Fool's Day April 1 Not generally observed by businesses. Mother's Day 2nd Sunday in May Not generally observed by businesses. Memorial Day last Monday in May Federal government holiday. Also observed by most businesses and schools. Flag Day June 14 Not generally observed by businesses. Father's Day 3rd Sunday in June Not generally observed by businesses. Independence Day July 4 Federal government holiday. Also observed by most businesses. Labor Day 1st Monday in September Federal government holiday. Also observed by most businesses. Rosh Hashanah Date depends on Hebrew calendar Not observed by most businesses. Yom Kippur Date depends on Hebrew calendar Not observed by most businesses. Columbus Day 2ndMonday in October Federal government holiday. Also observed by some businesses. Halloween October 31 Not generally observed by businesses. Election Day 1stFirst Tuesday on or after Nov 2 Observed by the federal and state governments. Veterans Day November 11 Federal government holiday. Also observed by some businesses and schools. Formerly Armistice Day Thanksgiving 4th Thursday in November Federal government holiday. Also observed by most businesses and schools. Christmas December 25 Federal government holiday. Also observed by most businesses and schools.
Related topics
- Architecture of the United States
- Cuisine of the United States
- Dance of the United States
- Education in the United States
- Languages in the United States
- Literature of the United States
- Movies of the United States
- Music of the United States
- Social issues in the United States
- Social structure of the United States
- Standard of living in the United States
- Visual arts of the United States
External links
- What makes a family
- Patterns of Single Family Structure in the United States
- Sociological Tour Through Cyberspace
- Customs & Culture in the US
- Portrait of the USA - Ch 10 Distinctly American Arts
- Portrait of the USA - Ch 11 Exporting Popular Culture
- Portrait of the USA - Ch 12 The Media and Their Messages
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Culture of the United States."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In Organizational development, culture involves the study of an organization's values, history, and customs and how these cultural forces drive behaviors and affect performance.Also referred to as "corporate culture."
Figures in Organizational Culture
- John Kotter
- Edgar Schein
- Geert Hofstede
- Fons Trompenaars
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Organizational culture."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Queer culture is the heritage of culture, knowledge, and references to which Queer people fall heir by the fact of their sexual orientation.
The idea is quite contentious. Some argue that there are too many queer people who do not participate in Queer culture for the idea to be meaningful, or that Queer culture constitutes a stereotype. It may be pointed as an attempt by queer community leaders to dogmatize the group and prevent more masculine gay men and more feminine lesbians from being themselves.
Others argue that Queer culture is an undeniable fact, and/or that it constitutes the basis of a Queer nation with a common understanding and history.
Among the first to argue that Queer people constitute a cultural minority as well as being just individuals were Harry Hay and the Mattachine Society.
Queer culture can include various elements, such as
Queer communities organize a number of events to celebrate Queer culture, such as pride parades; one of the largest such events is the Gay Games.
- the work of luminaries who were queer (such as Michelangelo Buonarroti, Oscar Wilde, Sappho, Gertrude Stein, and so forth);
- an understanding of the history of the gay rights movement;
- an ironic appreciation of things linked by stereotype to gay people;
- pop-culture icons who are queer or who have had a traditionally queer following (such as disco, Madonna, Judy Garland and so forth);
- works of art, literature, film, and so forth, that deal with the lives of Queer people;
- figures and identities that are present in the Queer community such as the gay village, drag, camp, and the fag hag.
See Polari, rainbow flag, pink triangle, black triangle, Queer studies
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Queer culture."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Roman statuette of bronze
from Swedish Iron age,
found at Öland
(larger image)This is an tentative list of topics regarding Roman culture
Spiritual
- Etruscan mythology
- Imperial cult
- Roman mythology
- Roman religion
- Religious offices
- Augur
- flamen priestss
- fratres arvales
- pontifex maximus
- rex sacrorum
- salii
- Vestal virgins
Society
- Adoption in Rome
- Colonies
- Freedman
- List of Roman cognomina
- Roman baths
- Roman law
- List of Roman laws
- Roman naming convention
- Roman provinces
- Slaves / Slavery
- Women in Rome
Issues of Roman daily life
- Julian calendar
- Latin language
- List of Latin proverbs
- Roman calendar
- Roman clothing
- Roman currency
- Roman eating and drinking
- Roman festivals
- Roman travelling
- Roman school
Architecture
- Amphitheatre
- Aqueduct
- Arch
- Basilica
- Colosseum
- Pantheon
- Roman road
- Roman villa
Entertainment
- Chariot racing
- Gladiators
- Latin literature
- Roman art
Foreign relations
- Romans and Greeks
- Romans and Germans
- Romans and Etruscans
- Pax romana
Places of special interest
- Ara Pacis
- Pompeii
- Ostia
- Hadrian's Wall
- Roman place names
- Latin names of European cities
History - Ancient History - Ancient Rome - Roman Culture
See also: classical antiquity
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Roman culture."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
simple:SocietyAn article on this topic is also available in Simple English.
A society is a group of humans that form a semi-closed system, in which most interactions are with other people belonging to the group. A society is a network of relationships between people. A society is an interdependent community.
The name was historically applied to the community formed by all the nationals of a country - a questionable idea now thanks to globalization. Some, like Margaret Thatcher, deny they exist at all. Societies are the main subject of study of social sciences.
Also, some groups apply the title "society" to themselves, as the "American Society of Mathematics". This is most common in commerce, in which a partnership between investors to start a business is usually called a "society".
See evolution of societies, Information society, social capital
Sources
- Definition of Society (social)
- Learning Commons - What is Culture ? - Glossary Item - Society
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Society."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The Culture is a fictional anarchic, socialistic and utopian society invented by the Scottish writer Iain M. Banks and described by him in several of his novels and shorter fictions. Banks's second Culture novel, The Player of Games is widely considered to be the best introduction to the Culture.
The Culture originally came about when seven or eight roughly humanoid space-faring races coalesced into a rough collective -- a "group-civilisation" -- and ultimately consists of approximately thirty trillion sentient beings. Little uniformity exists within the Culture. Its citizens are such by choice, they are free to join, leave, and rejoin or indeed declare themselves to be, say, 80% Culture. Techniques in genetics are advanced to the point where human bodies are freed from built-in limitations: a severed limb grows back, automatic reflexes such as breathing or developing a blister can be switched to conscious control, bones and muscles adapt quickly to changes in gravity without the need to exercise them.
Furthermore, the humans of the Culture are equipped with drug glands in the base of their skull which secrete on command any of a large selection of chemicals, from the merely relaxing to the mind-altering: "Snap!" is described in Use of Weapons as "The Culture's favourite breakfast drug," and presumably resembles caffeine. "Quicken," mentioned in Excession, puts experiences in slow motion.
For all these genetic perfections, the Culture is by no means eugenically uniform. Human members vary in size, colour and shape as much as ourselves, and there are further differences: in the novella The State of the Art, it is mentioned that a character "looks like a Yeti," perhaps implying Neanderthal descent, and also that there is variance among the Culture in minor details such as the number of toes or of joints on each finger.
The Culture has a shared language in Marain. The Culture believes (or perhaps has proved) the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis that language affects society, and Marain was designed to exploit this effect. A related comment is made by the narrator in The Player of Games regarding gender-specific pronouns in English. Marain is also regarded as an aesthetically pleasing language.
Whilst the Culture is normally pacifist, a faction within the Culture exists to deal with special circumstances.
As well as humans, sentient artificial intelligences are also members of society. Each ship or space-based habitat contains at least one "Mind" which is usually identified with and known by the same name as the physical object it runs and inhabits. A Mind is tremendously powerful: capable of holding millions of conversations simultaneously with any of the humans that live on board, while running all the functions of the ship or habitat. The fact that Minds are accepted as citizens of the Culture was a major factor in the Idiran-Culture War, which is explored in Consider Phlebas.
"Drones" are usually more comparable to humans in terms of intelligence, although the Culture creates machines of widely varying intellectual capacity.
Notable in the Culture is its habit of giving witty names to its ships. Or, better, the habit of its superintelligent sentient ships of choosing witty names for themselves. Some examples:
See also: Culture
- Irregular Apocalyse
- Of Course I Still Love You
- Just Testing
- Killing Time
External link
- A Few Notes on The Culture by Iain M Banks
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "The Culture."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| CULT | English | Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport | European Union |
| CULT | French | Commission de la culture, de la jeunesse, de l'éducation, des médias et des sports | European Union |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: CultureSynonyms: acculturation (n), cultivation (n), finish (n), polish (n), refinement (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Improvement | Noun: improvement; amelioration, melioration; betterment; mend, amendment, emendation; mending; Verb: advancement; advance; (progress); ascent; promotion, preferment; elevation; increase; cultivation, civilization; culture, march of intellect; menticulture; race-culture, eugenics. |
Knowledge | Erudition, learning, lore, scholarship, reading, letters; literature; book madness; book learning, bookishness; bibliomania, bibliolatry; information, general information; store of knowledge; education; (teaching); culture, menticulture, attainments; acquirements, acquisitions; accomplishments; proficiency; practical knowledge; (skill); liberal education; dilettantism; rudiments; (beginning). |
Receptacle | Beaker, flask, Erlenmeyer flask, Florence flask, round-bottom flask, graduated cylinder, test tube, culture tube, pipette, Pasteur pipette, disposable pipette, syringe, vial, carboy, vacuum flask, Petri dish,beaker, flask, Erlenmeyer flask, Florence flask, round-bottom flask, graduated cylinder, test tube, culture tube, pipette, Pasteur pipette, disposable pipette, syringe, vial, carboy, vacuum flask, Petri dish, microtiter tray, centrifuge tube. |
Taste | Dilettantism, dilettanteism; virtu; fine art; culture, cultivation. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Culture |
| English words defined with "culture": Helladic culture ♦ mass culture, Minoan culture, Mycenaean culture. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "culture": arable culture ♦ Culture Media, Conditioned, Culture Media, Serum-Free ♦ LABORATORY ASSISTANT, CULTURE MEDIA, Lymphocyte Culture Test, Mixed ♦ Organ Culture ♦ selection culture ♦ terraced culture, Tissue Culture. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "culture": Viticulture. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Culture" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses. French (cultivation, culture, education, enlightenment, farming, reading, tillage). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | You can't forget, it's a sumo culture, Ted. They pay by the pound over there (There's Something About Mary; writing credit: Ed Decter; John J. Strauss) I wanted to meet stimulating and interesting people of an ancient culture, and kill them (Full Metal Jacket; writing credit: Gustav Hasford; Michael Herr) We have those in England, along with culture. (Peter's Friends; writing credit: Martin Bergmann and Rita Rudner.) Intolerance of other peoples culture, and the Dutch (Austin Powers in Goldmember; writing credit: Mike Myers) Every time I hear the word culture, I bring out my checkbook (Mépris, Le; writing credit: Alberto Moravia) | |
Lyrics | I do this for my culture (Izzo (H.O.V.A.); performing artist: Jay-Z) And cross a culture and generation age gap (Feels Good; performing artist: Naughty By Nature) | |
Clever | Support bacteria, they're the only culture some people have. (references; author: unknown) Cultivate money and you grow rich. Cultivate mind and you raise culture. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Villes Champignon de culture (1970) The Culture Vultures (1970) La Culture du quinquina (1946) A Physical Culture Romance (1914) | |
Song Titles | Easter Island Head (performing artist: Throat Culture) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
References | |||
Books |
| ||
Periodicals | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Shown is normal cells of human connective tissue in culture. At a magnification of 500x, the cells were illuminated by darkfield amplified contrast technique. This slide compares to the cancerous cells in AV-8711-3170. Credit: Dr. Cecil Fox (photographer). |  | This photomicrograph of cells in tissue culture have enlarged infected cells with a human herpes virus, HHV-6. Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. |
 | Thioglycollate broth culture. Morphology is rod-like with chains when cultured on broth. Can cause subacute bacterial endocarditis and dental caries. Streptococci. Credit: CDC. |  | Bacillus anthracis Gamma phage lysis on sheep blood agar, the culture is grown at 35 degrees centigrade without carbon dioxide. Credit: CDC. |
 | Wakin goldfish, Plate XVIII in: "Goldfish and Their Culture in Japan", by Shinnosuke Matsubara. Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries, Vol. XXVIII 1908, Part I. P. 397. Credit: Fisheries. |  | Ryukin goldfish, Plate XIX in: "Goldfish and Their Culture in Japan", by Shinnosuke Matsubara. Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries, Vol. XXVIII 1908, Part I. P. 397. Credit: Fisheries. |
 | Shrimp culture ponds. Credit: Small World. |  | Green low patches are taro patches. Taro, a tuber, is a staple food of the western Pacific Islands. Native women maintain the taro culture. Credit: Small World. |
 | Watson, W., and W. Bean. Orchids: Their Culture and Management. London: L. Upcott Gill, 1893. Credit: USDA. |  | Felch, I.K. Poultry Culture. Chicago: W.H. Harrison, Jr., 1887. Credit: USDA. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Palace of culture. warsaw" by Pernilla Lindmon Commentary: "Palace of culture. warsaw." | "_MOVEMENT:57" by Janus R. Sørensen Commentary: "Reality is constantly changing. Culture is always evolving. Information is always moving. Constant motion, even in that which seems static. _MOVEMENT:57." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Christian Nevell Bovee | Partial culture runs to the ornate, extreme culture to simplicity. |
Confucius | When nature exceeds culture, we have the rustic. When culture exceeds nature then we the pedant. |
Henry Ward Beecher | That is true culture which helps us to work for the social betterment of all. |
Jesse Bennett | The acquiring of culture is the development of an avid hunger for knowledge and beauty. |
Matthew Arnold | Culture is to know the best that has been said and thought in the world. |
Ralph Waldo Emerson | Culture, with us, ends in headache. |
| Culture is one thing and varnish is another. | |
| It the proof of high culture to say the greatest matters in the simplest way. | |
Thomas Carlyle | Culture is the process by which a person becomes all that they were created capable of being. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Communist Manifesto | 1848 | That culture, the loss of which he laments, is, for the enormous majority, a mere training to act as a machine. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Emma | Austen, Jane | English verdure, English culture, English comfort, seen under a sun bright, without being oppressive |
Life, the Universe and Everything | Douglas Adams | On the way back they sang a number of tuneful and reflective songs on the subjects of peace, justice, morality, culture, sport, family life and the obliteration of all other life forms |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | One day, he stopped at the corner of the Rue Culture Sainte Catherine, and looked at the Rue des Filles du Calvaire from the distance |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | But consider how little this village does for its own culture. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | If a culture isolated is lysed by specific bacteriophage. (references) | |
These include a blood film examination for malaria and a blood culture. (references) | ||
A culture test involves allowing H. pylori to grow in the tissue sample. (references) | ||
Business | Vietnamese culture has traditionally placed a high value on formal education. (references) | |
A small but very active group of Czech tourists is interested in Native American culture. (references) | ||
The Mexican market, except for the financial sector, has not developed a security culture. (references) | ||
Children | Israel and the occupied territories | Arab groups note that the public school curriculum stresses Israel's Jewish culture and heritage. (references) |
Saudi Arabia | Although in general Saudi culture greatly prizes children, new studies by Saudi female doctors indicate that severe abuse and neglect of children appears to be more widespread than previously reported. (references) | |
Somalia | These schools are inexpensive and provide basic education; however, there were reports that these schools required the veiling of small girls and other conservative Islamic practices normally not found in the local culture. (references) | |
Civil Liberties | Yemen | An author must obtain a permit from the Ministry of Culture to publish a book. (references) |
Iraq | Books may be published only with the authorization of the Ministry of Culture and Information. (references) | |
Czech Republic | The State subsidizes all religions that are registered officially with the Ministry of Culture. (references) | |
Discrimination | Samoa | Politics and culture reflect a heritage of chiefly privilege and power, and members of certain families have some advantages. (references) |
Bhutan | Ongoing government efforts to cultivate a national identity rooted in the language, religion, and culture of the Ngalong ethnic group restrict cultural expression by other ethnic groups. (references) | |
Economic History | Nepal | Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation--Bal Bahadur K.C. (references) |
Human Rights | Tajikistan | In September unknown persons killed Minister of Culture, Abdruahim Rahimov. (references) |
Georgia | Despite an overall culture of impunity, some policemen were arrested or administratively disciplined in high-profile cases of physical abuse or deaths in custody. (references) | |
Colombia | The FARC also kidnaped Consuelo Araujo, former Minister of Culture and wife of the Inspector General and at least 10 others on September 24 near Valledupar, Cesar department. (references) | |
Indigenous People | Namibia | The law assigns to traditional leaders the role of guardians of culture and tradition. (references) |
Norway | The royal family has supported the Sami through their interest in Sami culture and by visiting Sami areas. (references) | |
Nicaragua | First, most participants in these groups are Amerindians who long have seen themselves as having a separate culture. (references) | |
Minorities | Slovak Republic | Two instructors at the Institute teach Ruthenian culture and language. (references) |
Ireland | The "Travelling" community has its own history, culture, and language. (references) | |
Austria | The largest problem facing these national minority groups is the preservation of their culture and language. (references) | |
Political Economy | Pakistan | The military government has vowed to eliminate the culture of corruption. (references) |
Morocco | On October 17, the King established an institute to promote Berber culture. (references) | |
JORDAN | Copyrights must be registered at the National Library, part of the Ministry of Culture. (references) | |
Political Rights | Maldives | However, for reasons of tradition and culture, relatively few women seek or are selected for public office. (references) |
Colombia | There were 4 women in the 16-member cabinet (the Ministers of Health, Culture, Communications, and Foreign Trade) and 7 vice ministers. (references) | |
Tajikistan | This fact, combined with a lack of democratic culture, results in a legislative branch that is not genuinely independent of the executive branch. (references) | |
Trade | Canada | Authority for review and approval of all prospective foreign investments in industries related to Canadian culture, heritage or national identity rests with the Minister for Canadian Heritage. (references) |
Netherlands | American companies locating in the Netherlands, however, will come up against a complex business culture, in which companies, trade unions, government bodies and industry associations engage in constant and close consultations. (references) | |
Travel | Turkey | The Turkish people feel close to their traditions and culture. (references) |
Women | Saint Kitts and Nevis | The role of women in society is not restricted by law but is circumscribed by culture and tradition. (references) |
Burma | Consistent with traditional culture, women keep their names after marriage and often control family finances. (references) | |
Ecuador | The increasingly active women's movement alleges that culture and tradition inhibit achievement of full equality for women. (references) | |
Worker Rights | Costa Rica | The Labor Ministry denied the reports but acknowledged that solidarity association culture is deeply embedded. (references) |
China | They fear that Tibet's traditional culture and ethnic Tibetan demographic dominance will be overwhelmed by such migration. (references) | |
Cyprus | The new legislation significantly increased fines for child labor abuses and added regulations that deal with culture, sports, and advertising. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | MONEY, n. A blessing that is of no advantage to us excepting when we part with it. An evidence of culture and a passport to polite society. Supportable property. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Dan Rather | Well, I'm not sure you can't be. You couldn't be at CBS News. The culture at CBS News wouldn't allow such a person to come to the anchor chair. |
Rush Limbaugh | Balch wonders where our current corporate culture was born, and theorizes that it's being taught in business schools. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Ronald Reagan | 1981-1989 | Those are the ideals that invented revolutionary technologies and a culture envied by people everywhere. |
George Bush | 1989-1993 | We do not seek the destruction of Iraq, its culture or its people. |
Bill Clinton | 1993-2001 | I respect that part of our culture, I grew up in it. |
George W. Bush | 2001-2005 | Many jobs are lost in America because government imposes unreasonable regulations, and many jobs are lost because the lawsuit culture of this country imposes unreasonable costs. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Culture" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.98% of the time. "Culture" is used about 8,541 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.98% | 8,539 | 1,131 |
| Total | 100.00% | 8,541 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Country | Name |
| Japan | Culture Convenience Club Co., Ltd. |
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
Expressions using "culture": a man of wide culture ♦ Aegean culture ♦ alien culture ♦ arable culture ♦ beauty culture ♦ bee culture ♦ cell culture ♦ corporate culture ♦ cranberry culture ♦ Culture features ♦ Culture fluid ♦ culture lag ♦ Culture Media ♦ culture medium ♦ Culture myth ♦ culture of bacteria ♦ culture shock ♦ culture tube ♦ cycladic culture ♦ degree of culture ♦ Fish culture ♦ forest culture ♦ glass culture ♦ helladic culture ♦ helping Hacker Culture Grow ♦ in vitro cell culture ♦ in vitro tissue culture ♦ islam culture ♦ lack of culture ♦ mass culture ♦ meristem culture ♦ meristematic culture ♦ minoan culture ♦ mycenaean culture ♦ Organ Culture ♦ Organizational Culture ♦ physical culture ♦ preparatory culture ♦ quantity culture ♦ row culture ♦ selection culture ♦ silk culture ♦ specialised culture ♦ stab culture ♦ terraced culture ♦ tissue culture ♦ tissue culture technique ♦ vestiges of an old culture ♦ youth culture. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "culture": culture-area, culture-based, culture-bound, culture-boundedness, culture-building, culture-centric, culture-changing, culture-clash, culture-complex, culture-conditioning, culture-controlled, culture-creating, culture-dependent, culture-fair, culture-favoured, culture-free, culture-gap, culture-hungry, culture-ideology, culture-krill-harvesting, culture-less, culture-nature, culture-proof, culture-related, culture-shaped, culture-shift, culture-shock, culture-specific, culture-specificness, culture-style, culture-transmitting, culture-vulture, culture-vultures, culture-worker. | |
Ending with "culture": gene-culture, nature-culture, sub-culture. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
african culture | 3,760 | hispanic culture | 158 |
culture | 2,021 | deaf culture | 157 |
society culture | 1,358 | culture of japan | 150 |
africa culture | 812 | mexico culture | 149 |
chinese culture | 597 | native american culture | 149 |
japanese culture | 550 | russian culture | 135 |
pop culture | 468 | culture shock | 128 |
mexican culture | 407 | france culture | 126 |
culture club | 386 | greek culture | 122 |
cannabis culture | 316 | tissue culture | 115 |
italian culture | 265 | aztec culture | 114 |
organizational culture | 254 | philippine culture | 113 |
american culture | 221 | southern culture on the skids | 113 |
indian culture | 197 | irish culture | 109 |
french culture | 195 | hip hop culture | 108 |
corporate culture | 193 | art culture | 108 |
german culture | 188 | hawaiian culture | 105 |
spanish culture | 171 | popular culture | 105 |
india culture | 167 | korean culture | 101 |
culture of china | 163 | african american culture | 100 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "culture"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | kultuur. (various references) | |
Albanian | kulturë (civilization, cultivation, reading). (various references) | |
Arabic | ادب (refinement), حضارة (civilization), حراثة (cultivation, plowing, tillage, tilth), تهذيب (breeding, cultivation, discipline, edification, expurgation, polish, politeness, precept, pruning, purgation, refinement, reformation, retouch, revision, sublimation, urbanity), تثقيف (edification), الإستنبات, ثقافة (cultivation, education, enlightenment). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | култура (acquirements, attainments, civilization, cultivation), отглеждане (fosterage, growth, nurture, upbringing), земеделска култура. (various references) | |
Chinese | 文化 (civilization, cultural). (various references) | |
Czech | kultura. (various references) | |
Danish | kultur (breeding, committee on youth, education, growing, information and sport). (various references) | |
Dutch | cultuur (breeding, committee on youth, corporate culture, cultivation, education, growing, information and sport), teelt (breeding, crop, crop growing), bouw (building, construction, structure), beschaving (civilization). (various references) | |
Esperanto | kulturo. (various references) | |
Faeroese | mentan. (various references) | |
Farsi | فرهنگ (Dictionary, Lexicon), پرورش (Nurture, Upbringing), کشت میکرب درازمایشگاه , تمدن , برز. (various references) | |
Finnish | kulttuuri (civilization). (various references) | |
French | culture (cultivation). (various references) | |
Frisian | kultuer. (various references) | |
German | Kultur (civilization, cultivation, plantation), züchtung (breed, breeding, cultivation, education, growing, keeping, synthesis, variety), bildung (acquisition, civilization, education, establishment, fashioning, formation, formations, forming, literacy, nurture, setting up, shaping, structure). (various references) | |
Greek | καλλιέργεια (crop, cultivation, farming, tillage), κουλτούρα, μόρφωση (education, learning, schooling), παιδεία (education), πολιτισμόσ (civilization, ethos), πολιτισμός (civilisation). (various references) | |
Hawaiian | kulturë. (various references) | |
Hebrew | תרבית (breeding, increase, progeny), תרבותיות, תרבות (civilization, development, education, enlightenment). (various references) | |
Hungarian | kultúra (civilization), társadalom (society), baktériumtenyészet. (various references) | |
Indonesian | peradaban (civilization), kesopanan (courtesy, decency, politeness, propriety), kebudayaan (cultural), budaya (practice), adab (civilization, courtesy, erudition, good manners, knowing proper, learning, refinement). (various references) | |
Irish | gcultúr. (various references) | |
Italian | cultura (creation, cultivation, education, formation, learning, literacy, scholarship), coltura (cultivation, farming, growing, Tilling). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 養殖 (cultivation, raising), 培養 (cultivation, nurture). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | しゅうれん (astringency, contraction, convergence, discipline, drill, extraction, heavy taxation, practice, training), しゅうよう (accommodation, admission, adoption, custody, entering, expropriation, following, housing, reception, seating, self-discipline, training), きょうか (bridge girder, civilization, comictanka, curriculum, education, intensify, reinforce, solidify, strengthen, subject), きょうよう (coercion, common use, communal, cultivation, education, extortion, offer for use, refinement), ぶんきょう (education), ぶんか (branch, civilization, course, department, literary course, school, section, specialization, subdivision, the arts), ぶんめい (civilization, clear understanding, clearness, literary fame), ばいよう (cultivation, nurture), カルチャー , ようしょく (beauty, cultivation, features, important office, looks, raising, Western-style meal), じんぶん (civilization, humanity), じんもん (civilization, cross examination, humanity, interrogation, questioning, surrender to the enemy). (various references) | |
Korean | 문화 (Cultural). (various references) | |
Manx | lhiasaghey (amendment, appendix, appendix book, atone, atonement, compensate, compensation, correct, correct as text, correction, cultivate, cultivation, cure, curing, develop, developing, dress, dressing, dung, dunging, enrich, expiate, expiation, fertilize, fertilizer, furtherance, husband, husband as land, improvement, imputation, manure, manuring, propitiate, propitiation, reclaim, reclamation, recompense, repair, replenish, replenishment, restitution, revise, revision, rub up, season), cultoor, aase (apophysis, develop, evolve, forwardness, grow, growth, tumour, wax). (various references) | |
Papiamen | kultura. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ulturecay.(various references) | |
Polish | kultura. (various references) | |
Portuguese | cultura (accomplishments, civilization, erudition, germination, growth, niceness, scholarship). (various references) | |
Romanian | culturã (breeding, civility, crop, cultivation, education, growing, growth, letter, rearing), cultivare (cultivation, working), cultiva (crop, cultivate, grow, plant, produce, propagate, raise, rear, till), luminã (glare, glim, glow, illumination, light, lighting, lightness, lucidity, luminous energy, opening, perspective, side light, span, twinkle), învãţãturã (advice, apprenticeship, article, doctrine, education, instruction, learning, lesson, lore, message, moral, precept, scholarship, studies, study, teaching). (various references) | |
Russian | культура (civilization, cultivation). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | prosvećenost, kultura (judaica). (various references) | |
Spanish | cultura (education, enlightenment, refinement), cultivo (crop, cultivation, farming, planting). (various references) | |
Sranan | kulturu. (various references) | |
Swedish | kultur (civilization, cultivation). (various references) | |
Turkish | kültür (ethos). (various references) | |
Turkmen | medeniяet (cultural). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | розведення (cultivation, keeping, raising, watering), культура (civilization), обробіток (cultivation). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | cá (fresh), sự tu dưỡng (cultivation), sự trao đổi sự giáo dục, sự mở mang (cultivation, development), sự giáo hoá văn hoá, số lượng vi khuẩn cấy, ong, mẻ cấy vi khuẩn. (various references) | |
Welsh | gwrteithio (cultivate, manure), gwrteithiad (cultivation), gwrtaith (manure), diwylliant. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | eruditio, eruditionem, eruditionis, humanitas, humanitatem, humanitatis. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "culture": cultured, cultures. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "culture": agriculture, apiculture, aquaculture, aquiculture, arboriculture, aviculture, citriculture, coculture, counterculture, floriculture, horticulture, interculture, mariculture, microculture, monoculture, pisciculture, sericulture, silviculture, subculture, sylviculture, viniculture, viticulture. (additional references) | |
Words containing "culture": agricultures, apicultures, aquacultures, aquicultures, arboricultures, avicultures, citricultures, cocultured, cocultures, countercultures, floricultures, horticultures, intercultures, maricultures, microcultures, monocultures, piscicultures, sericultures, silvicultures, subcultured, subcultures, sylvicultures, uncultured, vinicultures, viticultures. (additional references) | |
| |
"Culture" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Bulture, calture, colourer, colture, costure, coture, coulure, culrure, cultue, cultur, cultyure, Cuttaree, cuture, fulture, Kouloura, kulture, Kulturen, multure, ulture. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "culture" (pronounced ku"lkher) |
| 4 | -u" l kh er | vulture. |
| 3 | -l kh er | agriculture, Aquaculture, Belcher, counterculture, horticulture, subculture, Welcher. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-e-l-r-t-u-u" | |
-1 letter: curule, cutler, reluct. | |
-2 letters: cruel, cruet, culet, curet, cuter, eruct, lucre, recut, truce, ulcer. | |
-3 letters: celt, clue, cult, cure, curl, curt, cute, ecru, luce, lure, lute, rule, true, tule. | |
-4 letters: cel, cue, cur, cut, ecu, let, leu, rec, ret, rue, rut, tel, ulu. | |
-5 letters: el, er, et, re, ut. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-e-l-r-t-u-u" | |
+1 letter: cultured, cultures. | |
+2 letters: coculture, reticulum, sculpture, truculent, unclutter. | |
+3 letters: apiculture, auriculate, aviculture, cocultured, cocultures, elucubrate, multicurie, sculptured, sculptures, subcluster, subculture, truculence, truculency, tubercular, tuberculin, turbulence, turbulency, turnbuckle, unclutters, uncultured. | |
+4 letters: acculturate, agriculture, apicultures, aquaculture, aquiculture, avicultures, courteously, elucubrated, elucubrates, mariculture, microtubule, monoculture, multicourse, multisource, musculature, pulchritude, retinaculum, sericulture, subclusters, subcultured, subcultures, truculences, truculently, tuberculars, tuberculate, tuberculins, tuberculoid, tuberculous, turbulences, turnbuckles, uncluttered, unreluctant, vasculature, ventriculus, viniculture, viticulture. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Familiar 10. Quotations: Historic 11. Quotations: Fiction 12. Quotations: Non-fiction | 13. Quotations: Spoken 14. Quotations: Speeches 15. Usage Frequency 16. Names: Company Usage | 17. Expressions 18. Expressions: Internet 19. Translations: Modern 20. Translations: Ancient | 21. Abbreviations 22. Acronyms 23. Derivations 24. Rhymes | 25. Anagrams 26. Bibliography |
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