What is Culture? Its Origins and Core Concepts

Defining Culture

Originally, the word 'culture' referred to the cultivation of fields in agriculture. For a field to yield good harvests, it must be cared for, cultivated, and prepared. From this concept of field cultivation, the word 'culture' came to mean the cultivation of the mind or spirit. The human mind was conceived as a field that must be cultivated to yield the best fruits. Thus, culture came to mean education.

Jaeger's Concept of Culture

According to the classicist Werner Jaeger, the concept of culture encompasses the following:

1. The result of education: An educated person is considered cultured.
2. The content of education: Education involves teaching specific skills or content. However, not just anything is taught. The content is selected, geared towards humanity's most outstanding achievements in science, art, literature, philosophy, and religion.
3. A reference to the 'spiritual world': This selection process implies that culture serves as a reference to the "spiritual world of culture as a whole."

This notion of culture, as an ideal for humanity, has the following characteristics: it serves as a standard to evaluate the works and achievements of humankind, to select the proper content for a proper education, and to assess the cultural level of individuals.

• Legislation: It acts as a criterion to assess, identify, and judge.

Essential Features of Culture

This entire idea leads to two essential features of culture:

1. Learned Behavior: Cultural rules, habits, and behaviors are learned. Culture is not transmitted genetically between generations; each individual must learn the cultural patterns of conduct. This establishes a clear opposition between the natural and the cultural.
2. Social Phenomenon: Each individual learns the cultural rules of the group to which they belong. Therefore, culture is a fundamentally social phenomenon. Each social group has its own distinctive culture, which leads to a pluralistic conception. Rather than speaking of a single "culture," we should speak of "cultures."

Levels of Culture

All these features and definitions lead us to establish levels within the field of culture that relate to human life:

1. Techno-economic Level: This level describes how a social group is linked to its environment. It includes all forms of producing material things, art, and economics. It also includes beliefs, values, rules, etc.

These levels correspond to basic references in human life, such as the physical environment, interactions with other people, and the universe of ultimate ends and values.