Culture - A definition?

I have been reading a book – “The Dynamics of Conflict”, by Bernard Mayer, in preparation for a course I will be taking starting, oh, today, and I have “discovered” something within that reading which I wish to share.

As I have moved along in the development of my career and my education I have been struck by the difficulty of communicating what it is I study, what I want to do, and where my interests are.  I work with culture, but what is culture?  I say that I study culture, I examine what it is, what its components are, how it affects interactions between groups – their communications, their expectations. But I do not feel that those with whom I am communicating receive the same information which I wish to send.  Why?  Because of this word “culture”.  To me “culture” does not mean a rain dance, or a particular piece on a drum.  It does not mean the type of clothes a person wears, or how they make their food.  All these things are a type of “culture”, but they are not the “culture” of which I speak.  Yet, I have been unsuccessful in finding another term, or qualifiers for the existing term, to succinctly and accurately communicate the “culture” that I study. 

But here, in this book, between pages 4 and 11 (yes, I am just right at the beginning, but then, that is often where the basic concepts are laid down isn’t it), bringing together what is said about culture, world perspectives, and conflict, as well as my own experiences, I have had a, hm, clarification, one could say.  Early on, during discussion on what “conflict” is, the author proposes that conflict is “our belief or understanding that our own needs, interests, wants or values are incompatible with someone else’s”.  Later the author discusses how conflict can exist not only between individuals but also between structures, and social systems.  This is where my work comes in, in the conflict which sometimes arises between different social systems.  For example, Indigenous peoples living on a parcel of land, developers wishing to access the resources within that land, and the external community wishing to benefit from the development of that land.  These are three social systems, potentially in conflict as each of their needs, interests, wants or values may be incompatible with either or both of the same of the other social systems involved.  This conflict will be resolved, one way or another, it would be nice if it could be done in a non-violent fashion that is also reflective of the needs, and rights for equality, of all involved.  In many places there has been sufficient recognition of the “rights” of all involved that there is a requirement for some sort of discussion, however, this discussion is often made more difficult by, among other things, a lack of understanding of the true depth of the differences in needs amongst the groups.  I study “culture”, as references the culture of needs and life approaches of a community, for the purpose of being able to contribute to the establishment of platforms for discussion reflective of the life approaches of all involved, so that all involved have a true opportunity to contribute to the discussions at hand.  To achieve this discussion, a definition of “culture” as the type of food a group eats, or their clothing, or even that they use drums, is insufficient.  A deeper understanding is required, hence my frustration with the popular understanding of the word “culture”, and my difficulties in communicating what I intend with that term when I am engaged in casual discussion regarding what I do, and study. 

Getting back to my enlightenment from my textbook reading….  linking together the description of conflict as being the belief or understanding that our own needs, interests, wants or values are incompatible with someone else’s with the classification of a community as a social structure which can potentially come into conflict with other social structures, I have come to a starting point for a definition of “culture” representative of what I study…. 

Culture – A community attribute representing the life view needs, interests, wants, or values of that community.

Now I just need to work on the “life view” term, and probably the “community” term also…