CULTURE SHOCK - Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

CULTUREWhat is Culture?Culture is not an easy concept to define. Scholars emphasize different aspects andcontinue to struggle for a precise focus and meaning. Thus only basic considerationswill be concentrated on here with respect to so complex a notion.A classic definition of culture is Sir Edward Taylor’s early definition (1871) whichviews culture as “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals,law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member ofsociety” (Guanipa, 1998:1). Thus a culture consists of all the learned patterns ofacting, feeling and thinking shared by the members of a particular society.Each society has a culture differing somewhat from that of all other societies. Asociety is therefore defined as all the people who share a common culture (Oberg,1960:1).A culture is often referred to as a “system” and this term is used to emphasize thedynamic qualities of cultural systems. They grow, shrink, adjust to their surroundings,change, divide, merge and influence each other. The outstanding characteristic of acultural system is that it is a process, it moves (Oberg, 1960:1).The cultural elements of human existence, however, are primarily mental or ideational– the things that count are ideas, meanings and purposes. A piece of chalk may be amaterial artifact, but the important thing about it is what it means or signifies within agiven cultural setting. It may be used in the schoolroom to write symbols on theblackboard or it may hang as an amulet around someone’s neck to ward off evil8