What is Culture?

If you are a scientist, a culture is a colony of bacteria growing in a Petri dish

But have you ever heard somebody say Oh, he/she is very cultured. This usually means that the person knows a lot about good books, classical music, fine art, etc.

Sometimes, when we talk about people who are a bit different to us, we say things like: Here we are talking about different lifestyles, habits and beliefs. They don’t believe in eating pork in their culture She didn’t make eye contact with me. That’s a cultural thing, isn’t it ? Chinese culture is very different to Western culture

Different countries and areas of the world have a culture which is associated with them. So do different groups of people in the world.

Here are some groups of people who have different traditions, behaviours and culture TravellersJews MuslimsMasai people

Different people in our world belong to different cultural groups They believe in different things (and also often the same things !) They behave in many different ways (and sometimes behave the same too) They live in many different ways They read different books, listen to different music and produce different beautiful things to admire They have different traditions and stories (but you’d recognise some of the stories)

Some cultural things are so well-known that everyone can recognise them. Try these !

1. With which culture do you associate these 3 things?

2. Which cultural group…. …. often lives in a trailer and not a house ? ….often sends their children to boarding school and shops at Harrods? …. all wear a top in the same colour, get into fights, chant “songs” and eat pies and hot dogs? ….worships in a mosque, doesn’t drink alcohol and has a sacred book called the Koran? ….has lived for 50,000 years in the Australian outback, makes art like this and has many stories which are not written down

This can cause a problem called STEREOTYPING This is when one cultural detail is picked out and people then believe everyone from that culture is like this or That this detail is the most important thing in life for those people

Different cultural groups often have different ideas about how you should behave or what to believe or what is important in life

Stereotypes about teenagers ! Lifestyle lazy, no ambition, eat junk food Beliefs they know everything the world is against them Dress (girls) short skirt, low-cut top Dress (boys) trousers halfway down bum, scruffy Behaviours rude, sulky, selfish, try to act older Music loud, tuneless