Culture the Term \"Culture\" Originally Described Aspects

¶ … Culture

The term "culture" originally described aspects of cultivation in agriculture but in the current sense has been used in anthropology to explain the aspects of human behavior that cannot be attributed to genetic influences (Gertz, 1973). Gertz (1973) defines culture as having two aspects: the capacity to act creatively and represent experience through civilization and the distinct differences as to how different groups of people represent their experience.

Culture is a potent force in the survival of people but is also a fragile entity. Culture can constantly change and can be easily lost because culture exists in the minds and thoughts of people. For this reason many anthropologists and sociologists further distinguish culture into material culture, the distinct physical artifacts a society creates and non-material culture which basically consist of all other aspects of culture (Newman, 2011).

The focus in material culture studies is to understand a particular culture or society by scrutiny of the physical objects generated by that particular group. The objects studied in material culture can cover a wide range of objects from man -- made artefacts, naturally occurring objects, or even preserved corpses. Material culture studies have found a home in archaeology and in art history and are useful in studying cultures where written documents or records are not always available. Material culture studies have focused on the notion that the objects of a particular culture can reflect the values of the culture itself. The study of material culture has followed two basic approaches (Woodward, 2007):

One way that material culture is studied is based on an "object -- centered approach" where the focus of investigation is centered on the materials or "objects" of a culture themselves (Herman, 1992). In this approach the specific physical characteristics of the objects of a specific culture are described such as: how the object is made, what materials are in the object, the physical attributes of the object (e.g., size, weight, shape, etc.), when the object was produced, the design or decorative status of the object, and what the purpose of function of the object was. The object -- centered approach focuses on attempts to place objects into groups or categories or to identify broader artistic movements. This approach is certainly used by archaeologists and of course by art historians (Friedel, 1993).

A second approach to material culture study has been described as an "object -- driven approach" (Herman, 1992). In an object -- driven approach the emphasis is placed on how material things relate to the specific culture that makes use of them. This approach is not quite as concrete as the object -- centered approach because materials or objects can take on different roles and their uses and functions can differ over time and between different groups of people can differ. Objects in a culture can reflect meaning or they can create meaning. In the object -- driven approach one of the first things that must be considered is how certain objects are destroyed or defaced when the political status of a group changes such as the destruction of the Berlin Wall in the 1980s. Such a loss is particularly a problem in studying religious artifacts from both approaches as if the prevailing religious affiliation of a group makes a drastic change these objects are often completely destroyed.