This paper examines the comprehensive definition of culture formulated by anthropologists Alfred Kroeber and Kluckhohn Clyde in 1952, which they developed after analyzing approximately 164 existing definitions. The paper breaks down the key elements embedded in their definition: culture as explicit and implicit behavioral patterns, behavior acquired and transmitted through symbols, distinctive achievements of human groups including artifacts, traditional ideas and attached values, products of human action, and conditioning elements of further action. Through examples drawn from everyday life, the paper illustrates how each component contributes to a holistic understanding of culture and explains why this definition remains widely accepted across multiple academic disciplines.
The paper demonstrates textual decomposition as an analytical strategy: rather than arguing a thesis in the traditional sense, it unpacks a single scholarly definition phrase by phrase, applying secondary sources and real-world illustrations to validate and expand each component. This technique is particularly effective for concept-definition essays in the social sciences, where establishing precise terminology is foundational to further argument.
The paper opens with a historical account of how Kroeber and Kluckhohn arrived at their definition, then quotes the definition in full before devoting a separate section to each of its six major elements: patterns, symbolic transmission, human achievements, traditional values, products of action, and conditioning elements. A brief references section closes the paper. Each body section follows the same internal logic — introduce the concept, cite supporting scholars, and provide a concrete example — creating a consistent and predictable reading experience.
Alfred Kroeber and Kluckhohn Clyde were two of America's leading anthropologists who reviewed the existing stock of definitions of culture, identified common points, and produced a comprehensive definition in 1952. Their aim was to clarify how the concept of culture was used in anthropology and to formulate a definition that captured the majority of existing understandings. Their definition is among the most widely accepted because it distinguished culture from the concepts found in ordinary language, literature, and history. Some authors have criticized it for raising more questions than it answers, and the assumptions on which it rests have also been challenged. Despite these issues, the definition has been accepted and applied across multiple fields.
Kroeber and Kluckhohn defined culture as follows:
"Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e. historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, and on the other as conditioning elements of further action."
Kroeber and Kluckhohn arrived at this comprehensive definition after studying approximately 164 different definitions of culture, organized under headings such as normative, descriptive, historical, genetic, structural, and psychological (Jackson, p. 17). Rather than adding a 165th independent definition, they synthesized the most common elements from existing ones into a single statement.
One important feature of this definition is that it combines both material elements and mental entities — for example, ideas and values that exist in the minds of individuals. The following sections examine the principal elements of culture highlighted in this definition.
Although "symbols" may appear to be the key word in the definition, equal importance is given to behavioral patterns — patterns that cannot simply be invented but must be acquired. As a result, every culture develops its own unique stylistic patterns.
The definition first highlights that culture consists of behavioral patterns, meaning regularly repeated behaviors. The distinction between explicit and implicit behavior corresponds to the difference between written and formally taught behavioral norms on the one hand, and patterns absorbed from childhood that shape ways of thinking and reacting on the other. These behavioral patterns, which effectively constitute a culture's values, are transmitted from person to person through symbols (Schaller and Crandall, p. 341).
Behavioral patterns can include: how members of a particular group greet one another — for instance, whether they bow or shake hands; how they handle eating utensils; how they decorate their homes on special occasions; and what dishes they prepare for specific events.
According to Kroeber and Kluckhohn, culture always develops within its own unique "style patterns." They argue that culture does not reside in groups themselves but is present in the implicit and explicit patterns associated with those groups (Sperber, p. 73). Cultural involvement is not simply a matter of membership in a recognized group; it is engagement with those patterns. This framing increases culture's capacity to diffuse broadly, whereas defining culture as the exclusive property of a specific group limits its influence to that group alone. Importantly, it is not necessary for a person to belong to a particular cultural group in order to engage with its cultural patterns.
Anthropologists have long debated the relative weight of material and non-material elements in culture. Today, most agree that culture is composed of thoughts, ideas, languages, behaviors, customs, objects produced by human groups, and the methods used to produce them. What distinguishes humans from other animals is not only the capacity to create culture but also the ability to transmit it.
Kroeber and Kluckhohn incorporated this point into their definition by specifying that cultural ideas are communicated, transmitted, and expressed through symbols. Culture is passed from one generation to the next and rests on the human capacity for symbolic thought. The most important symbolic form of communication is language. Culture cannot be transmitted without it, because emotions, desires, and ideas — the vehicles of cultural content — are expressed through language. Language enables people to learn from cumulative, shared experience. Without it, one generation could not transmit traditions, values, and behaviors to the next, and cultural continuity would break down.
An important qualification is that although culture is transmitted across generations through symbols whose meanings typically remain stable, this does not mean cultures are static. In fact, cultures are never truly stationary and continue to change. Older generations often notice how their teenage years differed from the present day; those differences represent shifts in behaviors, values, ways of doing things, and language — all components that together constitute culture.
Symbols, including works of art, remind people of their community's beliefs and values and help keep individuals aligned with their cultural identity. Symbols can also signal status within a culture. For example, observing dress in some eastern countries reveals a tendency to adopt western styles, while some western women have adopted eastern styles of head-covering for various reasons. This mutual exchange is occurring around the world, accelerated by the internet, which has effectively made the world a global village.
Culture is ultimately what a group of people think and how they behave, which they pass on to future generations. These beliefs and behaviors bind human beings together while simultaneously separating them into distinct communities. The definition proposed by Kroeber and Kluckhohn captures this complexity by integrating patterns, symbolic transmission, human achievements, traditional values, productive action, and learned conditioning into a single, coherent framework — one that continues to inform anthropological and cross-cultural inquiry today.
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