Culture theory

Short description: Branch of semiotics and anthropology concerning societal norms, behaviors and artifacts

This page is about culture. For Cultural Theory, see Cultural theory of risk.

Not to be confused with Cultural studies.

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Culture theory is the branch of comparative anthropology and semiotics that seeks to define the heuristic concept of culture in operational and/or scientific terms.

## Overview

In the 19th century, "culture" was used by some to refer to a wide array of human activities, and by some others as a synonym for "civilization". In the 20th century, anthropologists began theorizing about culture as an object of scientific analysis. Some used it to distinguish human adaptive strategies from the largely instinctive adaptive strategies of animals, including the adaptive strategies of other primates and non-human hominids, whereas others used it to refer to symbolic representations and expressions of human experience, with no direct adaptive value. Both groups understood culture as being definitive of human nature.

According to some theories that have gained acceptance among anthropologists, culture exhibits the way that humans interpret their biology and their environment. According to this point of view, culture becomes such an integral part of human existence that it is the human environment, and most cultural change can be attributed to human adaptation to historical events. Moreover, given that culture is seen as the primary adaptive mechanism of humans and takes place much faster than human biological evolution, most cultural change can be viewed as culture adapting to itself.

Although most anthropologists try to define culture in such a way that it separates human beings from other animals, many human traits are similar to those of other animals, particularly the traits of other primates. For example, chimpanzees have big brains, but human brains are bigger. Similarly, bonobos exhibit complex sexual behaviour, but human beings exhibit much more complex sexual behaviours. As such, anthropologists often debate whether human behaviour is different from animal behaviour in degree rather than in kind; they must also find ways to distinguish cultural behaviour from sociological behaviour and psychological behavior.

Acceleration and amplification of these various aspects of culture change have been explored by complexity economist, W. Brian Arthur. In his book, The Nature of Technology, Arthur attempts to articulate a theory of change that considers that existing technologies (or material culture) are combined in unique ways that lead to novel new technologies. Behind that novel combination is a purposeful effort arising in human motivation. This articulation would suggest that we are just beginning to understand what might be required for a more robust theory of culture and culture change, one that brings coherence across many disciplines and reflects an integrating elegance.

## See also

Anthropology

* Outline
* History

Types

* Archaeological
* Biological
* Cultural
* Linguistic
* Social

Archaeological

* Aerial
* Aviation
* Battlefield
* Biblical
* Bioarchaeological
* Environmental
* Ethnoarchaeological
* Experiential
* Feminist
* Forensic
* Maritime
* Paleoethnobotanical
* Zooarchaeological

Biological

* Anthrozoological
* Biocultural
* Evolutionary
* Forensic
* Molecular
* Neurological
* Nutritional
* Paleoanthropological
* Primatological

* Social
* Cultural

* Applied
* Art
* Cognitive
* Cyborg
* Development
* Digital
* Ecological
* Environmental
* Economic
* Political economy
* Historical
* Feminist
* Institutional
* Kinship
* Legal
* Media
* Medical
* Museums
* Musical
* Political
* Psychological
* Public
* Religion
* Symbolic
* Transpersonal
* Urban
* Visual

Linguistic

* Anthropological
* Descriptive
* Ethnological
* Ethnopoetical
* Historical
* Semiotic
* Sociological

Research framework

* Anthropometry
* Ethnography
* cyber
* Ethnology
* Cross-cultural comparison
* Participant observation
* Holism
* Reflexivity
* Thick description
* Cultural relativism
* Ethnocentrism
* Emic and etic

Key concepts

* Culture
* Development
* Ethnicity
* Evolution
* sociocultural
* Gender
* Kinship and descent
* Meme
* Prehistory

Race
* Society
* Value

* Colonialism / Postcolonialism

Key theories

* Actor–network theory
* Alliance theory
* Cross-cultural studies
* Cultural materialism
* Culture theory
* Diffusionism
* Feminism
* Historical particularism
* Boasian anthropology
* Functionalism
* Interpretive
* Performance studies
* Political economy
* Practice theory
* Structuralism
* Post-structuralism
* Systems theory

Lists

* Anthropologists by nationality
* Anthropology by year

* Bibliography
* Journals
* List of indigenous peoples
* Organizations

* v
* t
* e

* Cultural studies
* Culturology
* Cultural behavior
* Culture industry
* Critical theory
* Dual inheritance theory
* Engaged theory
* Intercultural relations
* Popular culture studies
* Semiotics of culture
* Structuralism
* Tartu–Moscow Semiotic School

## References

* Groh, Arnold A. Theories of Culture. Routledge, London. 2020.
* Ogburn, William F. Social Change. 1922. Reprint. Dell, New York. 1966.
* Rogers, G.F.C. The Nature of the Engineering: A Philosophy of Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 1983.
* Schumpeter, Joseph. The Theory of Economic Development. 1912. Reprint. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1966. 1934.

* v
* t
* e

Culture

Outline

Sciences|

* Cultural anthropology
* Cultural astronomy
* Cultural ecology
* Cultural geography
* Cultural neuroscience
* Cultural studies
* Culturology
* Culture theorysecurity culture
* Neuroculture

Subfields|

* Bioculture
* Cross-cultural studies
* Cross-cultural communication
* Cross-cultural leadership
* Cross-cultural psychiatry
* Cross-cultural psychology
* Cultural analytics
* Cultural economics
* Cultural entomology
* Cultural history
* Cultural mapping
* Cultural mediation
* Cultural psychology
* Cultural values
* Culturomics
* Intercultural learning
* Intercultural relations
* Internet culture
* Philosophy of culture
* Popular culture studies
* Postcritique
* Semiotics of culture
* Sociology of culture
* Sound culture
* Theology of culture
* Transcultural nursing

Types|

* Constructed culture
* Dominant culture
* Folk culture
* High culture
* Individualistic culture
* Legal culture
* Low culture
* Microculture
* Official culture
* Political culture
* Civic
* Popular culture
* Urban
* Primitive culture
* Subculture
* Alternative culture
* list
* Super culture
* Vernacular culture
* Culture by location

Aspects|

* Acculturation
* Cultural appropriation
* Cultural area
* Cultural artifact
* Cultural baggage
* Cultural behavior
* Cultural bias
* Cultural capital
* Cross-cultural
* Cultural communication
* Cultural conflict
* Cultural cringe
* Cultural dissonance
* Cultural emphasis
* Cultural framework
* Cultural heritage
* Cultural icon
* Cultural identity
* Cultural industry
* Cultural invention
* Cultural landscape
* Cultural learning
* Cultural leveling
* Cultural memory
* Cultural pluralism
* Cultural practice
* Cultural property
* Cultural reproduction
* Cultural system
* Cultural technology
* Cultural universal
* Cultureme
* Enculturation
* High- and low-context cultures
* Interculturality
* Manuscript culture
* Material culture
* Non-material culture
* Organizational culture
* Print culture
* Protoculture
* Safety culture
* Technoculture
* Trans-cultural diffusion
* Transculturation
* Visual culture

Politics|

* Colonial mentality
* Consumer capitalism
* Cross cultural sensitivity
* Cultural assimilation
* Cultural attaché
* Cultural backwardness
* Cultural Bolshevism
* Cultural conservatism
* Cultural contracts
* Cultural deprivation
* Cultural diplomacy
* Cultural environmentalism
* Cultural exception
* Cultural feminism
* Cultural genocide
* Cultural globalization
* Cultural hegemony
* Cultural imperialism
* Cultural intelligence
* Cultural liberalism
* Cultural nationalism
* Cultural pessimism
* Cultural policy
* Cultural racism
* Cultural radicalism
* Cultural retention
* Cultural Revolution
* Cultural rights
* Cultural safety
* Cultural silence
* Cultural subsidy
* Cultural Zionism
* Culture change
* Culture minister
* Culture of fear
* Culture war
* Deculturalization
* Dominator culture
* Interculturalism
* Monoculturalism
* Multiculturalism
* Biculturalism
* Pluriculturalism
* Polyculturalism
* Transculturism

Religions|

* Buddhism
* Christianity
* Catholicism
* Cultural Catholic
* Cultural Christian
* Protestantism
* Role of Christianity in civilization
* Eastern Orthodoxy
* Mormonism
* Cultural Hindu
* Islam
* Cultural Muslim
* Judaism
* Cultural Judaism
* Sikhism

Related|

* Animal culture
* Archaeological culture
* Bennett scale
* Cannabis culture
* Circuit of culture
* Civilization
* Coffee culture
* Cross-cultural
* Cultural center
* Cultural competence
* Cultural critic
* Cultural Detective
* Cultural determinism
* Cultural diversity
* Cultural encoding
* Cultural evolutionism
* Cultural homogenization
* Cultural institution
* Cultural jet lag
* Cultural lag
* Cultural literacy
* Cultural mosaic
* Cultural movement
* Cultural mulatto
* Cultural probe
* Cultural relativism
* Culture speculation
* Cultural tourism
* Pop-culture
* Cultural translation
* Cultural turn
* Cultural sensibility
* Culture and menstruation
* Culture and positive psychology
* Culture and social cognition
* Culture gap
* Culture hero
* Culture industry
* Culture shock
* Culturgen
* Children's culture
* Culturalism
* Cyberculture
* Death and culture
* Disability culture
* Deaf culture
* Emotions and culture
* Intercultural communication
* Intercultural competence
* Languaculture
* Living things in culture
* Media culture
* Oppositional culture
* Participatory culture
* Permission culture
* Rape culture
* Remix culture
* Tea culture
* Transformation of culture
* Urban culture
* Welfare culture
* Western culture

* Category
* Commons
* WikiProject
* Changes

* v
* t
* e

Sub-fields of and approaches to human geography

Sub-fields|

* Behavioral
* Cognitive
* Cultural
* Development
* Economic
* Health
* Historical
* Integrated
* Language
* Marketing
* Military
* Political
* Population
* Religion
* Social
* Strategic
* Tourism
* Transport
* Urban

Approaches|

* Critical
* Culture theory
* Feminist
* Marxist
* Modernism
* Structuralism
* Semiotics
* Non-representational theory
* Postmodernism
* Post-structuralism
* Deconstruction
* Scientific method
* Sexuality and space
* Time

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