Anthropologically Speaking, what is CULTURE? My CULTURE?

In a similar way that Edward Burnett Tylor understands culture, I think of culture as a
broad concept that refers to how humans live, their beliefs, practices, the ideologies, hobbies,
foods, music choices and any other matters that humans incorporate in their ways of life.
However, knowing that these things I am referring to culture are simply by-products or artifacts
of it, my holistic understanding of the subject has changed from what I have previously thought.
Nonetheless, according to Lassiter (2014), culture has a different meaning from the way that
“culture” is used in everyday English. That is to say, people understand culture in different ways
as it is used in different contexts. But anthropologically speaking, what really is culture? And as I
realize after reading the e-book of Luke Lassiter, I will try to incorporate in this essay its different
concepts and the true definition of the culture, itself to extrapolate my true culture being
observed and understood in my surrounding society.

Anthropologically speaking, culture is a shared and negotiated system of meaning

informed by knowledge that people learn and put into practice by interpreting experience and
generating behavior (Lassiter, 2014). What it does mean by culture as “shared and
negotiated system of meaning”? For instance, in every formal gathering, there is a practice
that during dinner, no one should speak when eating while the mouth is full. Some people
acknowledge this practice as a respect to the food and to other people dining with. Some think
that for a simple reason, you cannot be understood when your mouth is full. And for some aged
people, it is an animalistic act. And if these diverse people dine in and interact with each other,
they produce these shared and negotiated system of meanings. From there, the “not talking
when your mouth is full” practice invoke. Thus, the practice is not the culture itself but rather, a
by-product of shared and negotiated systems of meaning. Culture is informed by knowledge.
Having the knowledge and being informed that you are in a formal gathering, you are a
human, and you want people to understand you clearly when dining while speaking, then you
should not speak when your mouth is full. Knowing your place in a gathering prompt you to act
in a formal way. From there, being informed and by using the knowledge, you generate the “not
speaking when your mouth is full” practice. Now that you have the knowledge of a culture, the
idea that culture is learned comes in the discussion. No one was born educated, I guess.
Everything from birth, in order to be knowledgeable with, must undergo a process of learning
which is not eccentric to the idea that humans have to attend school or to be taught by someone
to learn. We can learn from our observation, lessons, and experiences. People acquires
knowledge by learning, and so does acquiring a culture. Cultures is learned because people do
not have innate culture within. Culture is learned because it is a shared and negotiated system
of meaning informed by knowledge that people learn. And culture, just like anything that we
learn, we put it into practice because culture is also practiced.