Nayla Henderson

ANT 1001

Tuesday/Thursday

September 7th, 2017

What is Culture?

Culture is defined in the dictionary as the quality in a person or society that arises from a

concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc. It is

defined as, in the Cultural Anthropology: A Toolkit for A Global Age, Second Edition by my

very own professor Kenneth Guest, a system of knowledge, beliefs, patterns of behavior,

artifacts, and institutions that are created, learned, shared, and contested by a group of people.

But the real question is what does culture mean to other people? How does culture affect the way

we live?

I went around asking in the local Baruch neighborhood what does culture mean to them. I

ran into a Polish bartender at Outback Steakhouse who replied “Culture is the way a group of

people do things, a certain way, have been doing it for a long time because it is the right way to

them. There are many American cultures, so many people who come to America and make it a

very diverse country. Culture affects every aspect in other lives in ways we cannot even see.”

This statement is true but we need more in order to fulfil this definition.

Daphne Chaviv, also known as my roommate, says “Culture is the customs, traditions and

beliefs of a certain group of people. There are many cultures in America, it is a melting pot of

people from many different background.” I agree with her statement on culture as well but it still
was not enough. America has many different people from various places which means different

cultures are emerge on a daily basis.

I called up a few friends from high school. One of my high school friend, Stanley

Kuffour, from Ghana believes culture is your roots, ethnicity, and background the way you see

things, your own personal perspective on everything. He stated, “ There are many American

cultures because America is composed of many different cultures. America is known as a

melting pot. There are many different people with that bring different cultures to the table.

Culture helps me make decision based off my background. It gives me a guideline to follow. It's

the way of life.” Stanley made a definition of culture based on his family’s background least

generalized than the previous responses.

My definition of culture is a traditional or nontraditional way people choose to live their

way of life. There is no wrong way to how people live there life. I completely agree with

everyone whom I have interviewed. Culture is anything we do and why we do it. For example, in

the African American culture we tend to be heavily influenced by Christianity. Anything can be

considered a culture for example, the younger generation, MTA customers, a group of women

who were abused, Abolitionist, to Beyhive (Beyonce) fans. There will never be one culture in

America it’s a country of freedom which means as time is passing new cultures are forming by

the minute. Culture is not limited to any of these definitions, there are most likely a million more

ways on how each person will describe and define culture, it will forever be an ongoing topic.
Work Cited:

“Culture.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/culture?s=t.

Guest, Kenneth J. Cultural Anthropology: A Toolkit for A Global Age, Second Edition.