culture

Culture
Culture describes the many ways in which human beings express themselves for the purposes of uniting with others, forming a group, defining an identity, and even for distinguishing themselves as unique.
The way of life of a people, including their attitudes, values, beliefs, arts, sciences, modes of perception, and habits of thought and activity. Cultural features of forms of life are learned but are often too pervasive to be readily noticed from within.
Culture has been taken as constituting the way of life of an entire society, including the codes of manners, language, rituals, norms of behaviour, and systems of belief. Sociologists stress the importance of culture in determining human behaviour.
Cultural differences are different beliefs and values of a particular group. They are different from one another.

All cultures are known to have a set of beliefs that defines the code of conduct and values for that particular culture. People living together in a society share the same culture.
The cultural values of a community give it an identity of its own. A community gains a character and a personality of its own, because of the culture of its people. Culture is shared by the members of a community. It is learned and passed from the older generations to the newer ones. For an effective transfer of culture from one generation to another, it has to be translated into symbols. Language, art and religion serve as the symbolic means of transfer of cultural values between generations.

Culture is a bond that ties the people of a region or community together. It is that one common bond, which brings the people of a community together. The customs and traditions that the people of a community follow, the festivals they celebrate, the kind of clothing they wear, the food they eat, and most importantly, the cultural values they adhere to, bind them together.

Culture is seen as a system of social control, wherein people shape their standards and behaviour. The cultural values form the founding principles of one’s life. They influence one’s principles and philosophies of life. They influence one’s way of living and thus impact social life.
Culture is a defining feature of a person's identity, contributing to how they see themselves and the groups with which they identify. Culture may be broadly defined as the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings, which is transmitted from one generation to another. Every community, cultural group or ethnic group has its own values, beliefs and ways of living.