Culture

A term that refers to the accumulated habits, attitudes, and beliefs of a group of people that may describe for them their general behavior and way of life; the total set of learned activities of a people. In contemporary thinking, culture and cultures are recognized as vital and dynamic features of societies rather than bounded or static groupings along strict lines of race, language, or nationality.

Cultural identity

A term that refers to a sense of shared identity among a particular group or culture, or in an individual as far as she/he is influenced by a sense of belonging to a particular group or culture.

Material culture

A term that refers to the tangible possessions of a culture. Material culture is sometimes thought of as archaeological artifacts but includes any material item to which cultural meaning has been ascribed - in the past or present.

Cultural representation

A broad term that refers to the practices of depicting or portraying a culture through written words, speech, sounds, images, objects, as well as other kinds of texts. While cultural representations may be thought of as descriptive acts that convey the idea of culture and cultural identity, they are increasingly recognized as interpretive and political acts. Today, cultural representations are noted for their potential to misrepresent members of a culture as much as they are noted for their ability to be socially enabling.

Cultural survival

A term that challenges previous thinking about culture and cultures as traditional, or associated with a particular time and place. With the spread of Western technology and communications in general, traditional cultures have long been seen as struggling for survival. Particular ideas, patterns of behavior, and other features of a culture may change or lose prominence over time, but it’s important to know that cultures are resilient and adaptive.

Cultural renewal

A term that points to collective efforts of members of a culture to revitalize traditional forms – such as language, customs, festivals, and ceremonies – as an assertion of cultural identity and affirming acts of self-representation.

Cultural adaptation

A term that emphasizes the dynamic, living quality of cultures. Rather than seeing traditional cultures as threatened or disappearing, cultural adaptation takes into account cultural change and strategies for survival.