What is Culture?

We Are One
Pencil Sketch by Beverly Blanchard

It is word we hear every day.  People use it to identify and define themselves.  It is used to differentiate ourselves from other groups of people.  It is used in corporations as in the corporate culture.  There is fashion culture, music culture, art culture, language culture, heritage culture, folk culture, sexual culture, gender culture, community culture, drug culture...the list can go onto to infinity and yet it is a word which seems divide and separates us.

We fight over culture.  We blame other cultures for the plights within the world.  We use culture as a comparison mechanism.  My culture is better than your culture.  We define people based on imaginary little lines stroked across Planet Earth.  On this side of the line you are from that culture, and the people on that side of the line are from this culture.   We use culture as a word to instill fear and suggest that someone else’s culture will destroy us.  We stamp children at birth with a culture and tell them this is who they are and who they will be for the rest of their life.  We create stereotypes about the various cultures, and pigeonhole people. We hide behind culture and sometimes we use culture for the economic and social benefits.

Yet what exactly is culture?  Who defines it?  Who owns the culture?  Who speaks for a whole culture?  Is there such a thing as a whole culture? Do all the people under the umbrella of a particular culture all think the same?  What happens when you grow up and discover that the culture you are born into and the beliefs you accepted are no longer valid to your life?  Is there really such a thing as cultural appropriation?  Who creates the cultural road show and sanctions the changes within the culture?