The etymology "culture" comes from Latin culture in the west, which originally meant farming and plant cultivation. It has been gradually used since15th century, and the cultivation of people's morality and ability is also called culture. In China's ancient books, "Wen" not only refers to words, articles and literary talents, but also refers to the system of rites and music and legal provisions. "Culture" means "education" and "teaching behavior". From the perspective of social governance, "culture" refers to educating people with the system of rites and music. Liu Xiang of the Han Dynasty said in Shuo Yuan: "Where martial arts flourish, it means that you are not satisfied, your culture will not change, and then you will be punished." The word "culture" here is opposite to "martial arts" and contains the meaning of education. Wang Rong in the Southern Qi Dynasty said in the Preface to Qushui Poetry: "Set the spirit to reason with scenery and customs, and apply culture flexibly." The word "culture" also means enlightenment and education. The Chinese and western sources of the word "culture" reach the same goal by different routes. Now it is used to refer to the spiritual phenomenon of human society, or to refer to the sum of all material products and intangible products created by human beings. History, anthropology and sociology usually use broad cultural concepts.
There is no uniform definition of the word culture. In modern times, British anthropologists were the first to give a clear definition of the word culture. He published the book Primitive Culture at 187 1. He pointed out: "From the ethnographic point of view, culture or civilization is a complex whole, which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, ethics, laws, customs and any other abilities and habits acquired by people as members of a society through learning."
British anthropologist developed Taylor's definition of culture, and wrote a book "On Culture" in 1930s, arguing that "culture refers to a group of traditional objects, commodities, technologies, ideas, habits and values, and this concept includes and standardizes all social sciences. We will also see that social organizations cannot be understood unless they are regarded as part of culture. " He further divided culture into material and spiritual components, namely "transformed environment and changed human organism".
It is a tradition of British anthropology to study culture from the perspective of structure and function. British anthropologists believe that culture is a certain way of thinking, feeling and activity acquired by social classes in contact with others. Culture is a process in which people acquire knowledge, skills, experience, thoughts, beliefs and emotions through mutual communication. He emphasized that culture can only be revealed when it plays a role, and it cannot be observed without the social structure system. For example, the relationship between father and son, the relationship between buying and selling, and the relationship between ruler and ruled can only show a certain culture when they interact. French anthropologists define culture from the perspective of behavioral norms and patterns. He put forward that "culture is a set of behavior patterns, which is popular among a group of people in a certain period of time, … and is easily distinguished from other people's behavior patterns, showing obvious discontinuity". British anthropologist R Firth believes that culture is society. Culture is society. In his book Elements of Social Organization published by 195 1, he pointed out that if a society is composed of a group of people with a specific lifestyle, then culture is. In 1952, K. colahong, an American cultural anthropologist, analyzed more than 100 cultural definitions, and then they gave a comprehensive definition of culture: "Culture exists in various recessive and dominant ways, which can be learned and spread with the help of symbols, and constitutes the special achievements of human groups, including what they have made. The cultural definitions of Ge Yihao and Clark Hong have been accepted by many modern western scholars.
The above-mentioned cultural definitions have their own advantages and disadvantages, which reflect the historical process of modern anthropologists, sociologists and social psychologists' understanding of culture.