Introduction to Culture
Culture is the shared beliefs, values, practices, and objects of a group of people — and this unit starts by breaking that broad idea into the specific vocabulary you'll use to describe how culture varies and spreads.
A cultural trait is one specific piece of a culture — a particular custom, style of dress, or belief — not the whole bundle. Traits split into two kinds: material culture, the tangible, physical objects a culture produces (tools, clothing, architecture), and nonmaterial culture, the intangible beliefs, values, and customs that don’t take physical form (respect for elders, a greeting ritual, a moral code).
Culture also varies in how it spreads and changes. Folk culture is practiced by a small, often rural, relatively homogeneous group, changes slowly, and stays closely tied to a specific place — a traditional quilting technique passed down for generations. Popular culture is the opposite: practiced by a large, diverse audience, spreading and changing quickly, usually through mass media — a viral dance trend is the clearest modern example.
The same underlying practice can sometimes shift categories. A folk dance that stays within its home community remains folk culture; once a large, diverse, fast-moving audience picks it up through media, it becomes popular culture — the classification depends on the size and speed of the audience, not on the dance itself.