What is culture Culture encompasses the beliefs values

What is culture? Culture encompasses the beliefs, values, behavior, customs and objects that are shared by a group of people. All of these elements of culture are passed down from generation to generation.

Baskets, pottery, weapons, musical instruments, clothing and textiles, foods, celebration and religious figures are items that express cultural identity.

Items of Personal Adornment including clothing, jewelry and body modification such as painting, piercing, tattooing, shaping and scaring express cultural identity.

Group membership is used by members to identify their membership or involvement with a particular group. This would include family groups, ethnic groups, and even groups you join.

Status includes age, gender, kinship (family), wealth and social or political power. This can be broken down into rank such as in the military or some organization, marital status, and wealth.

A final way to identify culture would be belief systems. All over the world personal adornment is used to express beliefs about the supernatural.

The first of these would be ornaments of faith such as saint metals, crosses, the Star of David, or amulets containing verses from a holy text.

Next would be religious attire. Who can you identify that wears special clothing that would help identify their faith?

What other ways do you think culture is identified? Are there sub-cultures among your classmates? Is it easy to distinguish between a culture and an ethnic group?

What is an ethnic group? Can you change your ethnicity? Is it as easy to tell someone’s ethnicity today as it was before modern travel allowed people to move away from the place of their birth? Do you identify with a certain ethnic group?

Ethnicity may be defined as pertaining to or characteristic of a people, especially a group (ethnic group) sharing a common and distinctive culture, religion, language, or the like….

…being a member of an ethnic group, especially of a group that is a minority within a larger society: ethnic Chinese in San Francisco. Or even (of a human being) displaying characteristics, as in physical appearance, language, or accent, that can cause one to be identified by others as a member of a minority ethnic group.

Is religion the same as ethnicity? Can you change your religion? Can you change your ethnicity? Think about it?