Taylor’s definition of culture
Many people have struggled to define culture, and I have struggled in my current project on cultural cultu ral environmentali environmentalism sm to come up with a workab workable le definition. definition. Below are some thoughts; thoughts; I welcome comments and suggestions on additional sources or perspectives that might help in my attempt to describe the cultural environment. Anthropologist dward B. !aylor offered a broad definition, stating that culture is "that comple# whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits ac$uired by man as a member of society.%&'( society.%&'( )owever, "&c(ulture "&c(ulture has also been described as *one of the two or thr three ee most complicat complicated ed words in the ng nglis lish h lan langua guage.+ ge.+ !he !here re is no shortage of proposed definitions'-, according to one study. study. !he definition of culture remains elusive elusi ve and conte contested.% sted.%&/( &/( 0r as another scholar put it, "*&c(ulture "*&c(ulture is one of the &most( &most( basic theoretical+ sociological terms, and yet it is inherently inherently indefinable. Both in terms of its specific specific meanin mea ning g and bro broad ad con conten tent, t, the unde underst rstandi anding ng of *cu *cult lture ure++ has def defied ied con consen sensus sus amo among ng sociologis socio logists.%& ts.%&1( 1( !he definitional definitional ambiguity ambiguity stem stemss at least in part from the difficult difficulties ies in defini def ining ng mea meanin ningfu gfull bou boundar ndaries ies and dec decidi iding ng what res resour ources ces to inc includ lude2e e2e#cl #clude ude.. 3ul 3ultur turee captures the conte#tual, contingent, and social2relational aspects of resources that are "resources% vis454vis their meaning to and among people. people. As Benkler Benkler suggests, suggests, "&3ultur "&3ulture( e( is a fra frame me of meaning from within which we must inevitably function and speak to each other, and whose terms, term s, constraints, constraints, and affordances affordances we always negotiate. negotiate. !her !heree is no point outside of culture from which to do otherwise.% In a sense, culture itself is an environmental concept. 6et, because culture is 7socially8 constructed, it must be understood, if not defined, as a reflection of that which we want, or as 9ohn Breen puts it, culture can be understood as a society+s answer to a series of "fundamental $uestions% about what it values.&-(
In ':' .B. !aylor !aylor defined culture as ocial Anthropology? An 0verture. /nd ed. nglewood 3liffs, @9? rentice )all, ':C? 'D8
