Page 5 - Introducing Cultural Studies
P. 5
What is Culture?
The ambiguity of the concept of
culture is notorious. Some
anthropologists consider
culture to be social behaviour.
For others, it is not behaviour at
all, but an abstraction from
behaviour. To some, stone axes
and pottery, dance and music,
fashion and style constitute
culture; while no material object
can be culture to others.
One of the oldest definitions of
culture was given by the British
anthropologist, Sir E.B. Tylor
(1832-1917) in the opening
lines of his book, Primitive
Cultures (1871):
4
