The Struggle to Define 'Culture'

So far, this work has referred to 'cultural difference' without looking specifically at how we are using the word 'culture'. In common usage, the word culture is often used to refer to the visible products that represent the creative accomplishments of a group of people; things like art, literature, food, monuments and so on. In the quote above, Adele seems to have these things in mind when she talks of Japan losing its culture. For her, Japanese culture is epitomized by Japanese architecture. It is perhaps understandable that Adele thinks this way as she is a specialist in Japanese literature. She equates Japan's culture with Japan's artistic output and modernism as the loss of what is special about Japan. Jack, on the other hand, wants an explicit definition. The definition given by the interviewer was until recently mostly the domain of specialists but is increasingly passing into common use. This view of culture is wider and includes the everyday behavior, customs, values and beliefs of people from different places. A recent series of advertisements for an international bank uses this broader perspective when it shows images of differing cultural customs while touting the importance of its 'local knowledge' for doing business abroad. The assumption behind this view of culture includes a greater emphasis on the idea that visible differences in how people do things reflect deeper more hidden differences in values, beliefs or world views.