Culture or cultures derived from the Sanskrit namely buddhayah, which is the plural form of buddhi (mind or intellect), defined as matters relating to the mind and human reason. In English, the culture is called culture, which comes from the Latin word Colere, namely processing or working. Can be interpreted also as cultivate the land or farming. The word culture is also sometimes translated as "culture" in Indonesian.
Culture is a way of life that developed and owned jointly by a group of people and passed down from generation to generation. Culture is made up of many complex elements, including religion and political systems, customs, languages, tools, clothing, buildings, and artwork. Language, as well as culture, an integral part of the human self so that many people tend to see them passed on genetically. When someone tries to communicate with people who berbada culture and adjust their differences, proving that culture is learned.
Culture is a holistic lifestyle. culture is complex, abstract, and broad. Many cultural aspects contribute to determine the communicative behaviors. The elements of this socio-cultural spread and cover a lot of human social activities.
Some reasons why people experience difficulties when communicating with people from other cultures is seen in the definition of culture: Culture is a complex device dipolarisasikan values by an image that contains the views of its merits alone. "The image that forces" that takes different forms in various cultures such as "crude individualism" in America, "individual harmony with nature" d Japan and "collective compliance" in China. Brsifat cultural image force is equipping its members with guidelines on proper behavior and set a world of meaning and logical values that can be borrowed by its members the most humble to gain a sense of dignity and affinity with their lives.
Thus, budayalah which provides a coherent framework for organizing one's activities and enable it predict the behavior of others.
Culture is closely connected to the community. Melville J. Herskovits and Bronislaw Malinowski argued that everything contained in this society is determined by culture which is owned by the community itself. The term for it is the opinion of the Cultural-Determinism.
Herskovits view culture as something handed down from one generation to another, who then referred to as superorganic. According to Andreas Eppink, cultures containing whole notion of social values, social norms, knowledge and overall social structures, religious, etc., again all the extra intellectual and artistic statement that characterizes a society.
According to Edward Burnett Tylor, culture is a complex whole, which it contains knowledge, belief, art, morals, laws, customs, and other skills gained a person as a member of the community.
According Selo Soemardjan and Soelaiman Soemardi, culture is the means of work, taste, and the copyright community.
From the various definitions, we can obtain an understanding of culture is something that will affect the level of knowledge and cover the system of ideas or the ideas contained in the human mind, so that in everyday life, the culture is abstract. While the embodiment of culture are the objects created by humans as being a civilized form of behavior and things that are tangible, such as behavioral patterns, language, equipment life, social organization, religion, art, etc., which all intended to help sustain the lives of human beings in society.
There are some experts who express opinions about the components or elements of culture, among others, as follows:
Melville J. Herskovits mentions culture has 4 main elements, namely:
- Technology tools
- Economic systems
- Family
- Political power
Bronislaw Malinowski says there are 4 main elements include:
- System of social norms that enable collaboration between members of society to adjust to the natural surroundings
- Economic organization
- Tools and agencies or officers for education (the family is the primary educational institution)
- Organizational power of (political)
Technology related to the ways or techniques to produce, use, and maintain all equipment and supplies. Technology emerged in the ways humans organize society, in ways that express beauty, or in producing artistic results.
Small communities to move or rural communities that live from farming at least know the eight kinds of traditional technology (also called equipment systems and elements of physical culture), namely:
- Productive tools
- Weapons
- Container
- The means of fire
- Food
- Clothing
- Shelter and housing
- The means of transportation
Livelihood systems
Attention of scientists in this livelihood system focused on the problems of traditional livelihoods alone, among them:
- Hunting and gathering
- Farming
- Grow crops in fields
- Fishing
Kinship system is a very important part in the social structure. Meyer Fortes argued that the kinship system of a society can be used to describe the social structure of the society concerned. Kinship is a social unit consisting of several families who have blood ties or marriage relationship. Members of kinship consists of father, mother, son, daughter, grandson, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, grandfather, grandmother and so on. In the study of sociology, anthropology, there is some kind of kinship groups whose numbers are relatively small to large as ambilineal family, clan, fatri, and half of the community. In the general population we also know the other kinship groups such as the nuclear family, extended family, family bilateral, and unilateral family.
Meanwhile, social organization is a social club formed by society, whether incorporated or not incorporated, which serves as a means of community participation in nation building and state. As beings who have always lived together, the human form of social organization to achieve certain goals that they can not accomplish alone.
Language is a tool or a human embodiment of a culture that is used to communicate or relate to each other, either through written, oral, or motion (sign language), with the aim of delivering heart intent or willingness to his interlocutors or others. Through language, humans can adapt to the customs, behavior, etiquette of society, and also easy to confuse him with all forms of society.
Language has several functions that can be divided into common functions and special functions. The function of language in general is as a tool for expression, communication, and tools to make integration and social adaptation. While the function of language in particular is to hold a relationship in daily life, realizing the arts (literature), studying ancient texts, and to exploit science and technology.
Art refers to the value of beauty (aesthetics) derived from the human desire for beauty of expression enjoyed by the eyes or ears. As a creature that has a high taste, humans produce various shades of art ranging from the simple to the complex art embodiment.
There are times when knowledge, understanding, and human physical endurance to master and uncover the secrets of nature is very limited. Taken together, emerging belief in the supreme ruler of the universe, which also controls the humans as one part of the universe. Accordingly, both individual and communal life, human beings can not be separated from religion or belief system to the ruler of the universe.
Religions usually have a principle, such as "10 Word" in Christianity or the "5 pillars of Islam" in Islam. Sometimes religion involved in the government system, such as the theocratic system. Religion also influences arts.
Simply put, knowledge is everything known to man about the objects, the nature, circumstances, and expectations. Knowledge is owned by all ethnic groups in the world. They acquire knowledge through experience, intuition, revelation, and think according to the logic, or experiments that are empirical (trial and error).
Knowledge systems are grouped into:
- Knowledge about nature
- Knowledge of plants and animals in the surrounding
- Knowledge of the human body, knowledge of nature and fellow human behavior
- Knowledge of space and time
Socio-cultural changes are a symptom of the changing social structure and cultural patterns within a society. Socio-cultural changes is a general phenomenon that happens all the time in every society. Changes that occur in accordance with nature and human nature that always wants to make a change. Hirschman says that boredom is the cause of the real man of change.
There are three factors that can affect social change:
- Pressure of work in society
- The effectiveness of communication
- Changes in the natural environment.
Cultural change can also arise due to the emergence of environmental change society, new discoveries, and contacts with other cultures. For example, the end of the ice age led to the discovery of farming systems, and then provoke other new innovations in culture.
Today, most people understand the idea of "culture" developed in Europe in the 18th century and early 19th century. The idea of "culture" reflects an imbalance between European powers and the strength dijajahnya areas. They consider 'culture' as a "civilization" as the opposite of "nature." According to this mindset, one culture with another culture can be compared; one culture definitely higher than other cultures.
In practice, the word culture refers to the objects and activities of the "elite" such as wearing clothes that are classy, fine art, or listen to classical music, while berkebudayaan word used to describe people who know, and take part, from activities in above. For example, if someone berpendendapat that classical music is music that "classy", the elite, and artistic flavor, while traditional music is considered as the cheesy music and outdated, then the presumption arises that he is a person who has "berkebudayaan".
People who use the word "culture" in this way do not believe there are other cultures that exist, they believe that there is only one culture and a barometer of the norms and values around the world. According to this perspective, someone who has habits that are different from those who "berkebudayaan" referred to as people who "do not berkebudayaan"; not as a person "of another culture." People who "do not berkebudayaan" arguably more "natural," and observers often maintain a high level elements of culture (high culture) to suppress the thought "natural man" (human nature)
Since the 18th century, some social critics have accepted the existence of differences between berkebudayaan and not berkebudayaan, but the comparison is not berkebudayaan-berkebudayaan and interpretation-can suppress the repair and interpretation of experience as the development of destructive and "unnatural" that obscure and distort the nature of human. In this case, traditional music (which was created by working-class communities) are deemed to express the "natural way of life" (natural way of life), and classical music as a setback and decline.
Currently most of the social scientists refuse to compare between nature and culture with monadic concept ever applies. They assume that the cultures that were previously considered "elite" and "cultural elite" are the same - each community has a culture that can not be compared. Social observer to distinguish between culture as popular culture (popular culture) or pop culture, meaning goods or activities that are produced and consumed by many people.
During the Romantic era, scholars in Germany, particularly those concerned with nationalist movements - such as the nationalist struggle to unify Germany, and the nationalist struggle of ethnic minorities against the Austro-Hungarian Empire - developed a cultural idea of "common perspective". This reasoning is considered a culture with other cultures have differences and peculiarities of each. Therefore, culture can not be compared. However, this idea still acknowledges the separation between "berkebudayaan" with "no berkebudayaan" or culture "primitive."
At the end of the 19th century, anthropologists have used the word culture with a broader definition. Based on the theory of evolution, they assume that every human being to grow and evolve together, and of evolution that created the culture.
In the 50's, subkebudayaan - groups with a slightly different behavior from its parent culture - began to be subject of study by sociologists. In this century too, there was the popularization of the idea of corporate culture - differences and talents within the context of workers' organization or place of work.
