The history of the Culture Concept

People have long been a) ________ of cultural differences among societies. Some of the earliest accounts of culture b) ________ the Greek historian Herodotus, who lived in the 400s BC. Herodotus travelled through the Persian Empire, which c) ________ much of the Middle East and surrounding parts of Asia and Africa. He wrote at length about the cultural and racial diversity of these places, much of which he linked to differences in people’s environments. For almost 2000 years following the time of Herodotus, many people attributed cultural differences to racial inheritance. The biblical d) ________ of the Tower of Babel, in which God caused people to speak new languages, also provided an explanation for cultural e) ________. At the end of the Middle Ages (5th to 15th century ad), many countries of Western Europe began sending explorers around the world to find new sources of material goods and f) ________. The English term culture actually came into use during the Middle Ages. It g) ________ from the Latin word for cultivation, as in the practice of nurturing domesticated plants in gardens. Thus, the word originally referred to people’s role in h) ________ nature.

Exercise 14. Express your own ideas after reading the texts about culture.

Exercise 15. Match the words with the appropriate definitions.

a) culture	1. a general rule or principle that is thought to be true or held to be binding.
b) knowledge	2. something that people always do in a particular way by tradition.
c) belief	3. good or right when judged by the standards of a person or a society.
d) moral	4. beautiful or thought-provoking works produced through creative activity.
e) custom	5. all the information, facts, truths & principles learned throughout time.
f) law	6. art, music, literature & related intellectual activities.
g) society	7. religious faith.
h) symbol	8. something that stands for or represents something else, especially an abstraction.
i) art	9. a structural community of people bound together by similar traditions, institutions or nationality.

Exercise 16. Role – play: “First Impressions”.

When you meet someone for the first time, what do you notice?

The five most important things noticed about people in our society are:

1. Skin Color;

2. Gender;

3. Age;

4. Appearance (size, deviations from the norm);

5. Body Language (facial expressions, eye contact, movement, personal space, or touch).

Prove your chose.

Exercise 17. Scan the definitions, comment on their classification, choose those that appeals to you most and formulate your own one.

Topical:	Culture consists of everything on a list of topics, or categories, such as social organization, religion, or economy.
Historical:	Culture is social heritage, or tradition, that is passed on to future generations.
Behavioral:	Culture is shared, learned human behavior, a way of life.
Normative:	Culture is ideals, values, or rules for living.
Functional:	Culture is the way humans solve problems of adapting to the environment or living together.
Mental:	Culture is a complex of ideas, or learned habits, that inhibit impulses and distinguish people from animals.
Structural:	Culture consists of patterned and interrelated ideas, symbols, or behaviors.
Symbolic:	Culture is based on arbitrarily assigned meanings that are shared by a society.

Exercise 18. Read and translate the text.