Maybe it's naïve, but I would love to believe that once you grow to love some aspect of a culture-its music, for instance -you can never again think of the people of that culture as less than yourself. I would like to believe that if I am deeply moved by a song originating from some place other than my own homeland, then I have in some way shared an experience with the people of that culture. I have been pleasantly contaminated. I can identify in some small way with it and its people.
Culture or civilization, taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society
Interpretation
What this quote means
Culture encompasses the various elements that define a society, including knowledge, beliefs, and artistic expressions.
Edward Burnett Tylor's quote highlights the complexity of culture as a composite of various human endeavors and societal practices. He defines culture in a broad sense, asserting that it includes everything from knowledge and beliefs to the art and customs that shape a group's identity and social interactions. Understanding culture in this way emphasizes the intricate interconnections between different aspects of human life and the ways in which societies develop and evolve over time.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of education, one might use this quote to illustrate how culture shapes learning.
Similar quotes
San Francisco is one of the great cultural plateaus of the world - one of the really urbane communities in the United States - one of the truly cosmopolitan places and for many, many years, it always has had a warm welcome for human beings from all over the world
I had seen the photographs of Harlem in its glory days, stylish men in bespoke suits, women so well dressed that they'd put the models in 'Vogue' to shame. I knew that Harlemites loved to dance, to pray, and to eat.
I love having different cultures around, but when the parent culture kind of dissipates, you're left thinking, 'Well, what's going on?'
If you read a lot of Chinese literature, there has always been very strong women figures - warriors, swordswomen - who defended honor and loyalty with the men. So, it's not new to our culture - it's always been very much a part of it. It's good that now the Western audience would have a different image of the Chinese women.
Here in Cameroon, football is our leading political party. It's football alone that that unites us, it's football alone that brings us good things - football is the window into our country - so we don't mess around with it.