| rdfs:comment
| - Culture (Latin: Cultura) denotes a state of personal cultivation, reaching out to a universal capacity for humanity. This it derives from its latin root. However, in the last few centuries, cultura has come to signify any set of shared expressions of experience by creative means that distinguishes a society, organization or country. On a global scale, the latter comes to mean something more universal human, a quality of Humanitas. Whichever definition is considered, culture always regards improvement of oneself in some way; though, what exactly is the proper way to improve remains a point of contention.
|
| abstract
| - Culture (Latin: Cultura) denotes a state of personal cultivation, reaching out to a universal capacity for humanity. This it derives from its latin root. However, in the last few centuries, cultura has come to signify any set of shared expressions of experience by creative means that distinguishes a society, organization or country. On a global scale, the latter comes to mean something more universal human, a quality of Humanitas. Whichever definition is considered, culture always regards improvement of oneself in some way; though, what exactly is the proper way to improve remains a point of contention. Humanity's meager separation into a small number of large nations rather than a large number of small ones has produced grand cultures. Roman culture, for example, is metaphorically described as a purple cloth covering lumps of other societies that were assimilated as Romans have been receptive to the influences of conquered cultures. At the same time, no other culture has ever been more influential than that of the Romans. This is strongly reflected in the second definition of culture, a notion which the Romans are especially fond of. They operate under the belief that Culture is working towards an ultimate end and that their culture is a necessary means to that end. Interestingly, this egocentric belief does not blind the Romans to the benefits in various practices of other cultures. For most of their history, Rome has seen all the best aspects of the cultures that it has encountered and then it has Romanized them. This process of assimilation and modification has characterized the Empire's cultural development for the last two and half thousand years. However, not everyone thinks of foreign cultures in the same way as the Romans do. Many, such as the Japanese, view the incursions of other cultures into their own as an attack on their society. To counteract this they encourage cultural homogeneity and keep out foreign influences. Others, the Columbians for instance, enforce the idea of retaining traditional values, ones which have been held for centuries before the arrival of foreigners into their land. In any case, all attempts at forced cultural isolation have failed, either because the outside influences proved too strong or their own people desired change too greatly. Nevertheless, just as Rome has prospered by its inclusion of foreign traditions, these nations have usually benefited rather than faltered when they have accepted cultural values other than their own.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)