Welcome to the companion blog to my Comparative Civilizations 12 classe? Here we will have a chance to pose questions, share opinions, engage in discussion and discuss course topics or items of interest that relate to our classwork. A reminder that this is an open forum and it is expected that responses be aappropriate. Think of this as an extension of the classroom, if you wouldn't say it in the classroom please don't type it here. As well, please ensure you add your initials and the period of your socials class to the end of your comments so I know who to give credit to. For example if I was in the period 1 class I would end my comments with RL P-1.
Our First posting is around the questions "What is Culture?"
All civilizations develop a culture. Cultures have a present, as well as a past and a future life. All cultures identify themselves in part by what they consider to be a defingin event or "defining moment" in their history.
So what is it that defines culture? What is the difference between culture and a civilization? Can you have one without the other?
Think about these questions and provide your own definition for culture (don't just copy one from the internet that makes no sense to you) and explain it.
Provide a few examples of cultural elements that are important to you and explain them.
What do you think is the defining moment or event of your culture? of your
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Something that defines Canadian culture would be our acceptance of other cultures and differences. Around the world, Canadians are known as peacekeepers, and as the multicultural diverse nation that we are. That is Canadian culture.
ReplyDeleteJLJ
I think culture is the foods, art, style, hobbies and habbits that people from a certain area have in common. I dont necessarily think that it goes country by country, but different "cliques" of people...for example their are amazing hockey players from all over the world and therefore hockey would be their culture. Musicians from all over the world have music as their culture, cooks have cooking as their culture etc..
ReplyDeleteCulture is also certain events that happen in a region that define its area as what it is. Like the gold rush here in BC or the egyptians building their pyramids.
H.G
culture is is a way of life, a national identity and a social structure ceimented in the minds and thoughts of a people or peoples.
ReplyDeletemf
Culture is something that automatically comes to one's mind when they think about a certain place or people. It could be anything from ruins to foods to a famous person. The difference between culture and civilization is that a culture is spawned from the many different ideas that collide in a civilization, and, in my own opinion, one cannot exist without the other. Without a type of culture there cannot be a civilization without it's own identity, and without a civilization a culture cannot have any type of original origin to call a birthplace. L.N.
ReplyDeleteCulture is something that seperates that civilization or group from others. You can have culture without civilization, but you can't have civilization without culture. There are many things that be a part of a culture such as food, people, idols, architecture, myths, history, the list goes on and on. Like how India has Bollywood, Canada has hockey, and Italians have food those are all something that defines that civilization. The defining moment in Canadian culture is Vimy Ridge.
ReplyDeleteMB!
Culture is everything that a specific community or place uses or does to keep it running. This can include anything from the foods they eat all the way to the music they play and the art they make. They must have a past, present and future. Culture is a system of beliefs, foods, and other things where as a civilization is a system of cities, social classes and governments. You can't have a civilization without culture. The defining moment for our culture is Vimy Ridge. A few examples of cultural elements include hockey, the word "eh", and tim hortons.
ReplyDeleteK.M
Culture to me is the way that someone lives their life and how a group of people act and do things. Like how they farm, how they eat, what they eat, thier forms of transportation and language. All they diffrent ways that diffrent people do all those things make a culture. Culture can also be associated with age and generations and events that happen in those time lines. Diffrent Generations have diffrent cultures too. For example, the event WWI would be diffrent from those who remember the 1972 Summet series win against the USSSR and those would both differ from our generation that remembers the "Drive for 5" at the World Junior Championship. Culture can be the way of life lived, it can be dicided by age, and can be divided by events that diffrent groups of people can remember.
ReplyDeleteT.Z
Culture are things that are unique about, and represent your country. Foods we eat, music we listen to, activities we do and how we speak define our culture. Culture is just one of the aspects of a civilization so you can't have one without the other. A few examples of canadian culture are hockey, poutine, and how we occasionally say eh after sentences. A defining moment or event of our culture is Vimy Ridge.
ReplyDeleteA.M block C
Culture is the combined influence of the civilizations history and traditions. The various people who started the civilization may share certain ideas or physical features but their past experiences and individual views help to create the culture. A culture cannot survive without a civilization and vie versa. As proof if a civilization loses the ability to write the more complex aspects of the culture die out. Without writing they cannot record many important thing like religion, history or even math to help build great structures. NH
ReplyDeleteCulture, is what separates one civilization from another. If, 'culture' did not exist, we would not have the amazing civilizations we have known al are lives. You cannot have a civilization without culture. Culture is what defines certain people from another, if we didn’t have it, we would have, the pyramids of Egypt, the castles of Scotland, Bollywood! Culture can be defined as the way people live and believe, most of the time it is very similar, it can be food, religion, architecture, or even how we look. Some cultural stuff that is important to me is my Scottish heritage, its important to me, to know where I came from, and to have cultural heritage, such as eating haggis. It is yummy.
ReplyDeleteNW
Culture is shared views of art, tradition, and manners within a society. Some cultural elements that are important to me are: celebrating certain holidays, and eating traditional food.
ReplyDeleteMB
Culture is something that is uniquie to a country. Culture is one part of civilization It can be a variety of things like food, places, sports,and beilefs. One of canadians culture is tim hortons. when i think of canada i think of going to a hockey game ona cold day with a hot tim hortons coffee in your hand. A defining moment for canadian culture is Vimy Ridge. A major culture for canada is they way we all say EH
ReplyDeleteCulture is something that is uniquie to a country. Culture is one part of civilization It can be a variety of things like food, places, sports,and beilefs. One of canadians culture is tim hortons. when i think of canada i think of going to a hockey game ona cold day with a hot tim hortons coffee in your hand. A defining moment for canadian culture is Vimy Ridge. A major culture for canada is they way we all say EH
ReplyDeleteTB block C
Certain qualities of a civilization are what make up a culture, these qualities can include what kind of food they make, their traditions, and contributions that they have made to society.
ReplyDeleteThe difference between culture and civilization is that culture is only part of a civilization, many other things like science and government make up a civilization as well. Since culture is a vital part of a civilization it is impossible to have one without the other.
Some examples of Canadian cultural elements would include Tim Hortons and hockey because who doesn't love Tim Hortons and hockey?
The best defining moment of our Canadian culture would have to be Vimy Ridge, that battle is the reason for Canada finally becoming independant.
-SA
Culture is often viewed as being traditions and stories passed down either verbally, written or as symbols. A culteral element that is important to me would be learning and cooking Portugese food with my mom. My mom's side of the family originated from Portugal and I think it is very important for me to learn how my background cooks their food.
ReplyDeleteA Skuce
Culture is a harmony between one another and from that the ability to produce, creative fine arts, humanities. A good connection of human knowledge, belief. Social learning and symbolic thought makes a civiliation reknown. Canadian cultural items I think would be The Beaver and the moose. Vimy Ridge is a Canadian moment.
ReplyDeleteBj.
Some of the things that define culture are arts and architecture, writing systems, religion/belief system, and what is considered to be good manners.
ReplyDeleteA culture can exist seperately from a civilization because each region has a slightly different culture than the regions near it. However, a civilization cannot exist without a culture because it's one of the things that a civilization is built on.
The defining event of our culture was during the world wars when Canada began to be thought of as a country seperate from Britain
EZ
Culture is defined on Wikipedia as a set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group. I believe that culture is a set of happenings and ideas that bring together a diverse group of people. Civilization is similar, but is more concrete than culture. Culture is iterpreted as to the person, and the stereotypes they have. Culture cannot exist without civilization, as it is what brings and holds together a group of people. Some cultural elements to Canada are Tim Hortons, Aboriginal history and artwork, and, of course, hockey. I think the defining moment of our culture today is the attacks of 9/11. Although it is an American happening, the effects of this attack have sent reverberations all over the world. Our whole generation has grown up with war and strict security measures because of this attack.
ReplyDeleteAB
Culture is something that allows a group of people, whether it is a nation or a small community, to identify with. Culture is a way of expressing your beliefs, attitude, ethics and pride. Culture represents a persons roots and ancestry through several forms of art, music, stories and certain beliefs of a culture.
ReplyDeleteCivilizations form their own culture whether they intend on it or not. Culture cannot develop without a civilization of people who share similar beliefs, abide the same laws, and take pride in their culture. Culture can be shown through a persons mannerisms, and their way of thinking based on what they were raised to believe.
As a Canadian, hockey is important to me even though I don't play hockey. Hockey is something that Canadians are proud of and like to identify themselves with. We should be proud of our success in hockey whether we like the game or not. It is something that you cannot avoid in Canada, and it isn't a negative stereotype at all.
The battle of Vimy Ridge is definitely a defining moment of Canadian identity. Before this battle, the Canadian soldiers were fighting as a colony of Britain; they didn't really identify themselves as "Canadian." After conquering the Ridge, these soldiers earned a lot of respect. They then told others that they were fighting for Canada, and that they were "Canadian."
-B.H.
I believe that culture is defined by the actions of a group of people. A strong culture will have their own set of beliefs, langugages, government, laws, social structure, traditions, morals, myths, and community. Culture gives humans similarities that they identify with, and gives them a sense of belonging. A culture is the essance of a community, it begins with traditions passed on by ancestors, that stay strong through practice. A civilization occurs after a the ground work of a culture has been laid. Civilizations are groups of people, who have similarities, and who live and work together as a community. Civilizations usually pops up near natural resources that would be benefitual to the groups servival. The group startes to grow, discover new technology, begin to trade, and then are introduced to the use of money. This is how a strong civilization starts. But without culture, a civilization would not be defined from other civilizations. Therefore, you would not have a sucessful civilization without culture backing it up.
ReplyDeleteJ.H.
I think culture extends over a series of subjects. A culture could be defined though their art such as Spain and Pablo Paccasso or even as social activity or public performances such as the New Zealand's All Blacks rugby team and the performance of The Haka to strike fear into their opposing team. There are many ways to define what culture is and how it is expressed though different nations. I think a defining even in Canada's culture is when Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings on August 9, 1988. Although i am not a big hockey fan i know this had effected the canadian culture and the way they had viewed the game.
ReplyDeleteB.P P-3
Culture is Language, Arts, Thought, Spirituality and Sciences. Although I don't think culture can truly be defined. Cultures are mostly meaningful stereotypical things; Canada with hockey, Italy with pasta and China with the great wall of China. Civilization is different from culture because culture is something that comes from civilization. Without civilization you wouldn't have different cultures. One defining moment would be when 9/11 happened and how much it has effected Canada.
ReplyDeleteN.C
What defines Culture?- Something that brings people together in a nation and a certain thing that defines them as a whole, food, landmarks, people etc. Examples of this are Sean Connery and Loch Ness would have cultural ties to Scotland, just as Harry Potter and the Beatles would represent England by having one of the worlds most popular novels and A Pop Group that is known all over the world and also is one of the most famous bands of all time.
ReplyDeleteR.G
Culture is a mix of the different defining qualities of a civilization. It can be food, art, language, ceremonies and rituals and forms of sports. Its also seen in education. Culture is what sets one civilization apart from the rest, and makes it stand out.
ReplyDeleteFor me, when I think of New Zealand, I think of the Kiwi bird, because they only exist there. For Greece, I think of their food; lamb, feta cheese, olives, etc. Italy, I think of the pasta and gondolas, travelling the city by canal.
It's a word often used to entrench bizarre behavior. Cultures is a way of life and it is not determined biologically. As civilization usually is the kryptonite of culture there is a quote by Vasile Bãncilã that says "Today civilization and culture are like two trains that run on parallel tracks but in opposite directions: as civilization increases, culture decreases." This is true because the Great Western Civilization is suffering from this. We have accepted so many other cultures that we are beginning to lose ours :( M.T
ReplyDeleteSome things that define a culture are the ways that people interact and communicate each other that unify them as a civilization, which can be through beliefs, consumption, rituals, food, art, dancing, sports etc.. The difference between culture and civilization is civilization is the skeleton or structure of a group of people and culture is all of the details and things that allow that civilization to function on a unique and diverse scale. You cannot really have one without the other because people rely on their culture to direct them in their ways of life as well as be an outlet to them for that human need of community and interaction in their own familiar way. Culture is all of the things that make a civilization recognizable and identifiable as culture is truly what sets us apart in the world. A few cultural elements that are important to me are hockey night in canada, the melting pot of different ethnicities in canada, molson canadian beer and tim hortons. I think the defining moment in Canadadian culture was when the last spike was driven into the Canadian railway. It symbolized Canada as becoming united and the beginnning to brand new and flourising country.
ReplyDeleteKK