Grundlagen

Eine der frühesten Definitionen des Kulturbegriffs wurde von Tylor (1871, S. 1) geprägt: „Culture […] is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habit acquired by man as a member of society”. Die zentralen Elemente dieser Definition, also die von Menschen als Mitglieder einer Gesellschaft oder Gruppe geteilten immateriellen Werte wie Wissen oder Bräuche, sind auch in späteren Definitionen zu finden. So schreibt Kluckhohn (1951, S. 86) in einer der gebräuchlichsten Definitionen: „Culture consists in patterned ways of thinking, feeling and reacting, acquired and transmitted mainly by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements in human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e. historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values”.