A Definition?

Obviously, being that we are studying Cross-cultural Communication, the topic of culture is relative to literally everything that we do in class. However, I feel that after the third class we still have yet to establish a concrete, common definition of what exactly culture is. The book and the Weaver readings both maintain that culture essentially is "learned patterns of behavior and attitude shared by a group of people." Interestingly, however, the book on the next page presents an essay by the scholar Wen Shu Lee in which six common or "traditional" definitions of culture are presented. By merely looking at the first word or phrase in each of the six definitions, one sees "unique human efforts", "refinement", "civilization" , "shared" , "dominant or hegemonic" , and "the shifting tensions."

For me, this says it all. Culture is far too vast and far-reaching to assign a laconic definition to. It is not something that can be placed in the sidebar of a text. The book seems to almost make a subtle acknowledgment of this; while Martin and Nakayama must obviously assign a concrete academic definition, they also point to the more abstract concepts by presenting the Lee essay.

While it is very easy to sit back and be critical of others and how they have failed in achieving a certain end, it is quite another to offer up a solution. In a sense, writing about something like culture in an academic manner is extremely difficult; one must avoid idealism and be as specific as possible. Regardless, here is my definition of culture: It is what makes us different. Culture need not be in reference to a race or country or even group of people. Here at AU, we have a culture. Right now, as I write this sitting in TDR, I am experiencing a culture firsthand just as much as I would were I studying at UNAM in Mexico City or Trinity College in Dublin. Culture is the sum of our parts; it takes the best and most unique aspects of individuals and projects them onto a larger scale. Then, just like Lee's preferred definition, it is shared.
-Dylan Parker