 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 What is “culture?” Culture is the patterns of learned ideas and behavior characteristic of human groups that allow them to respond to the challenges of human existence. Field Museum anthropologists with the Center for Cultural Understanding and Change explain the creation of culture as the ongoing process where historical and environmental forces collide with human ingenuity. In other words, all of us deal with the common concerns of life: finding food and shelter, building relationships defining ourselves, coming of age, creating families, forming communities, traveling from place to place. But different groups, past and present, have different ways of responding to these concerns. All of our responses depend on our environment, our history and our creativity. Together, these forces shape the varieties of human culture in the present, and in the past. All people create culture, though the form and details of that culture may not be obvious or may be transparent to the people living in that culture. Your own culture just seems normal or natural to you because it is what you do everyday—though your traditions might seem very odd to those from other cultures who have their own ways of doing things that work well for them. Continue to Why do cultures differ and change? >> back >> |
 |
|||||||||||||||||
 |
 Exhibition Highlights | Understanding Cultures | About The Americas | Related Exhibitions | Interactives | Research and Collections | Educational Resources | Planning Your Visit | Events and Programs | E-Cards © 2007 The Field Museum, All Rights Reserved 1400 S. Lake Shore Dr. Chicago, IL 60605-2496 312.922.9410 Copyright Information | Linking Policy |