About Culture

The term culture derives from the Latin word cultura that can be translated, among others, as workmanship and cultivation. Through agriculture the human being gains power over the nature and controls it with the cultivation of “his” fields. Culture is therefore the opposite of nature. That what remains untouched by human intervention is natural. On the other hand, everything created by the human being can be subordinated to culture. This cultural concept is very broad, but the simplest way to define culture.

Besides to this broad concept of culture, also a narrow view has arisen. A concept which refers mainly to the Fine Arts, various ethnicities, different religious beliefs and language diversity. Therefore, when generally spoken about culture, the people usually talk about the close concept of culture. The fascination about culture can be explained by the power of creation. The human being becomes a creator, designer, originator, author, initiator, founder, inventor and producer.

However, isn’t this power of creation one of the most natural things in the world? Human reproduction makes it evident that there are no clear boundaries between culture and nature. In fact, the artificial boundary that is created by the human being is fluent between culture and nature. (Anna, dieKulturvermittlung, 15.04.2015)

Natur-Kultur, Ökologix, licensed under CC0 via Wikimedia Commons