What is Culture?

This week Harah gave us homework to think about "what is culture?". And this is particularly important to me because my main topic is culture. So this is a subject that I have to be very familiar with. I did some reading and come up with my own definition of culture. 

It is basically the idea and social behavior of a particular group of people in the society, consisting of knowledge of that particular group of people, including, but not limited to, language, religion, cuisine, habits, music, and art. These aspects then share the same pattern and/or value. It is adopted, borrowed, transferred, consumed by the community itself.  People are an integral part of the culture. Because culture lives in its people. 

A more textbook definition of culture will be, according to J. Macgregor Wise in his book "Cultural Globalization", culture is the embodiment of a tradition and history, the artistic record of a society (2008). Every human society has its own shape, its own purpose, its own meanings, they express these in institutions, and in arts and learning. It gives meaning to traditions and creativity, and I find this statement to be true because, without culture, all these traditions and heritage will have no meaning. A piece of batik without culture will just be a piece of meaningless pattern written on a piece of fabric, but culture gives deep meaning to every batik pattern we see.

Culture is dynamic and will always change as time goes by. From my initial research and observation, the Peranakan culture hasn't changed much, and it is not necessarily a good thing in my opinion because then the culture is becoming old and mummified in a museum. Culture has to continually adapt to continue to be part of a society.