April 7,
2025
Culture
The
term culture is used in two different
senses. In everyday language, it refers to
education — for example, “The teacher has more culture than the janitor.”
In the sociological and political field, however, it refers to the set of
beliefs of a human group (mentality).
Everyone has a culture — both the Hottentots and the Swedes — and any sense of
superiority depends on the parameters we choose: one might even think that the
“savage” Hottentot (Rousseau’s
noble savage) is
better than the civilized Swede.
Subculture refers to the particular
characteristics of a group that is part of a broader culture: for example,
within Italian culture, we have the Neapolitan subculture (with pizza,
sfogliatelle, songs, warm hearts, and
chaotic traffic).