Culture Says What?

Country music and dance halls, overalls and boots, howdys’ and kindness, coffee and Northgate, white towels and whoops’; most would say those words would accurately describe what a stranger walking into College Station, Texas would come to find on their visit. To them, say they are from up north or somewhere foreign, this could be very different surroundings from what they are used to. The friendly atmosphere and highly spirited crowds all around may surprise some people. Why is this you ask? I like to think it’s because every region, or even city, is a little different from one another. That’s why small towns have that friendly feel that large cities don’t, and you can agree with that, yes? 

So why is that? Well the answer, for me, is simple; it’s the large expanse of culture that provides you with a different experience in every place you visit and tour. So what is culture? I think Kim Ann Zimmermann says it best: “Culture is the characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts.” I agree with this view on culture, and it explains why every town is a new adventure. Culture in my mind is almost composed of two parts, the big common threads and the smaller yet definitive differences. To me, culture, says everything about a certain group of people in who they are down to the things they eat, it is also the major things of significance that define a society as a whole, such as industrial innovations and morals.

There are cultural differences across regions such as what people eat or wear and also larger cultural values that are common threads among all of society such as stealing being viewed as bad. Andrei Codrescu’s view of culture from his “What is Culture?” article seems to be pretty in-line with my view on culture when he says “it’s shorthand for atmosphere, only instead of vapor and clouds, it’s made of thoughts, ideas, people and operating procedures..”. So with this view on culture in mind, what does it mean to be ‘cultured’? I would have to say that being cultured would be having knowledge of other societies and how they live, as well as knowledgeable in the arts or music and the every changing innovations of today. 

With all of this out in the open now, what is culture saying to you? Do you enjoy the pop music culture of today or the classical culture that is still prevalent in some societies? Culture is yours to explore, so do some research and take an adventure to experience a culture that isn't yours.