Three Uses of the Term “Culture”

Universalist, Romantic and Anthropological

Abstract

This article explores the evolution of the concept of culture from its origins in the second half of the first century BC to the 21st century. The initial meaning, a universalist one, was used from Cicero until the Enlightenment and explained culture as a set of knowledge and wisdom that converted mankind into human beings, allowing individuals to transcend their wild, animal nature; it was the Enlightened tradition which linked culture to progress and civilization. The Romantic view was expounded by Herder, who explained the term as the cultivation of spirit and literary activity; this interpretation challenged the use of the term culture as synonymous with technical, industrial and urban progress, while also discovering and magnifying popular culture.  The anthropological vision of culture was proposed by Tylor. He defended the existence of a uniform civilization formed by different cultural situations which were a consequence of the distinct stages of development of each human society therefore showing a uniform humanity while, at the same time, different levels of evolution within this uniformity. These affirmations showed the existence of “inferior tribes” and of “superior nations”. Tylor’s ultimate purpose was to provide an outline or schematic of the evolution of culture and with it demonstrate that its tendency has been to pass from savagery towards civilization. At present, the term culture is overused in a polysemous manner; its polysemy is a result of its all-encompassing application to any human activity connected to symbolic representations of the world or its rational understanding, as well as more local, everyday practices, habits and attitudes. And it is this polysemy that underlies the current overuse of the concept.