For the Culture

Anaïs Nin is famously quoted as saying, “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” That is, the truth is not as objective as we would like to believe. The truth is culturally mediated and socially negotiated and constructed based on our communal view of reality—our beliefs.

Therefore, our cultural affiliation is anchored by how we self-identify—the categorical labels we use to tell people who we are and to associate with other people based on who they are.

The artifacts that we wear, the behaviors we adopt, and the coded language that we use are outward representations of our worldview.

It is an extension of who we are.

Durkheim underscored the complexity of culture, as a “system” that defines a group of people, while also providing some elemental codes that collectively make up the system—shared beliefs (values and principles, a way of thinking), rituals (traditions, social norms), artifacts (symbols, clothes, decorations, tools), and, of course, language (dialec

Culture is a realized meaning-making system. More accurately, it is a system of systems—a set of interdependent principles and mechanisms that all inform each other—which, collectively, influences practically everything that we do because of who we are and how we see the world.

This could be art, architecture, movies, television, comic books, podcasts, stories, music, instruments, dance, literature, fashion, hairstyles, food, poetry, toys, or branded products. Community members use these productions as outward expressions or justifications of their beliefs and ideologies that are subsequently integrated (and sometimes man

Symbols, patterns, pins, buttons, hats, clothes, tools, and technology of all kinds of variety make up the many forms of human-made creations that reveal information about the values and customs of the people who use them.

naive realism, where people believe that their worldview is objective and that people who disagree are misinformed or irrational.

Once we take on an identity marker, either by choice (subscription) or endowment (ascription), we implicitly inherit the cultural characteristics of the community through the interworking of the meaning-making system. Let’s explore this further by unpacking the systems.