The concept of culture is a huge issue which crosses over many areas such as education, sociology and anthropology and so on. Definition on the element of culture may run the gamut from narrow conceptualizations of culture as a fixed set of customs or “folkways” to broad processes encompassing both a group’s past (its Heritage and Tradition) and that group’s present living circumstances(its responses to requirements of living today). For us, the latter view of culture is more helpful to understanding culture and its implications for education.

Group’s culture is learned and shared by its group members. Individual learns thoroughly the forms of conduct acceptable to his society and then performs them, conforms to them, by such a process a growing individual is inducted into the way of life of his society. In this sense education is enculturation. Education can therefore be seen as an instrument designed to meet the requirements of transmitting and diffusing the meanings of group’s culture from the past of the group (its Heritage and Tradition).

However, the results of education may be quite diverse in different societies where the cultural factors that actually influence the learning are different. The concepts of culture, heritage and tradition then must be linked with social context in order to understand their implications for education.

It’s easy to get confused when distinguishing Culture, Heritage and Tradition. Trying to explain their relations, Professor Smolicz (in Secombe & Zajda, 1999) developed a following diagram:



According to Smolicz (1999), Group’s Culture consists of meanings passed down from the past of the group, created by group’s own members and borrowed from other’s cultures which are named Heritage, Innovation and Diffusion respectively. Tradition is included the group’s Heritage which continues to be evaluated, activated and modified by the new generation.

The diagram shows a very clear description of the origins of a group’s culture. The question is what these meanings are? In other words, what is the fundament of culture?

Many scholars try to sketch a main line from different perspectives and to give it a comparatively precise description, while there is a broad agreement that culture is the way of life defined and shared by the group members. E.g. as Kneller (1965) pointed out, a particular culture is:

‘…the total shared way of life of a given people, comparing their modes of thinking, acting and feeling which are expressed…. in religion, law, language, art and custom, as well as in material products…’ (Harris, 1980, p.19)




Secombe, M.J. & Zajda, J. (Eds) (1999). J.J.Smolicz on Education and Culture, James Nicholas Publishers.

Harris, S. (1980). Culture and Learning: Traditional and Education in Northeast Arnhem Land. Abridged by Harris, J.K. from the doctoral dissertation, Milingimbi Aboriginal Learning Contexts, University of New Mexico, U.S.A. 1977.

I hope my small article can help people to understand what is culture and what is contained in the concept of "culture".

I do not want to argue with anyone who holds a very vague concept of "culture". But that does not mean that I would not like to have a mutually beneficial discussion which do need people think seriously about the definition and implication of culture by linking with social context.

As for some articles which were pasted before (e.g."传统为什么这么红"), I feel regret because those original autors did not show me at least a serious academic attitude and a clear understanding of culture and tradition. I do not have anything to complain if these persons only hold vague concepts and biased opinions by themselves and it is not my responsibility and right to criticize and argue with them. However, these authors are lecturers who teach their students by using their immature opinions and arbitary ways in Chinese Universities! That is a terrible problem!

What can I do? And what anyone else can do?

The only way is that we do not have responsiblity, right and chance to do much with these authors, but we have reponsibility, right and chance to critize carefully their opinions before we accept them and transfer them to another person, in any place where intellectual people are gathering!

sorry, I paste the picture again.

“文化”是一个很复杂的概念，现在远没有统一的精确定义。我在上个帖子不小心扯到这个话题，现在谈谈我对这个问题的看法，自然是很粗浅，也不系统，希望能和离离MM讨论。

在我看来，文化纯粹是意识思维的产物，和“政治”“经济”不同。政治源于人类暴力，经济源于填饱肚子。当然，“填饱肚子”发展成为经济，“暴力竞争”发展成政治，有文化的因素起作用，它们互相纠缠。人类社会是我们“人”自己给自己创造的一个大玩具，它不会先验存在于大自然，文化在其中起到纽带作用。也就是说，文化的规律离不开人类社会，可能这个规律本身就是人类创造的。

不过我对“传统”“遗产”的态度却不是基于以上粗浅的想法，在这点上我倾向于李零的意见。

“传统”“遗产”是什么，主要是过去的东西。假如按照时间轴来排列，“传统”和“遗产”是过去曾有的文化，靠我们社会潜移默化传承或者文字记载保留到现在，这些东西不都是好的，当然这个“好”和“坏”各人定义会不同。

那么假设我们能统一这个“好”“坏”定义，对那部分“好”的传统或者遗产应该怎样对待呢？

我认为对这部分“好”“遗产”“传统”也是只能在现代文化基础上重新构建，用我们现在的文化框架去镶嵌它们。就像在历史的小道上留下的颗颗珍珠，只能镶嵌到“现在”这颗大树上为我所用。而不是反过来，用历史上那些珍珠做基础来构建现在文化的框架。假如历史上有一些宝石竟然无法镶嵌到现在体系下，那也只能继续发展创造深化“现在”而不是为了那可宝石回到过去。

具体到实例上，比如汉服，离离MM认为那是诗意生活的象征。我想在追捧汉服热人中确实有一部分人是这样想的，也不应该否认还有报有别的目的的人。对于真心实意因诗意生活而追求汉服的人，虽然我个人不能认同，却绝不会干涉（我没有这个权利，也没有那个能力），我只是对那些挂着羊头卖狗肉的部分人群持不敬态度。

俺就是因为点小小的可笑的民族虚荣心，去喜欢汉服，因为点小小的民族感情，讨厌整天JJWW的攻击祖宗棉。在俺看来，您厌恶祖宗厌恶传统丝毫不比俺厌恶您厌恶您的观点来得更有道理。不是针对楼上的。

俺讨厌的是那种丝毫不加掩饰的负面的感情色彩，不是您的思考。

The picture is so big that influences reading.
Is it possible to make it smaller here?
Otherwise, I can upload a smaller version.

:: 在我看来，文化纯粹是意识思维的产物......人类社会是我们“人”自己给

自己创造的一个大玩具，它不会先验存在于大自然，文化在其中起到纽带作用。也就是说，文化的规律离不开人类社会，可能这个规律本身就是人类创造的。
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If this is your definition to "culture", I would say that is not complete at least. As I mentioned above, there is a broad agreement that culture is the way of life defined and shared by the group members.

‘…the total shared way of life of a given people, comparing their modes of thinking, acting and feeling which are expressed…. in religion, law, language, art and custom, as well as in material products…’ (Harris, 1980, p.19)

You ignore aspects which embodying culture besides human thinking ( in your
term of "意识思维" ). For example, people's shared life style is linked with material life and spiritual life as well. A specific example is the "Jie Qi(节气)". It was not just the products of people' thinking, it was more related to people' response to the nature and society（their living conditions）.


:: 不过我对“传统”“遗产”的态度却不是基于以上粗浅的想法，在这点上我倾向于李零的意见。

“传统”“遗产”是什么，主要是过去的东西。假如按照时间轴来排列，“传统”和“遗产”是过去曾有的文化，靠我们社会潜移默化传承或者文字记载保留到现在，这些东西不都是好的，当然这个“好”和“坏”各人定义会不同。那么假设我们能统一这个“好”“坏”定义，对那部分“好”的传统或者遗产应该怎样对待呢？
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I would say that here you made a mistake.

Tradition is not the fixed set of things from the past. Tradition is flexible and dynamic. Tradition is the part of the group's hertiage which continues to be evaluated and activated, though often modified, by the current members of the group.

And this is the tradition that I exactly mean and that many people misunderstand.

The problem is partly aroused from the understanding to the meanings of the word "tradition", espeically in Chinese. To normal people, they arbitrarily classify tradtions into the catalogue of the dying remainder of the past. This is not correct.

Some of them even treat tradition as rubbish and declaim that they would live without tradtion. They do not realize that in whichever point human are of the timeline of history, humans develop and create tradtions which are not only based on heritage but also consistent with their current living conditions.

Certainly, it is absurd to stick to the old values system without change because we do need encourage "goodness" and abandon "badness" . However, I would say that those people who hold a misconception of tradtion to be against tradition are more ludicrous, and their decrying tradtion in all its forms are pernicious to the young people in the society. Because this is the time when all forms of values and cultures are colliding and interacting and societies encourge people to be more materialistic and self-involved than ever before.

The most important thing I think is:

Whether we hold a defensive or a offensive attitude to traditions, we must understand the core values in tradtions. What are they? And are they really rubbish or treasures? What do they mean to us? What are their functions to the society? Would they impede or facilitate our progress towards a better society where people live in a better life status not only materially but also spiritually?

" Would they impede or facilitate our progress towards a better society where people live in a better life status not only materially but also spiritually? "

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They ARE impeding our progress towards better society

::They ARE impeding our progress towards better society

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Please answer all the questions specifically instead of using a vague discription in a arbitary manner. For example, what are they? How they impede our progress towards a better society?

Whether we hold a defensive or a offensive attitude to traditions, we must understand the core values in tradtions. What are they? And are they really rubbish or treasures?
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The tradition and culture, as i say, is not transcendentally or necessarilly valuable. Talking about the values of them is nonsense before making clear which part you're talking about. for example, traditional chinese medicine. Tradition is something like individual's habits, again, it's not alltime right, though the people could treat it as "treasure".


What do they mean to us?
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i've no idea, some part might be kind of shame,eg.the endless adv. in broadcast and TV. You might say they're not real traditional chinese medciin but fakers.
But according to your first-floor post, this is so called culture(at least, a part of), which is well-defined by your post.


What are their functions to the society? Would they impede or facilitate our progress towards a better society where people live in a better life status not only materially but also spiritually?
===============================================================================

they do influence society. in good case, science came into being centuries ago. in worst case, maya civillization/culture/tradition/whatever disppeared.

:: The picture is so big that influences reading.
:: Is it possible to make it smaller here?

The picture you include can be at any size. If it is wider than 800px, the program will automatically rescale its width to 800px. One can click on the picture to view its full size in a separate window.

:: If it is wider than 800px, the program will automatically rescale its width to 800px.

=====================

I didn't see any change in my PC, and it keeps the original size -- the program simply does not work for me.

To CoolingRib,

I do not think that you understand in my questions, and I do doubt that you have an academic sense and clear understanding of tradition which was not shown at least by your comments. In this case, I cannot continue dissussion with you.

:: I didn't see any change in my PC, and it keeps the original size

What browser are you using? Is JavaScript enabled on your browser? BTW, resizing only happens when image is finished loading.

嘿嘿，Against that big nice diagram problem, what you need is a QXGA screen (check: http://www.changhai.org/forum/article_load.php?fid=7&aid=1186344391)

With this baby, you dont need to rescale(read:loss of detail) anything.

oops, i forgot to rescale before paste. wish it were not so big for you...

What browser are you using? Is JavaScript enabled on your brower?

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I am using Maxthon browser. JavaScript is enabled on my brower.

A more strange thing is that the pic was resized the day when I uploaded this pic -- no problem at all. The problem happened from the second day. I will check it again tomorrow.