In ancient times people had started living in groups at different localities. This was actually for the sake of security to their life and property. Each group had got its own ideas, beliefs, thoughts, interaction, spirituality and way of communication. Each group was confined to their peculiar life style separately. They had no desire to enter into other group’s territory or interfere in their life style. The different types of lifestyle of various groups of people living in separate localities are termed as their culture.
In other words it is the life style adopted by a group of people living in a locality. The boundaries of the locality, its geographical nature and the climatic conditions prevailing there have got considerable influence on the life style of the group of people living there. The specialties seen in the geographical and climatic conditions have a key role in shaping their appearance and nature. This is how the people living in the mountain areas differ from those living in the valleys of the rivers. The group of people living in a locality is later termed as society.
The communication media used by these groups of people are termed as language. Each group has got its own language which differs from the others. Language has the significant quality in shaping up the culture of a group. It is through this language that a society transfer their ideas and beliefs about their culture to the next generation. The members of a society share ideas, principles and beliefs of their culture by their separate languages and transfer the same to their descendents. Thus the language enables the cultural heritage to pass through generations very freely.
The culture has got a very high dignity because it gives the identity to a particular society. Since the people of a society share the ideas, principles, customs and beliefs of their culture together, then there won’t be any difficulties or differences between them to unite for a common cause. This quality of the culture brings the society to impose a social control on their people. Thus there happens to be an infinite linkage between the people of a society.
Judgment on the culture of a society is really a task unless one gets a thorough awareness about the principles, customs, beliefs and language of the people belongs to that particular society. On viewing one person’s nature, behavior and attitudes it is not so easy to judge the features of the society he belongs.
In the later years people of a society started looking into the culture of other societies and prefer to adopt certain principles, customs and beliefs from them which are beneficial and easily digestible to their people. Then this habit happened to be a practice through the coming younger generations. Thus the current generation dared to show the tendency to form a combination of various cultures prevailing around them.
So we can conclude the definition of the culture as the life style of a group of people living in a particular area having similar ideas, attitudes, beliefs, thoughts, spirituality and communication with resemblances. The nature of the culture may vary as it passes through the hands of the younger generations. But the definition of the culture will be stationary through out.