Theoretically, any group of immigrants (first to get here or last to arrive) can ascribe to themselves some common characteristics of a culture. There are numerous definitions of culture and sub-cultures:

• A common list of cultural descriptors included language, dress, shelter, food, music, dance, ceremonies of life stages -birth, marriage, death, religion.
• “Culture, or civilization, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” [Taylor]
• Culture is: “a society’s shared and socially transmitted ideas, values and perceptions, which are used to make sense of experience and generate behaviour and are reflected in that behaviour.” [Nideffer]
• Sub-cultures are groups with distinct patterns of learned and shared behaviour (ethnicities, races, genders, age categories)m within a larger culture. Members of sub-cultures still share commonalities with the larger society. Subcultures exist in most national-level systems because these systems are pluralistic and encompass more than one ethnic group or culture.

Characteristics of Culture

• Culture is learned. It is not biological, not inherited. It is learned from families, peers, institutions, media. One can be born in one culture and be raised in a different culture, and a result is a person with the characteristics of the culture they were raised in. [A process of enculturation.]
• Culture is shared. Sharing culture means we act in socially appropriate ways and can predict how others will act if they comply with cultural expectations. Predictability means security and safety for each. Just because culture is shared, doesn’t make it homogenous (all the same). Canada is multi-cultural – shared differences that can unite us.
• Culture is based on symbols. Symbols represent meaning, they stand for something else, and are varied and differ across cultures. Ex: language, money, art, religion, dress, music, etc. Language is the most important symbolic part of a culture.
• Culture is integrated. It is holistic. All various parts are connected and all parts must be known and understood for understanding.
• Culture is dynamic. Cultures interact with each other and change. Cultures exchange and come to share ideas and symbols. Cultures change and thus adapt to changing environments and conditions over time. Because cultures are integrated, when one component changes in a sub-culture, the macro-culture must adjust.

Culture and Adaptation

• All living things adapt biologically over time (evolution) to changes in the environment. Not all cultural adaptations are positive for the macro-society. Some may prove to be maladaptive for the human organism and the society: fast food, climate change, water and air pollution, plastic in oceans, etc. For a culture/society to survive it must adapt by recognizing problems, finding and implementing solutions.

Ethnocentrism

• Humans may believe their culture is the best or only way to live – ethnocentrism.
• Small doses help create cultural pride and build strong, cohesive groups in times of need.
• When taken to extremes there is a possibility of pride changing to tribalism. Intolerance may evolve or be intentionally created within a macro-culture/nation. [Sports team tribalism creates soccer hooliganism. Political tribalism may lead to attempts to violently overthrow a legitimate government -January 6, 2022. Racial intolerance may lead to genocide or colonization.]
• CULTURAL RELATIVISM is an anthropologist principle that all cultures must be understood in terms of their own values and beliefs, not by the standards of another. No culture is better or superior to another, one culture cannot judge another culture’s ability to meet the needs of its own people.

Multiple Culture Societies

Large societies, like Canada, have multiple cultures that together add up to the total population. These smaller/micro cultures are referred to as sub-cultures based on the identifiers above (language, religion, dress, ceremonies, music, dance, etc.). Other descriptors can lead to social stratification and sub-cultures and perceive other sub-cultures within the nation as somehow inferior.

• Class: is a social category based on economic position, with access to or control over valued resources like money. Economic disparity is a recent historical phenomenon and a result of political decisions made by those in power. In a democracy, there is a recent choice by those at the lower end of the economic ladder to vote for leaders who tell them they will protect them by making life worse for those even farther below them (usually based on learned biases of race, gender, religion) while really magnifying disparities through income and tax policies.
• Race: differentiated based on physical traits of skin colour, facial features, hair types. This is culturally learned and not biologically created.
• Ethnic Group: refers to self-identification based on specific cultural features such as language, ceremonies, dress, the territory of origin. This is a self-identifier of choice by the individual and not all members of the group may have the same beliefs and values as others. when ethnicity is used as a label by ‘outsiders’ it becomes discrimination.
• Indigenous Peoples: are those who were resident in a place before colonial immigrants arrived. In Canada, the “first” peoples arrived from Asia about 17,000 years ago after the glacial ice melted. Over the subsequent thousands of years, other peoples also arrived in North America and there was a “replacement” of a previous culture by a subsequent one. In Wilmot Township there have been about 10 different “native” cultural groups replacing each other, usually by force and cultural assimilation before the colonists arrived. As an identifiable group, they have been subject to discrimination and colonization.
• Gender: refers to the biological difference between the sexes. Most cultures have two (male or female) or three (blended). Some sub-cultures have more identifiers and are subject to discrimination based on gender (misogyny) or sexual orientation (homophobia).
• Age: is a biological fact but also a social construct. Different rights, opportunities, obligations or responsibilities are assigned to different ages: drinking, driving, voting, marriage, enlisting in the military.

Valuing and Sustaining Diversity

Valuing diversity within cultures facilitates adaptation and change in a culture when “issues/problems” are made recognized. By describing the culture and its components we contribute to problem-solving and the continuation of the culture. The larger or more diverse the sub-cultures within a culture/nation, like Canada, the more attentive we need to be.