What is culture?

Well in my previous international experiences, I always looked forward to promoting Canada and accentuating the characteristics that make us who we are as Canadians. In the many occasions where I have had the opportunity to be such an ambassador, I found that when discussing Canadian culture, I end up talking about the differences we have with many countries rather than the features that we share with relatively fewer countries.

I was born to an immigrant family who came to Canada from Guyana in the 1970's during a huge wave of Canadian immigration. My parents always said that I was a Canadian and that even though I was born to Guyanese parents, I should recognize where I was born. The majority of my extended family live in the United States and are patriotic in their adopted country in my own humble opinion. I recognized this difference from a very young age and felt the need to endorse my own country in which I was born. Even at the age of eight, I felt the need defend against the giants south of us by stating who "they" were rather than who "we" were.

I think cultures around the world general look for differences in order to emphasize their uniqueness. For example, Canadian and Americans generally speak the same variety of English, so we look to our spelling and our Francophone communities to emphasize our closer ties to the Commonwealth and French-speaking world. New Zealanders look at the prevalence of Moari culture and how it helped shape their country as opposed to the Aborigenies in Austrailia. The Bodi tribe in southeast Ethiopia differentiate themselves from the Mursi tribe by the fact that they own cattle and they have guns, even though there really aren't really many other differences between them. What fun would it be if different groups just focussed on the things that they share rather than what they don't? Would they have a reason to exist if there is nothing by which they can distinguish themselves?

Personally I have found some characteristics that can be used to define a culture and distinguish it from a fad. It is transmitted to younger generations. It is accepted as a way of being by the most powerful. It can be shared by just a family or by many nations. It can be modified by converging or separating as time goes on. Culture can be defined in different ways by, ironically, different cultures and the way we distinguish these groups is done abitrarily. Even though I have given my method of defining a culture, it is by no way the only way nor should it be. Uniformity is not fun and finding differences is always a better way and actually a safer way of living.