What is culture?
Ans: Cultures are traditions and customs, transmitted through learning, that govern the beliefs and behaviors of the people exposed to them. This chapter emphasizes that culture is shared, symbolic, all-encompassing, and integrated.

What about culture is universal?
Ans: Biologically based universals include a long period of infant dependency, year-round sexuality, and a complex brain that enables us to use symbols, languages, and tools. Social universals include life in groups and in some kind of family.

Do animals have culture?
Ans: Animals do not have culture in the sense that anthropologists typically define it: a shared, symbolic set of customs and traditions that govern the beliefs and behaviors of the people exposed to them. Other animals may learn from experience, such as to avoid fire because it hurts, and social animals can learn from other members of their group. Such social learning is particularly important among monkeys and apes. However, cultural learning is unique to humans; it depends on the capacity—developed only among humans—to use symbols, signs that have no necessary or natural connection to the things they stand for or signify.

Do some people have culture while others do not?
Ans: As anthropologists define it, all people have culture, since culture is the sum of human beliefs and customs. This contrasts with the non-anthropological definition of "culture," which refers to refinement, good taste, sophistication, education, and appreciation of the fine arts.

Is culture always helpful?
Ans: No. While culture can help humans cope with environmental stresses, certain cultural practices can be maladaptive in the long-term. For example, air conditioners help us deal with heat, fires and furnaces protect us against the cold, and automobiles allow us to commute to our workplaces. However, such "beneficial" technologies may create new problems, such as long-term environmental damage.