Culture

Tylor, 1871
That complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, moral, laws, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.

Tylor, E. B. Primitive culture: researches into the development of mythology, philosophy, religion, art, and custom. 2 vols. London, John Murray 1871:1

Kluckholn, 1951
Patterned ways of thinking, feeling and reacting, acquired and transmitted mainly by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e., historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values.

Kluckholn, C. The Study of Culture. In D. Lerner, & H. D. Lasswell (Eds.), The Policy Sciences. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press 1951:86

Kroeber, 1952
The historically differentiated and variable mass of customary ways of functioning of human societies.

Kroeber, A. L. The Nature of Culture. Chicago, Il: Chicago University Press. 1952:157

Geertz, 1973
An historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and their attitudes toward life.

Geertz, C. The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books. 1973: 89