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70 Cultural Concepts

John Spacey, updated on February 28, 2024

Cultural concepts are abstract ideas, generalizations and patterns of social behavior that are used to understand culture. Culture is the set of shared meanings and experiences that emerge within any group that spends time together. The longer a group exists as a cohesive entity, the more culture that is developed such that culture is a result of history and the experiences of social groups over time. The following are common cultural concepts.

Archetypes	Architecture
Art	Attitudes
Beliefs	Celebrations
Ceremonies	Clothing
Communication styles	Cooking methods
Crafts	Cuisine
Customs	Dance
Dating customs	Design
Dining rituals	Etiquette
Family structure	Fashion
Festivals	Film
Folklore	Freedoms
Funeral practices	Games
Gift giving	Greetings
Heritage	Heroes
History	Holidays
Humor	Ideologies
Language	Legends
Literature	Marriage customs
Morals	Music
Mythology	Norms
Pastimes	Performing arts
Philosophies	Religious beliefs
Responsibilities	Rites of passage
Rituals	Roles
Sense of aesthetics	Sensibilities
Slang	Social beliefs
Social expectations	Social hierarchies
Social identity	Social status
Sports	Status symbols
Storytelling	Styles
Superstitions	Table manners
Taboos	Technology
Theater	Traditions
Values	Way of life

Material Culture

Physical elements of culture including objects, places and environments. This includes practical culture such as a tool, creative culture such a painting and symbolic culture such as a place that is viewed as meaningful.

Non-Material Culture

Culture that has no specific physical form. For example, clothing is material culture but a fashion trend or style is non-material culture.

Social Culture

Culture that shapes social interactions within a group. This includes things like social status, norms and social expectations that tend to greatly influence social behavior.

Cultural Expression

Things that people can do to act out the culture. This helps to create new culture on an ongoing basis.

Symbolic Culture

Symbolic culture is the capacity of a culture to attach extensive shared meaning to symbols. These symbols can be words, concepts, people, places, behaviors, rituals and visual icons that people recognize as having significant meaning.

Cultural Beliefs

Shared beliefs associated with a culture such as values, morals, perceptions, sensibilities and attitudes.

Way of Life

Culture can influence the way of life of individuals and communities. This includes day-to-day practices such as diet and the values and meaning that people find in life.