Concept of Culture:

Culture: As said earlier, culture is the way of life that is common to a group of people. Now let us look at culture in its time-specced jacket. 

Time bound: Wearing of warm clothes in winter and carrying an umbrella in the rainy season are examples of behavioural change over a short period of time i.e. approximately a year. Over long periods of time, patterns of behaviour change due to factors entering as contents of culture. For example, about 200 years back, there were no railway facilities; a hundred years ago there were no aeroplanes. Twenty-five years back people were not exposed to computers as they are today. All these innovations have influenced the way of life to such an extent that life without them is almost unthinkable. That is how time is a determining factor in the cultural makeup of a people.

Space bound: We all greet our friends when we meet them after a lapse of time. However, the way in which we greet varies from culture to culture and place to place. The Indians greet with folded hands, the Englishmen greet by shaking hands, and the inhabitants of Tikopia, a small Polynesian island, greet by approaching each other with raised fists, which to an outsider appears as a prelude to fight. This is how the human behaviour varies from place to place.

Culture has two broad components: One is material and the other is non-material. The material part includes everything that is made, fashioned or transformed by human beings in society i.e. it is tangible, like ploughs, sickles, digging sticks

Food, dress, ornaments, Symbols, attitudes, houses and automobiles, etc.ideas, beliefs, song, dance and music etc. musical instruments, etc. If we look closely, we find that even people who have agriculture as their main occupation do not use similar agricultural implements. In hilly areas, hoes are used instead of ploughs. Here we see that the environment plays a vital role in conditioning the culture of a society. Thus, it may be said that the material expression of man's interaction with the environment is culture. The environment is not the same everywhere. It varies from place to place. Hence, culture from place to place can also change along with the change of environment.

Let us now more to the non-material aspects of culture. Non-material culture includes symbols, ideas that shape the lives of human beings in relation to one another. The most important of these are attitudes, beliefs, values and norms. For example, beliefs affect the rituals. Muslims observe fasting for one month (known as Ramzan month). During this period, they take food once a day, that is only after seeing the moon in the evening. On the last day of Ramzan, fasting breaks with a particular type of sweet dish along with other sweets which are also distributed among near and dear ones. Similarly, food-related beliefs and taboos (restrictions) govern our food habits and food consumption at different phases and occasions of life. For example, among the Oriyas, there is restriction on eating non-vegetarian food during the month of 'Kartik'. It is believed that avoiding non-vegetarian food during this month prevents different diseases and helps leading a normal healthy life. A restriction on food during navratri among north Indians is another example of nonmaterial culture.

Not entering the kitchen with slippers on observing forty days rest after childbirth, are other examples of non-material aspects of culture. Some of these practices have been found to have scientific basis also. For example, use of turmeric in almost every ritual and food preparation is said to be associated with its antiseptic quality. This is common nearly among all communities in India.