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A Formal Concept of Culture in the Classification of Alfred L.

Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn

Article · February 2016

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Robert Boroch
Warsaw University

A FORMAL CONCEPT OF CULTURE

IN THE CLASSIFICATION OF ALFRED L. KROEBER
AND CLYDE KLUCKHOHN*

1. Introduction
In 1952, Alfred L. Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn published the book entitled
Culture. A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions1 which plays a significant
part in the research on culture. In the mentioned book, Kroeber and Kluckhohn,
together with their team2, attempted to systematize the meanings of the notion
of “culture” in anthropological English literature between 1871 and 1950/1951.
The team managed by Kroeber and Kluckhohn gathered approximately 300 an-
thropological works which attempted to explain this notion. On the basis of the
gathered material, Kroeber and Kluckhohn offered classification composed of
164 definition contexts and divided into groups and subgroups, which will be
discussed in section 2.
Despite the fact that it has been almost 70 years since the publication of Culture.
A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions, the work is worth re-analysing for
a number of reasons:
1. KKCC structures the discourse on culture between 1871 and 1951 on anthro-
pology in English;
2. KKCC has become the basis for theoretical discussions concerning the pos-
sibilities of defining the notion of „culture”3;
3. New analytical methods used for the KKCC analysis, as graph theory (here-
inafter referred to as GT), Formal Concept Analysis, (hereinafter referred to
as FCA) and componential analysis, enable one to develop a semantic and
conceptual visualisation, e.g. a graph.
A possibility of introducing a semantic and conceptual visualisation of the notion
of “culture” (section 4) in a form of “frame-graph” is significant mainly because it

* This article constitutes a content-elated supplement of Chapter 3 of the author's book entitled:
Kultura w systematyce Alfreda L. Kroebera i Clyde Kluckhohna [Culture in the Classification of
Alfred L. Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn] (Boroch 2013, 81–116).

ANALECTA R. XXV: 2016, z. 2

62 Robert Boroch

makes it possible to: (a) limit the role of linguistic representation to the minimum
– marginalisation of a sentence language; (b) a graph has got the properties of an
algebraic model, which facilitates indication and understanding of structural rela-
tions (resp. semantic and conceptual ones) between particular objects – iconicity;
(c) on the basis of a graph, one can establish a definition through indicating con-
nections between elements of a graph – definitionality; (d) it is possible to use
a computational technique in reference to a graph – computability; (e) on the basis
of a graph, one can formulate a theorem – theoretical nature4.
The properties of “frame-graph” mentioned in (a)–(e) will be used to construct
a formal concept of culture.

2. Introductory remarks
2.1. Chronological division
Kroeber and Kluckhohn distinguish three chronological periods of the de-
velopment of the theoretical thought of cultural anthropology: (1) 1871–1900;
(2) 1900–1919 (more precisely, between 1903 and 1916); (3) 1920–1950 (more
precisely: 1951). The division offered by Kroeber and Kluckhohn actually covers
the years given in brackets and this corresponds with the dates of publication of
the mentioned works. Period (1) is called by the researchers “the period of clas-
sical anthropology” which was developed under the influence of Edward Tylor’s
works; periods (2) and (3) are called “the period of modern anthropology”5.

2.2. Definitions
Kroeber and Kluckhohn use the term “definition” in relation to the gathered
material; still, KKCC is not a set of definitions in a logical sense, but a lexicon
presenting different ways of understanding the notion of “culture” and, in this
sense, KKCC presents apparent definitions (resp. pseudo–definitions)6.

2.3. The analysed material

Kroeber and Kluckhohn declared that the subject of their analysis would be
definitions of culture formulated only in English; however, KKCC also includes
definitions formulated in French (B18 Dietschy, C1–20 Maquet) and German
(F1–6 Menghin, F2–3 Schmidt), and the authors did not provide any justification
for that; therefore, the issue will be omitted.

3. Presentation of the material

The team of Kroeber and Kluckhohn gathered approximately 300 definitions
of culture7; the construction of the KKCC typology used 1648. On the basis of
contextual analysis of “culture” word’s instances, Kroeber and Kluckhohn dis-
tinguished seven definition groups: [1] descriptive, [2] historical, [3] normative,
[4] psychological, [5] structural, [6] genetic, [7] incomplete definitions. Within
 A Formal Concept of Culture in the Classification of Alfred L. Kroeber... 63

the groups, there were subgroups introduced providing more details. The defini-
tions were put in chronological order according to the years of particular issues;
the first KKSC definition is the offer of Edward B. Tylor from 1871 mentioned
in Primitive Culture by Edward B. Tylor; the last one is the work of Kluckhohn
from 1951, The Concept of Culture.

3.1. Denotations
The version of KKCC of Kroeber and Kluckhohn uses Roman numerals to
denote the groups; ordinal numbers are Arabic numerals, and the subgroups were
denoted by Latin numbers. This publication introduces modifications to provide
the text with more clarity and modernity. Types of groups were denoted with
capital Latin letters: A, B, C etc. Ordinal numbering was introduced within the
groups in the following form: A1, A2, A3, etc. In case of subgroups, the denota-
tion in a form of Arabic numbers with a space: A1–1, A1–2, A1–3, etc., was used.
The chronology according to the years of publications was maintained. The of-
fered terminology may seem hermetic to those who do not know Kroeber’s and
Kluckhohn’s book Culture. A Critical Review…; therefore, an author’s surname
was additionally introduced, e.g. definition A1–1 Tylor.

3.2. Methodology
3.2.1. Contextual analysis
The groups (and subgroups), established within KKCC, were created on the
basis of the analysis of contexts satisfying the following conditions: (1) lexical
and frequential; and (2) thematic. Criterion (1) refers to the instances of specific
lexical units in the determined context, while criterion (2) refers to the subject
of the context, which is determined on the basis of instances of lexical units
from the so-called “auxiliary conceptual network”. The detailed criteria adopted
for particular groups and subgroups are presented in Table 1. Column I includes
names of groups and subgroups as well as their symbolic designations; Column
II includes lexical and frequential criteria classifying the particular definitions of
“culture” to a relevant group.

Table 1: The criteria organising definition groups distinguished by Kroeber and

Kluckhohn
Column I Column II
Group name Classifying criteria
Group A: descriptive definitions
Group A: descriptive a) culture as a “complex whole”,
definitions b) listing the features of culture,
c) in the definitions of this group there are the following
expressions: complex whole, whole, total, everything.
Group B: historical definitions
64 Robert Boroch

Group B historical definitions a) social heritage,

b) social tradition,
c) non-biological heritage and intergenerational
transmission.
Group C: normative definitions
Subgroup C1 – rules are a) pressure exerted by a group on an individual,
emphasized b) model nature of life understood as imitation.
Subgroup C2 – values and a) behaviours,
ideas plus behaviour are b) open actions,
emphasized c) ideas,
d) values.
Group D: psychological definitions
Subgroup D1 – emphasizing The influence of Sumner’s theoretical thought in the
modification of culture as following categories:
a “tool” solving problems a) folkways,
b) mores.
Subgroup D2 – learning is a) learning of people,
emphasized b) non-genetic transmission of knowledge and skills.
Subgroup D3 – habits are a) custom/tradition as a factor referring to a group,
emphasized b) habits as a factor referring to an individual.
Subgroup D4 – fully a) general psychology,
psychological definitions b) psychoanalysis,
c) social psychology.
Group E: structural definitions
Group E: structural definitions a) way of organisation of culture,
– emphasizing a model nature b) components making up the structure of culture, which
and organisation of culture are specifically system-related.
Group F: genetic definitions
Subgroup F1 – emphasizing a) things which become culture,
culture as a product or artefact b) factors determining the existence of culture,
c) components of culture: material artefact.
Subgroup F2 – ideas are a) ideas – immanence,
emphasized b) ideas – communicability.
Subgroup F3 – symbols are a) usage of a symbol in culture,
emphasized b) definitions of this subgroup use the following words:
symbol, project (or equivalents).
Subgroup F4 – other genetic a) origin of culture,
definitions b) listing what culture is not.
Group G: incomplete definitions
Group G: incomplete a) all the definitions which could not be classified to other
definitions types,
b) were formulated between 1900–1950 (1951).
Table 1 presents the method of classification of the particular definitions to
 A Formal Concept of Culture in the Classification of Alfred L. Kroeber... 65

specific groups and subgroups used in KKCC; e.g. group of definitions A – Tylor
refers to those definitions of culture in which one can find, in reference to the
notion of “culture”, the following expressions: a) complex, whole; b) whole; c)
total; d) everything, etc., and which are treated as “auxiliary notions”.

3.2.2. Frequential analysis of KKCC

KKCC was subject to frequential analysis according to the following pro-
cedure: the main categories were established (below, items a–q, capital letters),
which were expanded in a form of the network of “auxiliary notions” (normal
font); subsequently, KKCC was indexed with regard to quantity of instances of
“auxiliary notions”, which enabled one to determine a specific value of instances
and introduce a generalization in a form of the main notion, which was called
a category (see: Diagram 1).
a) SOCIAL: socially;
b) BEHAVIOR/behavior: behaviors, behavior–families, behavior–patterns;
c) PATTERNS: pattern, pattern–creating order, pattering, patterned customs, pat-
terned totality of group, patterned ways of behavior, patterned ways of think-
ing and acting;
d) HABITS/habit: habiting, habitual attitudes, habitual behavior, habitual pat-
terns, habitual ways of life, social habituation;
e) ACTING: interacting, reacting, activity, activities;
f) HERITAGE: heredity, inherit/inherited, inherits, inheritance;
g) BELIEFS/belief;
h) CUSTOMS/custom;
i) SYMBOL: symbolic action, symbolic behavior, symbolic systems, non–sym-
bolic counterparts [of symbolic systems], symbolic transmission, symboli-
cally communicable, symbolling;
j) SYSTEM/systems;
k) ATTITUDES: attitudinal relationship, non–attitudional relationship;
l) ADJUSTMENTS/adjustment;
m) KNOWLEDGE;
n) LANGUAGE;
o) TRANSMISSION: transmissible results;
p) INDUSTRIES/industry;
q) DOING.
Table 2 presents frequential analysis within the frameworks of the offered
categories.
66 Robert Boroch

Table 2: Frequential analysis of KKCC classification

Group
Categories Number Gr. A Gr. B Gr. C Gr. D Gr. E Gr. F Gr. G
of uses
SOCIAL 58 A2 A3 B1 B1 C1–1 D1–1 E2 F1–5
A7 A8 B4 B6 C1–2 D1–5 E3 F1–7
A13 A16 B8 B9 C1–4 D1–15 E8 F1–7
A17 A18 B9 B9 C1–6 D1–16 ––––– F1–7
A20 B11 B12 D1–17 3 F1–9
––––– B13 B14 C2–2 F1–13
9 B15 C2–3 D2–3 F1–14
B16 C2–4 D2–4 F1–1
B20 C2–6 D2–5
B22 B22 ––––– D2–6 F2–1
––––– 8 F2–1
17 D3–3 F2–8
––––– –––––
10 11
Socially 10 A8 B2 D2–2 F1–20
A17 B3 D2–2 –––––
––––––– B18 D2–14 1
2 ––––– D2–16
3 –––––
4
TOTAL USES IN SOCIAL CATEGORY: 68
Behaving NONE
BEHA- 54 A8 B5 C1–5 D1–5 E6 F1–5 G4
VIOR/– A9 B7 C1–6 D1–6 E6 F1–5 G5
our A10 B10 C1–6 D1–8 ––––– F1–8 G7
A16 B10 C1–11 D1–16 2 F1–13 –––––
A17 B13 B14 C1–16 F1–16 3
A18 B19 C1–16 D2–6 F1–20
A19 ––––– C1–18 D2–6 F1–20
––––– 7 D2–6
7 C2–2 D2–9 F2–7
C2–3 D2–11 F2–9
C2–4 D2–12 F3–1
C2–5 D2–14 F3–5
––––– D2–16 –––––
11 11
D3–2
–––––
13

Behaviors 1 E9
Behavior– 1 D1–13
families
 A Formal Concept of Culture in the Classification of Alfred L. Kroeber... 67

Behavior– 3 D2–2
patterns D2–2
D2–10
TOTAL USES IN BEHAVIOR CATEGORY: 59
PAT- 22 A9 B14 C1–6 D1–5 E1 F1–5 G7
TERNS A10 B19 C1–6 D1–16 ––––– F1–5 –––––
––––– ––––– C1–16 1 F1–7 1
2 2 D2–2 –––––
C2–4 D2–2 3
––––– D2–7
4 D2–10
D2–11
D2–12

D3–3
–––––
9
Pattern 4 C1–16 D1–14 E3
C1–16
Pattern– 1 D1–7
creating
order
Patterning 1 F1–7
Patterned 1 E8
customs
Patterned 1 E10
totality of
group
Patterned 1 B7
ways of
behavior
Patterned 1 C1–17
ways of
thinking
and acting
TOTAL USES IN PATTERNS CATEGORY: 32
Habit 2 D3–1 F1–15
68 Robert Boroch

HABITS 19 A1 B6 C1–4 D1–6 F1–3

A4 B8 C1–8 D1–11 –––––
A7 ––––– ––––– 1
A7 2 2 D2–7
A7 D2–13
A10 D3–3
A14 –––––
A14 5
A17
–––––
9
Habiting 1 C1–5a
Habitual 1 A6
attitudes
Habitual 2 A10 D3–2
behaviour
Habitual 2 E1 F1–5
patterns
Habitual 1 B12
ways of
life
Social 1 F1–7
habitua-
tion
TOTAL USES IN HABITS CATEGORY: 29
ACTING 4 A8 C1–3 F4–6
C1–17
Interact- 3 C2–6 D1–14 F1–8
ing
Reacting 1 D1–12
Activity 4 A10a D2–1 F1–8
A14
Activities 13 A2 A3 B18 D2–1 E10 F1–4
A3 A5 B18 D2–8
A6 A7
A8
TOTAL USES IN ACTING CATEGORY: 25
HERIT- 7 B1
AGE B6
B7
B11
B12
B13
B16
 A Formal Concept of Culture in the Classification of Alfred L. Kroeber... 69

Heredity 4 B9
B9
B9
B15
Inherit/ 5 B2
inherited B3
B4
B6
B19
Inherits 1 B13
Inherit- 4 B14 D2–10 F3–5
ance B16
TOTAL USES IN HERITAGE CATEGORY: 21
Belief 3 A1 B11
A19
BELIEFS 17 A3 B2 C1–1 D2–12 F1–4
A3 B22 C1–2 ––––– F1–9
A8 ––––– C1–17 1
A10a A13 2 ––––– F2–10
A14 3 F3–3
––––– F3–4
6 –––––
5
TOTAL USES IN BELIEFS CATEGORY: 20
Custom 1 A20
CUS- 19 A1 B13 C1–2 D2–5 E2 F3–3
TOMS A3 ––––– C1–6 D2–15 E8 –––––
A3 1 C2–2 D2–15 ––––– 1
A8 ––––– D2–15 2
A10a A12 3 –––––
A13 4
A15
–––––
8
TOTAL USES IN CUSTOMS CATEGORY: 20
SYMBOL 10 A6 C1–5a D1–6 F1–4
C1–6
F2–4
F2–5

F3–1
F3–2
F3–3
Symbolic 1 F2–11
action
Symbolic 1 F1–13
behavior
70 Robert Boroch

Symbolic 1 D1–6
systems
Non– 1 D1–6
symbolic
counter-
parts
[of
symbolic
systems]
Symbolic 1 F3–5
transmis-
sion
Symboli- 1 F2–4
cally com-
municable
Symbol- 2 F3–4
ling F3–4
TOTAL USES IN SYMBOL CATEGORY: 18
SYSTEM 6 A2 E1 F2–10
A11 E3
E7
Systems 9 A8 B21 C2–6 D1–6 F1–20
A15 B21 D1–7

D2–12
TOTAL USES IN SYSTEM CATEGORY: 15
ATTI- 10 A6 C1–6 D1–11 F1–4
TUDES C1–18 F1–9
D2–7
C2–2 F2–10

F3–4
Attitudi- 1 D4–2
nal rela-
tionship
Non–atti- 1 D4–2
tudional
relation-
ships
TOTAL USES IN ATTITUDES CATEGORY: 12
 A Formal Concept of Culture in the Classification of Alfred L. Kroeber... 71

Adjust- 5 D1–6 F1–5

ment D1–9 F1–10

F4–3
ADJUST- 5 A20 D1–2
MENTS D1–2
D1–3
D1–4
TOTAL USES IN ADJUSTMENTS CATEGORY: 10
KNOWL- 8 A1 B11 B13 D2–12 F2–10
EDGE A15 B22
A19
TOTAL USES IN KNOWLEDGE CATEGORY: 8
LAN- 7 A2 B22 D2–12 F3–3 G2
GUAGE A9
A15
TOTAL USES IN LANGUAGE CATEGORY: 7
TRANS- 3 B5 D1–2 F3–5
MISSION
Trans- 1 F1–16
missible
results
TOTAL USES IN TRANSMISSION CATEGORY: 4
Industry BRAK
INDUS- 3 A2
TRIES A5
A12
TOTAL USES IN INDUSTRIES CATEGORY: 3
DOING 1 C1–2
TOTAL USES IN DOING CATEGORY: 1

Results of the analysis:

68 – SOCIAL; 59 – BEHAVIOR; 32 – PATTERNS; 29 – HABITS; 25 –
ACTING; 21 – HERITAGE; 20 – BELIEFS; 20 – CUSTOMS; 18 – SYMBOL;
15 – SYSTEM; 12 – ATTITUDES; 10 – ADJUSTMENTS; 8 – KNOWLEDGE;
7 – LANGUAGE; 4 –TRANSMISSION; 3 – INDUSTRIES; 1 – DOING.
Diagram 1 constitutes a summary of the frequential analysis from Table 1.
72 Robert Boroch

Diagram 1: The results of the frequential analysis of KKCC organised according

to categories.

Diagram 1 is a curve on which there are numbers of instances of “auxiliary no-

tions” in the particular category; the names of categories were written in capital
letters on diagram 1.

4. Interpretation of Diagram 1
Diagram 1 presents the result of the frequential analysis in a form of downward
trend from the value of 68 to the value of 1. Categories found in 68–20 range, in
the studies of culture, would be called sociological and ethnographic (resp. an-
thropological); while categories found in 18–1 range, would be called structural
and semiotic. Nevertheless, one cannot say that this is the case of two different
representations of the notion of “culture”. Among the categories distinguished
in KKCC, there are: (1) normative cohesion – KKCC is a set of definitions; (2)
thematic cohesion – KKCC is a set of definitions of culture; (3) paradigmatic and
syntagmatic coherence – categories distinguished within KKCC are interrelated
paradigmatically and syntagmatically.
Therefore, the following assumptions are made:
(1) KKCC is a coherent conceptual structure – subject unity;
(2) KKCC is de facto a conceptual representation of one theory of culture;
(3) Within KKCC, the notion of “culture” is definable;

5. Discussion
In order to improve the text, the following denotations were introduced:
a) Conceptual structure – ;
b) Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations within structure – ;

5.1. Coherence of
Coherence of is determined by a possibility of detecting regularity. In this
sense, coherence of is equivalent to the notion of “paradigm” (Thomas Khun)
or “type of discourse” (Michel Foucault). Searching for regularities is relations ,
which create a conceptual framework of . One of the ways of showing coherence
 A Formal Concept of Culture in the Classification of Alfred L. Kroeber... 73

of is developing a material repository, e.g. in a form of text corpus or other data-

base which can be used for contextual and frequential analyses in order to identify
structural regularities and develop a category on this basis. Indexing the repository,
as the result of contextual and frequential analyses, transforms it into knowledge
representation9 which can be formally presented in a form of “category framework”
united with relations . Only developed in that way can be further analysed
with the use of Formal Concept Analysis (hereinafter referred to as FCA).

5.2. Formal Concept Analysis – FCA

FCA method was broadly discussed by Rudolf Wille in his work Restructur-
ing Lattice Theory10. The advantage of FCA concept analysis is the fact that one
can use this method in relational structuring of a large amount of data and present
the results of this relational structuring graphically, which is called a framework.
The advantages resulting from the possibility of visual presentation of conceptual
structure were mentioned in section 1.

5.2.1. FCA terminology

FCA terminology goes as follows11:
a) elements of one type are called objects;
b) elements of different types which can be connected by means of relation
with an object in some way are called attributes;
c) a closed set of objects creates a formal object if and only if adding new at-
tributes to it is impossible or if the process of adding new attributes is fin-
ished;
d) all the identified attributes of an object are called formal attributes;
e) a system of formal objects and formal attributes together with relations
make up a formal context (see: Table 4);
f) formal object and formal attribute make up a formal concept if and only if they
are a closed class;
g) a pair of formal objects makes up an extension of a formal concept and this
concerns a semantic range;
h) a pair of formal objects of an attribute makes up an intension of a formal con-
cept and this concerns qualitative properties.

5.2.2. “Conceptual defining”

“Conceptual defining” means proceedings leading to showing or establish-
ing relation between objects and attributes in order to “construct” a formal
concept. Relations can be either actually existing or hypostatic, which in part
explains their “semantic dynamism”. The ontological status of relation will be
discussed in other study.
74 Robert Boroch

5.3. KKCC formal concept of culture

Table 3 presents relation space within KKCC categories. Referring to FCA
terminology, categories distinguished within KKCC are objects (column I); while
“auxiliary notions” are attributes (Column II). “X” marking stands for relations
of objects and their attributes.

Table 3: Relations of categories in the classification of culture by Kroeber and

Kluckhohn
I II
OBJECTS ATTRIBUTES
Social Behavior Patterns Acting Customs System Attitudes
BEHAVIOR X
PATTERNS X X X
HABITS X X X X
SYMBOL X X

Table 3 presents relations between objects and their attributes which deter-
mines the relation space of the formal concept of culture in KKCC. There are
formal objects in the relation space. A pair of formal objects, e.g. BEHAVIOR
and HABITS and their attributes make up a formal context of the particular
pair. The formal context of BEHAVIOR and HABITS pair is presented in
Table 4.

Table 4: The formal context of BEHAVIOR and HABITS pair in KKCC

Concept A Concept B
Social
BEHAVIOR Patterns HABITS Behavior
Patterns
Attitudes

The formal context which is presented in Table 4 can be the subject of further
analyses. However, these analyses are confined to a framework. Figure 1, created
on the basis of Table 3, presents visualisation of this kind of framework.
 A Formal Concept of Culture in the Classification of Alfred L. Kroeber... 75

Figure 1: Framework of the notion of “culture” in the classification of KKCC

Abbreviations: B – Behavior; S – Symbol; A – Acting; C – Custom; Sys – System; Att

– Attitudes; Soc – Social; H – Habits; P – Patterns

All the normative and philosophical or sociological and ethnographic (resp.

anthropological) analyses of culture which point of departure is the classification
of KKCC will not go beyond the framework presented in Figure 1.

6. Summary
Definitions gathered by the team of Kroeber and Kluckhohn can be structured
and presented in a form of KKCC formal concept of culture. Thanks to using con-
textual, frequential and FCA analyses it was possible to develop the visualisation
of this concept in a form of framework (Figure 1).
Furthermore, the used methods enabled one to formulate the following con-
clusions: (1) the notion of “culture” is definable only in a coherent conceptual and
theoretical paradigm; (2) visualisation of the framework of KKCC concept of cul-
ture reveals the direction of analyses and paradigmatic and syntagmatic changes;
(3) any deliberations based epistemologically and ontologically on KKCC will
not go beyond the framework presented in Figure 1.
The previous attempts of defining the notion of “culture” did not consider the
way the notion of “culture” is constructed in discourse, and its actual explana-
tory power; they were not of holistic nature which results from a lack of relevant
analytical methods. This issue is presented by the visualisation of the framework
of the notion of “culture” in Figure 2. This framework was constructed accord-
ing to the method described in the article. The analysis only used the definitions
of culture by Kluckhohn. This issue is more visible when the visualisation of the
76 Robert Boroch

framework of the notion of “culture” from Figure 2 and the framework from Fig-
ure 1 are superimposed on each other.

Figure 2: The framework of the notion of “culture” by Kluckhohn

Abbreviations: S – Symbol; A – Acting; C – Custom; Sys – System; Soc – Social; H –

Habits; P – Patterns

Figure 3: The framework of the notion of “culture” by Kluckhohn and the frame-
work of the notion of “culture” in the classification of KKCC overlapping each
other

Abbreviations: B – Behavior; S – Symbol; A – Acting; C – Custom; Sys – System; Att –

Attitudes; Soc – Social; H – Habits; P – Patterns
 A Formal Concept of Culture in the Classification of Alfred L. Kroeber... 77

The visualisations presented in Figures 2 and 3 show limitations of the defi-

nition of culture, which were not assumed by Kluckhohn purposefully. These
limitations result implicite from the coherence of the conceptual and theoretical
paradigm within the specific discourse.

***
Integration of the methods of analysing the classification of KKCC, presented
in this article, shows another perspective of Kroeber-Kluckhohn lexicon. It seems
that re-opening of the discussion on the possibilities of defining the notion of
“culture” is possible, still, first, it should be planned methodologically by devel-
oping preliminary conditions.

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Wille, R. (1982). Restructuring Lattice Theory: An Approach Based on Hier-
archies of Concepts. W I. Rival (Red.), Ordered Sets (Tom 83, strony 445-470).
Boston: NATO Advanced Studies.
Wolff, K. E. (1994). A First Course in Formal Concept Analysis. How to Un-
derstand Line Diagrams. W F. Faulbaum (Red.), SoftStat’93. Advances in Statisti-
cal Software (Tom 4, strony 429-438). Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer Verlag. Pobrano
z lokalizacji www.fbmn.fh–darmstadt.de/~wolff/Publikationen/A_First_Course_
in_Formal_Concept_Analysis.pdf
78 Robert Boroch

Supplement12

Group A
Descriptive definitions

Table 1: Descriptive Definitions – Group A

A1 Tylor, 1871: 1 Culture, or civilization, […] is that complex whole which includes
knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities
and habits acquired by man as a member of society.
A2 Wissler, 1920: 3 […] all social activities in the broadest sense, such as language,
marriage, property system, etiquette, industries, art, etc.
A3 Dixon, 1928: 3 (a) The sum of all [a people’s] activities, customs, and beliefs.
A4 Dixon, 1928: 3 (b) That totality of a people’s products and activities, social and
religious order, customs and beliefs which […] we have been
accustomed to call their civilization.
A5 Benedict, […] the complex whole which includes all the habits acquired by
(1929)13, 1931: 806 man as a member of society.

A6 Burkitt, 1929: 237 […] the sum of the activities of a people as shown by their industries
and other discoverable characteristics.
A7 Bose, 1929: 23 We can now define Culture as the crystallized phase of man’s life
activities. It includes certain forms of action closely associated
with particular objects and institutions; habitual attitudes of mind
transferable from one person to another with the aid of mental
images conveyed by speech–symbols. […] Culture also includes
certain material objects and techniques […].
A8 Boas, 1930: 79 Culture embraces all the manifestations of social habits of
a community, the reactions of the individual as affected by the habits
of the group in which he lives, and the products of human activities
as determined by these habits.
A9 Hiller, 1933: 3 The beliefs, systems of thought, practical arts, manner of living,
customs, traditions, and all socially regularized ways of acting are
also called culture. So defined, culture includes all the activities
which develop in the association between persons or which are
learned from a social group, but excludes those specific forms of
behavior which are predetermined by inherited nature.
A10 Winston, 1933: Culture may be considered as the totality of material and non–
25 material traits, together with their associated behavior patterns, plus
the language uses which a society possesses.
A11 Linton, 1936: […] the sum total of ideas, conditioned emotional responses, and
288 patterns of habitual behavior which the members of that society
have acquired through instruction or imitation and which they share
to a greater or less degree.
 A Formal Concept of Culture in the Classification of Alfred L. Kroeber... 79

A12 Lowie, 1937: 3 By culture we understand the sum total of what an individual acquires
from his society – those beliefs, customs, artistic norms, food habits,
and crafts which come to him not by his own creative activity but as
a legacy from the past, conveyed by formal or informal education.
A13 Panunzio, 1939: It [culture] is the complex whole of the system of concepts and
106; or D1 usages, organizations, skills, and instruments by means of which
mankind deals with physical, biological, and human nature in
satisfaction of its needs.
A14 Murray, 1943: The various industries of a people, as well as art, burial customs,
346 etc., which throw light upon their life and thought.
A15 Malinowski, It [culture] obviously is the integral whole consisting of implements
1944: 36 and consumers’ goods, of constitutional charters for the various
social groupings, of human ideas and crafts, beliefs and customs.
A16 Kluckhohn Culture is that complex whole which includes artifacts, beliefs, art,
and Kelly, 1945a: 82 all the other habits acquired by man as a member of society and all
products of human activity as determined by these habits.

A17 Kluckhohn […] culture in general as a descriptive concept means the accumulated
and Kelly, 1945a: 96 treasury of human creation: books, paintings, buildings, and the like;
the knowledge of ways of adjusting to our surroundings, both human
and physical; language, customs, and systems of etiquette, ethics,
religion, and morals that have been built up through the ages.
A18 Bidney, 1947: […] functionally and secondarily, culture refers to the acquired
376 forms of technique, behavior, feeling and thought of individuals
within society and to the social institutions in which they cooperate
for the attainment of common ends.
A19 Kroeber, 1948a: […] the mass of learned and transmitted motor reactions, habits,
8–9 techniques, ideas, and values – and the behavior they induce – is
what constitutes culture. Culture is the special and exclusive product
of men, and is their distinctive quality in the cosmos [...]. Culture
[...] is at one and the same time the totality of products of social
men, and a tremendous force affecting all human beings, socially
and individually.
A20 Herskovits, Culture […] refers to that part of the total setting [of human
1948: 154 existence] which includes the material objects of human manufacture,
techniques, social orientations, points of view, and sanctioned ends
that are the immediate conditioning factors underlying behavior.
A21 Herskovits, […] culture is essentially a construct that describes the total body
1948: 625 of belief, behavior, knowledge, sanctions, values, and goals that
mark the way of life of any people. That is, though a culture may be
treated by the student as capable of objective description, in the final
analysis it comprises the things that people have, the things they do,
and what they think.
80 Robert Boroch

A22 Thurnwald, [Culture:] The totality of usages and adjustments which relate
1950: 104 to family, political formation, economy, labor, morality, custom,
law, and ways of thought. These are bound to the life of the social
entities in which they are practiced and perish with these; whereas
civilizational horizons are not lost.

Group B
Historical Definitions

Table 2: Historical Definitions – Group B

B1 Park The culture of a group is the sum total and organization of the social
and Burgess1921: 72 heritages which have acquired a social meaning because of racial
temperament and of the historical life of the group.
B2 Sapir, 1921: 221 […] culture, that is, […] the socially inherited assemblage of
practices and beliefs that determines the texture of our lives […].
B3 Sapir, 1924a: 402 [Culture is technically used by the ethnologist and culture historian
(1949: 308–309) to embody] any socially inherited element in the life of man, material
and spiritual.
B4 Tozzer, 1925: 6 […] the cultural, that which we inherit by social contact. […]
B5 Myres, 1927: 16 […] „culture” is not a state or condition only, but a process; as in
agriculture or horticulture we mean not the condition of the land
but the whole round of the farmer’s year, and all that he does in
it; „culture”, then, is what remains of men’s past, working on their
present, to shape their future.
B6 Bose, 1929: 14 […] we may describe culture as including such behaviour as is
common among a group of men and which is capable of transmission
from generation to generation or from one country to another.
B7 Malinowski, This social heritage is the key concept of cultural anthropology. It
1931: 621 is usually called culture […] Culture comprises inherited artifacts,
goods, technical processes, ideas, habits, and values.
B8 Winston, 1933: 4 […] we may regard culture as the sum total of the possessions and
the patterned ways of behavior which have become part of the
heritage of a group.
B9 Lowie, 1934: 3 The whole of social tradition. It includes, as […] Tylor put it, „capabilities
and habits acquired by man as a member of society” […].
B10 Linton, 1936: 78 […] the social heredity is called culture. As a general term, culture
means the total social heredity of mankind, while as a specific term
a culture means a particular strain of social heredity.
B11 Mead, 1937: 17 Culture means the whole complex of traditional behavior which has
been developed by the human race and is successively learned by
each generation. A culture is less precise. It can mean the forms of
traditional behavior which are characteristic of a given society, or of
a group of societies, or of a certain race, or of a certain area, or of
a certain period of time.
 A Formal Concept of Culture in the Classification of Alfred L. Kroeber... 81

B12 Sutherland and Culture includes everything that can be communicated from
Woodward, 1940: 19 one generation to another. The culture of a people is their social
heritage, a „complex whole” which includes knowledge, belief, art,
morals, law, techniques of tool fabrication and use, and method of
communication.
B13 Davis and […] the difference between groups is in their cultures, their social
Dollard, 1940: 4 heritage. Men behave differently as adults because their cultures are
different; they are born into different habitual ways of life, and these
they must follow because they have no choice.
B14 Groves and Culture is thus the social heritage, the fund of accumulated
Moore, knowledge and customs through which the person „inherits” most
1940: 14 of his behavior and ideas.
B15 Angyal, 1941: Culture can be defined as an organized body of behavior patterns
187 which is transmitted by social inheritance, that is, by tradition, and
which is characteristic of a given area or group of people.
B16 Kluckhohn, Culture consists in those abstracted elements of action and reaction
1942: 2 which may be traced to the influence of one or more strains of social
heredity.
B17 Jacobs and Stern, Humans, as distinct from other animals have a culture – that is,
1947: 2 a social heritage – transmitted not biologically through the germ
cells but independently of genetic inheritance.
B18 Dietschy, 1947: C’est cette perpétuation des données de l’histoire qui nous sont
121 transmises d’abord par la génération qui nous précède que nous
nommons civilisation.
B19 Kroeber, 1948a: […] culture might be defined as all the activities and non–physiological
253 products of human personalities that are not automatically reflex or
instinctive. That in turn means, in biological and physiological parlance,
that culture consists of conditioned or learned activities (plus the
manufactured results of these); and the idea of learning brings us back
again to what is socially transmitted, what is received from tradition,
what „is acquired by man as a member of societies”. So perhaps how it
comes to be is really more distinctive of culture than what it is.
B20 Parsons, 1949: 8 Culture […] consists in those patterns relative to behavior and the
products of human action which may be inherited, that is, passed
on from generation to generation independently of the biological
genes.
B21 Kluckhohn, By „culture” anthropology means the total life way of a people, the
1949a: 17 social legacy the individual acquires from his group.
B22 Henry, 1949: 218 I would define culture as the individual’s or group’s acquired
response systems. […] the conception of culture as response systems
acquired through the process of domestication […].
B23 Radcliffe– As a sociologist the reality to which I regard the word culture as
Brown, 1949: applying is the process of cultural tradition, the process by which in
510–511 a given social group or social class language, beliefs, ideas, aesthetic
tastes, knowledge, skills and usages of many kinds are handed on
(„tradition” means „handing on”) from person to person and from
one generation to another.
82 Robert Boroch

Group C
Normative Definitions

Tabela 3: Normative Definitions – Subgroup C1: Emphasis on rule or way

C1–1 Wissler, 1929: The mode of life followed by the community or the tribe is regarded
15, 341 as a culture […] [It] includes all standardized social procedures
[...] a tribal culture is […] the aggregate of standardized beliefs and
procedures followed by the tribe.
C1–2 Bogardus, Culture is the sum total of the ways of doing and thinking, past and
1930: 336 present, of a social group. It is the sum of the traditions, or handed–
down beliefs, and of customs, or handed–down procedures.
or gr. B
(1. sentence)
C1–3 Young, 1934: The general term for these common and accepted ways of thinking
xiii and acting is culture. This term covers all the folkways which men
or gr. F1 have developed from living together in groups. Furthermore, culture
(1. sentence) comes down to us from the past.
or gr. B
(3. sentence)
C1–4 Klineberg, [Culture] applies to that whole „way of life” which is determined
1935: 255 by the social environment. To paraphrase Tylor it includes all the
capabilities and habits acquired by an individual as a member of
or gr. A a particular society.
(2. sentence)

C1–5 Firth, 1939: 18 They [anthropologists] consider the acts of individuals not in
isolation but as members of society and call the sum total of these
modes of behavior „culture”.
C1–6 Lynd, 1940: 19 […] all the things that a group of people inhabiting a common
geographical area do, the ways they do things and the ways they
think and feel about things, their material tools and their values and
symbols.
C1–7 Gillin and The customs, traditions, attitudes, ideas, and symbols which govern
Gillin, 1942: 20 social behavior show a wide variety. Each group, each society has
a set of behavior patterns (overt and covert) which are more or less
common to the members, which are passed down from generation
to generation, and taught to the children, and which are constantly
liable to change. These common patterns we call the culture […].
C1–8 Simmons, […] the culture or the commonly recognized mores […].
1942: 387
C1–9 Linton, 1945b: The culture of a society is the way of life of its members; the
203 collection of ideas and habits which they learn, share, and transmit
from generation to generation.
C1–10 Linton, 1945a: [Culture] refers to the total way of life of any society […].
30
 A Formal Concept of Culture in the Classification of Alfred L. Kroeber... 83

C1–11 Kluckhohn […] those historically created selective processes which channel
and Kelly, 1945a: 84 men’s reactions both to internal and to external stimuli.
C1–12 Kluckhohn By culture we mean all those historically created designs for living,
and Kelly, 1945a: 97 explicit and implicit, rational, irrational, and nonrational, which
exist at any given time as potential guides for the behavior of men.
C1–13 Kluckhohn Culture is […] a set of ready–made definitions of the situation which
and Kelly, 1945a: 91 each participant only slightly retailors in his own idiomatic way.
C1–14 Kluckhohn A culture is any given people’s way of life, as distinct from the life–
and Leighton, 1946: ways of other peoples.
xviii
C1–15 Herskovits, A culture is the way of life of a people; while a society is the
1948: 29 organized aggregate of individuals who follow a given way of life.
In still simpler terms a society is composed of people; the way they
behave is their culture.
C1–16 Lasswell, Culture is the term used to refer to the way that the members of
1948: 203 a group act in relation to one another and to other groups.

C1–17 Bennett and Culture: the behavior patterns of all groups, called the „way of life”:
Tumin, 1949: 209 an observable feature of all human groups; the fact of „culture” is
common to all; the particular pattern of culture differs among all.
„A culture”: the specific pattern of behavior which distinguishes any
society from all others.
C1–18 Frank, 1948: […] a term or concept for the totality of these patterned ways or
171 thinking and acting which are specific modes and acts of conduct of
discrete individuals who, under the guidance of parents and teachers
and the associations of their fellows, have developed a way of life
expressing those beliefs and those actions.
C1–19 Titiev, 1949: […] the term includes those objects or tools, attitudes, and forms
45 of behavior whose use is sanctioned under given conditions by the
members of a particular society.
C1–20 Maquet, 1949: La culture, c’est la manière de vivre du groupe.
324
C1–21 Kluckhohn, „A culture” refers to the distinctive way of life of a group of people,
1951a: 86 their complete „design for living”.

C1–22 Sears, 1939: The way in which the people in any group do things, make and use
78–79 tools, get along with one another and with other groups, the words
they use and the way they use them to express thoughts, and the
thoughts they think – all of these we call the group’s culture.
84 Robert Boroch

Tabela 4: Normative Definitions – Subgroup C2: Emphasis on ideas or values

plus behavior
C2–1 Carver, 1935: Culture is the dissipation of surplus human energy in the exuberant
283 exercise or the higher human faculties.
C2–2 Thomas, 1937: [Culture is] the material and social values of any group of people,
8 whether savage or civilized (their institutions, customs, attitudes,
behavior reactions) […].
C2–3 Bidney, 1942: A culture consists of the acquired or cultivated behavior and thought
452 of individuals within a society, as well as of the intellectual, artistic,
and social ideals which the members of the society profess and to
which they strive to conform.
C2–4 Bidney, 1946: An integral or holistic concept of culture comprises the acquired
535 or cultivated behavior, feeling, and thought of individuals within
a society as well as the patterns or forms of intellectual, social, and
artistic ideals which human societies have professed historically.
C2–5 Bidney, 1947: […] genetically, integral culture refers to the education or cultivation
376 of the whole man considered as an organism and not merely to the
mental aspect of his nature or behavior.
C2–6 Sorokin, 1947: [The social aspect of the superorganic universe is made up of the
313 interacting individuals, of the forms of interaction, of unorganized
and organized groups, and of the interindividual and intergroup
relationships [...]]. The cultural aspect of the superorganic
universe consists of meanings, values, norms, their interaction and
relationships, their integrated and unintegrated groups (systems and
congeries) as they are objectified through overt actions and other
vehicles in the empirical sociocultural universe.

Group D
Psychological Definitions

Table 5: Psychological Definitions – Subgroup D1: Emphasis on adjustment, on

culture as a problem-solving device
D1–1 Small, 1905: „Culture” […] is the total equipment of technique, mechanical,
344–345 mental, and moral, by use of which the people of a given period try
to attain their ends […] „culture” consists of the means by which
men promote their individual or social ends.
D1–2 Sumner and The sum of men’s adjustments to their life conditions is their culture,
Keller, 1927: 46–47 or civilization. These adjustments […] are attained only through the
combined action of variation, selection, and transmission.
D1–3 Dawson, 1928: A culture is a common way of life – a particular adjustment of man
xiii–xiv to his natural surroundings and his economic needs.

or C1.
 A Formal Concept of Culture in the Classification of Alfred L. Kroeber... 85

D1–4 Keller, 1931: 26 No civilization (sum or synthesis of mental adjustments) of any

importance can be developed by the individual or by the limited
group in isolation. […] Culture is developed when the pressure
of numbers on land reaches a degree at which life exerts stress on
man.
D1–5 Young, 1934: These folkways, these continuous methods of handling problems and
18–19 social situations, we call culture. Culture consists of the whole mass
of learned behavior or patterns of any group as they are received
from a previous group or generation and as they are added to by this
group, and then passed on to other groups or to the next generation.
D1–6 Lundberg, Through this process of inventing and transmitting symbols and
1939: 179 symbolic systems and technologies as well as their non–symbolic
counterparts in concrete tools and instruments, man’s experience and
his adjustment technique become cumulative. This societal behavior,
together with its man–made products, in their interaction with other
aspects of human environment, creates a constantly changing series
of phenomena and situations to which man must continually adjust
through the development of further habits achieved by the same
process. The concrete manifestations of these processes are usually
described by the vague word culture.
D1–7 Panunzio, 1939: […] culture is a man–made or superorganic order, self–generating
106 and dynamic in its operation, a pattern–creating order, objective,
humanly useful, cumulative, and self–perpetuating. It is the complex
whole of the systems of concepts and usages, organizations, skills,
and instruments by means of which mankind deals with physical,
biological, and human nature in the satisfaction of its needs.
D1–8 Ford, 1939: 137 Culture, in the form of regulations governing human behavior,
provides solutions to societal problems.
or C1.
D1–9 Blumenthal, Culture consists of all results (products) of human learned effort at
1941: 9 adjustment.
D1–10 Ford, 1942: Culture consists of traditional ways of solving problems […].
555, 557 Culture […] is composed of responses which have been accepted
because they have met with success; in brief, culture consists of
learned problem–solutions.
D1–11 Young, 1942: Culture consists of common and more or less standardized ideas,
35 attitudes, and habits which have developed with respect to man’s
recurrent and continuous needs.
D1–12 Kluckhohn There are certain recurrent and inevitable human problems, and
and Leighton, 1946: the ways in which man can meet them are limited by his biological
xviii–xix equipment and by certain facts of the external world. But to most
problems there are a variety of possible solutions. Any culture
consists of the set of habitual and traditional ways of thinking,
feeling, and reacting that are characteristic of the ways a particular
society meets its problems at a particular point in time.
86 Robert Boroch

D1–13 Morris, 1946: The culture of a society may be said to consist of the characteristic
205 ways in which basic needs of individuals are satisfied in that society
(that is, to consist of the particular response sequences of various
behavior–families which occur in the society) […].
D1–14 Morris, 1948: A culture is a scheme for living by which a number of interacting
43 persons favor certain motivations more than others and favor certain
ways rather than others for satisfying these motivations. The word to
be underlined is favor. For preference is an essential of living things.
[…] To live at all is to act preferentially – to prefer some goals rather
than others and some ways of reaching preferred goals rather than
other ways. A culture is such a pattern of preferences held by a group
of persons and transmitted in time.
D1–15 Turney–High, In its broadest sense, culture is coterminous with everything that
1949: 5 is artificial, useful, and social employed by man to maintain his
equilibrium as a biopsychological organism.
D1–16 Gorer, 1949: 2 […] a culture, in the anthropological sense of the word: that is to
say, shared patterns of learned behaviour by means of which their
fundamental biological drives are transformed into social needs and
gratified through the appropriate institutions, which also define the
permitted and the forbidden.
D1–17 Piddington, The culture of a people may be defined as the sum total of the material
1950: 3–4 and intellectual equipment whereby they satisfy their biological and
social needs and adapt themselves to their environment.

Table 6: Psychological Definitions – Subgroup D2: Emphasis on learning

D2–1 Wissler, 1916: Cultural phenomena are conceived of as including all the activities
195 of man acquired by learning[...]. Cultural phenomena may, therefore,
be defined as the acquired activity complexes of human groups.
D2–2 Hart and Pantzer, Culture consists in behavior patterns transmitted by imitation or
1925: 703, 705 tuition. […] Culture includes all behavior patterns socially acquired
and socially transmitted.
D2–3 Miller and Culture, as conceived by social scientists, is a statement of the
Dollard, 1941: 5 design of the human maze, of the type of reward involved, and of
what responses are to be rewarded.
or C1
D2–4 Kluckhohn, Culture consists in all transmitted social learning.
1942: 2
D2–5 LaPiere, 1946: A culture is the embodiment in customs, traditions, institutions, etc.,
68 of the learning of a social group over the generations. It is the sum of
what the group has learned about living together under the particular
circumstances, physical and biological, in which it has found itself.
D2–6 Benedict, 1947: […] culture is the sociological term for learned behavior, behavior
13 which in man is not given at birth, which is not determined by his
germ cells as is the behavior of wasps or the social ants, but must be
learned anew from grown people by each new generation.
 A Formal Concept of Culture in the Classification of Alfred L. Kroeber... 87

D2–7 Young, 1947: 7 The term refers to the more or less organized and persistent patterns
of habits, ideas, attitudes, and values which are passed on to the
newborn child from his elders or by others as he grows up.
D2–8 Opler, 1947: 8 A culture can be thought of as the sum total of learned techniques,
ideas, and activities which a group uses in the business of living.
or D1
D2–9 A. Davis, 1948: […] culture […] may be defined as all behavior learned by the
59 individual in conformity with a group […].

D2–10 Hoebel, 1949: Culture is the sum total of learned behavior patterns which are
3, 4 characteristic of the members of a society and which are, therefore,
not the result of biological inheritance.
D2–11 Haring, 1949: Cultural behavior denotes all human functioning that conforms to
29 patterns learned from other persons.
D2–12 Wilson i Kolb, Culture consists of the patterns and products of learned behavior –
1949: 57 etiquette, language, food habits, religious beliefs, the use of artifacts,
systems of knowledge, and so on.
D2–13 Hockett, 1950: Culture is those habits which humans have because they have been
113 learned (not necessarily without modification) from other humans.

D2–14 Steward, 1950: Culture is generally understood to mean learned modes of behavior
98 which are socially transmitted from one generation to another within
particular societies and which may be diffused from one society to
another.
D2–15 Slotkin, 1950: By definition, customs are categories of actions learned from others.
76 […] A culture is the body of customs found in a society and anyone
who acts according to these customs is a participant in the culture.
From a biological viewpoint, its culture is the means by which
a society adjusts to its environment. […] Artifacts are not included
in culture.
D2–16 Aberle and Culture is socially transmitted behavior conceived as an abstraction
others, 1950: 102 from concrete social groups.

Table 7: Psychological Definitions – Subgroup D3: Emphasis on habit

D3–1 Tozzer, data Culture is the rationalization of habit.
missing (before 1930)

D3–2 Young, 1934: Culture: forms of habitual behavior common to a group, community,
592 (Glossary) or society. It is made up of material and non–aterial traits.

D3–3 Murdock, 1941: […] culture, the traditional patterns of action which constitute
141 a major portion of the established habits with which an individual
enters any social situation.
88 Robert Boroch

Table 8: Psychological Definitions – Subgroup D4: Purely psychological defini-

tions
D4–1 Roheim, 1934: By culture we shall understand the sum of all sublimations, all
216 substitutes, or reaction formations, in short, everything in society
that inhibits impulses or permits their distorted satisfaction.
D4–2 Katz i Schanck, Society refers to the common objective relationships (non–attitudinal)
1938: 551 between man and man and between men and their material world. It is
often confused with culture, the attitudinal relationship between men
[…]. Culture is to society what personality is to the organism. Culture
sums up the particular institutional content of a society. Culture is
what happens to individuals within the context of a particular society,
and […] these happenings are personal changes.

Group E
Structural Definitions

Table 9: Structural Definitions – Group E:

E1 Willey, 1929: 207 A culture is a system of interrelated and interdependent habit patterns
of response.
E2 Dollard, 1939: 50 Culture is the name given to [the] abstracted [from men] inter–
correlated customs of a social group.
E3 Ogburn and A culture consists of inventions, or culture traits, integrated into
Nimkoff, a system, with varying degrees of correlation between the parts.
1940: 63 […] Both material and non–material traits, organized around the
satisfaction of the basic human needs, give us our social institutions,
which are the heart of culture. The institutions of a culture are
interlinked to form a pattern which is unique for each society.
E4 Redfield, 1940 An organization of conventional understandings manifest in act and
artifact, which, persisting through tradition, characterizes a human
After: Ogburn and group.
Nimkoff,
1940: 25
E5 Linton, 1945a: 5 a) […] and cultures are, in the last analysis, nothing more than the
organized repetitive responses of a society’s members.
E6 Linton, 1945a: 32 b) A culture is the configuration of learned behavior and results of
behavior whose component elements are shared and transmitted by
the members of a particular society.
E7 Kluckhohn and A culture is a historically derived system of explicit and implicit
Kelly, 1945a: 98 designs for living, which tends to be shared by all or specially
designated members of a group.
E8 Gillin, 1948: 191 Culture consists of patterned and functionally interrelated customs
common to specifiable human beings composing specifiable social
groups or categories.
 A Formal Concept of Culture in the Classification of Alfred L. Kroeber... 89

E9 Coutu, 1949: 358 Culture is one of the most inclusive of all the configurations we
call interactional fields – the way of life of a whole people like
that of China, western Europe, and the United States. Culture is to
a population aggregate what personality is to the individual; and the
ethos is to the culture what self is to a personality, the core of most
probable behaviors.
E10 Turney–High, Culture is the working and integrated summation of the non–
1949: 5 instinctive activities of human beings. It is the functioning, patterned
totality of group–accepted and –transmitted inventions, material and
non–material.

Group F
Genetic Definitions

Table 10: Genetic Definitions – Subgroup F1: Emphasis on culture as a product

or artifact
F1–1 Groves, 1928: A product of human association.
23
F1–2 Willey, 1927b: […] that part of the environment which man has himself created and
500 to which he must adjust himself.

F1–3 Folsom, 1928: Culture is the sum total of all that is artificial. It is the complete outfit
15 of tools, and habits of living, which are invented by man and then
passed on from one generation to another.
F1–4 Folsom, 1931: Culture is not any part of man or his inborn equipment. It is the
476–477 sum total of all that man has produced: tools, symbols, most
organizations, common activities, attitudes, and beliefs. It includes
both physical products and immaterial products. It is everything of
a relatively permanent character that we call artificial, everything
which is passed down from one generation to the next rather than
acquired by each generation for itself: it is, in short, civilization.
F1–5 Winston, 1933: Culture in a vital sense is the product of social interaction. […]
209 Human behavior is cultural behavior to the degree that individual
habit patterns are built up in adjustment to patterns already existing
as an integral part of the culture into which the individual is born.
F1–6 Menghin, 1934: Kultur ist das Ergebnis der geistigen Betätigung des Menschen,
68 objectivierter, stoffgebundener Geist.
F1–7 Warden, 1936: Those patterns of group life which exist only by virtue of the operation
22–23 of the threefold mechanism – invention, communication, and social
habituation – belong to the cultural order […]. The cultural order is
superorganic and possesses its own modes of operation and its own
types of patterning. It cannot be reduced to bodily mechanisms or to
the biosocial complex upon which it rests. The conception of culture
as a unique type of social organization seems to be most readily
explicable in terms of the current doctrine of emergent evolution.
90 Robert Boroch

F1–8 Sorokin, 1937: In the broadest sense [culture] may mean the sum total of everything
I: 3 which is created or modified by the conscious or unconscious
activity of two or more individuals interacting with one another or
conditioning one another’s behavior.
F1–9 Reuter, 1939: The term culture is used to signify the sumtotal of human creations,
191 the organized result of human experience up to the present time.
Culture includes all that man has made in the form of tools, weapons,
shelter, and other material goods and processes, all that he has
elaborated in the way of attitudes and beliefs, ideas and judgments,
codes, and institutions, arts and sciences, philosophy and social
organization. Culture also includes the interrelations among these
and other aspects of human as distinct from animal life. Everything,
material and immaterial, created by man, in the process of living,
comes within the concept of culture.
F1–10 Bernard, 1941: Culture consists of all products (results) of organismic nongenetic
8 efforts at adjustment.

F1–11 Dodd, 1941: 8 Culture consists of all products (results) of interhuman learning.

or D2
F1–12 Hart, 1941: 6 Culture consists of all phenomena that have been directly or
indirectly caused (produced) by both nongenetic and nonmechanical
communication of phenomena from one individual to other.
F1–13 Bernard, 1942: The term culture is employed in this book in the sociological sense,
699 signifying anything that is man–made, whether a material object,
overt behavior, symbolic behavior, or social organization.
F1–14 Young, 1942: A precipitate of man’s social life.
36
F1–15 Huntington, By culture we mean every object, habit, idea, institution, and mode
1945: 7–8 of thought or action which man produces or creates and then passes
on to others, especially to the next generation.
F1–16 Carr, 1945: The accumulated transmissible results of past behavior in
137 association.
F1–17 Bidney, 1947: […] human culture in general may be understood as the dynamic
387 process and product of the self–cultivation of human nature as well
as of the natural environment, and involves the development of
selected potentialities of nature for the attainment of individual and
social ends of living.
F1–18 Herskovits, A short and useful definition is: „Culture is the man–made part of
1948: 17 the environment”.

F1–19 Kluckhohn, […] culture may be regarded as that part of the environment that is
1949a: 17 the creation of man.
 A Formal Concept of Culture in the Classification of Alfred L. Kroeber... 91

F1–20 Murdock, The interaction of learning and society thus produces in every
1949a: 378 human group a body of socially transmitted adaptive behavior
which appears super–individual because it is shared, because it is
perpetuated beyond the individual life span, and because its quantity
and quality so vastly exceeds the capacity of any single person to
achieve by his own unaided effort. The term culture is applied to
such systems of acquired and transmitted behavior.
F1–21 Kluckhohn, Culture designates those aspects of the total human environment,
1951a: 86 tangible and intangible, that have been created by men.

Table 11: Genetic Definitions – Subgroup F2: Emphasis on ideas

F2–1 Ward, 1903: 235 A culture is a social structure, a social organism, if any one prefers,
and ideas are its germs.
F2–2 Wissler, 1916: […] a culture is a definite association complex of ideas.
197
F2–3 Schmidt, 1937: Die Kultur besteht ihrem tiefsten Wesen nach in der inneren
131 Formung des menschlichen Geistes; in der äussern Formung des
Körpers and der Natur insofern, als diese durch den Geist gelenkt
ist. Somit ist Kultur, wie alles Geistige, etwas Immanentes, etwas
durchaus Innerliches und als soches der äussern Beobachtung direkt
nicht zugänglich.
F2–4 Blumenthal, a) Culture is the world sum–total of past and present cultural ideas.
1937: 3 Note: As cultural ideas are said to be „those whose possessors are
able to communicate them by means of symbols”, symbolically–
communicable should be substituted for cultural above.
F2–5 Blumenthal, b) Culture consists of the entire stream of inactive and active cultural
1937: 12 ideas from the first in the cosmos to the last.
Note: This includes ideas once resident in human minds, but now
no longer held by living minds, though their former existence is
ascertainable from surviving material symbols.
F2–6 Osgood, 1940: Culture consists of all ideas concerning human beings which have
25 been communicated to one’s mind and of which one is conscious.

F2–7 Kluckhohn and […] a summation of all the ideas for standardized types of
Kelly, 1945a: 97 behavior.
F2–8 Feibleman, Tentative definition: Culture may be said to be the common use and
1946: 75 application of complex objective ideas by the members of a social
group.
F2–9 Feibleman, Final definition: A culture is the actual selection of some part of the
1946: 76 whole of human behavior considered in its effect upon materials,
made according to the demands of an implicit dominant ontology
and modified by the total environment. [Implicit dominant ontology
is elsewhere said to be the common sense of a cultural group, or the
eidos of a culture].
92 Robert Boroch

F2–10 Taylor, 1948: By [holistic] culture as a descriptive concept, I mean all those mental
109–110 constructs or ideas which have been learned or created after birth
by an individual. […] The term idea includes such categories as
attitudes, meanings, sentiments, feelings, values, goals, purposes,
interests, knowledge, beliefs, relationships, associations, [but] not […]
Kluckhohn’s and Kelly’s factor of „designs”. By [holistic] culture as
an explanatory concept, I mean all those mental constructs which are
used to understand, and to react to, the experiential world of internal and
external stimuli. […] Culture itself consists of ideas, not processes.
By a culture, i.e., by culture as a partitive concept, I mean a historically
derived system of culture traits which is a more or less separable and
cohesive segment of the whole–that–is–culture and whose separate
traits tend to be shared by all or by specially designated individuals
of a group or „society”.
F2–11 Ford, 1949: 38 […] culture may be briefly defined as a stream of ideas that passes
from individual to individual by means of symbolic action, verbal
instruction, or imitation.
F2–12 Becker, 1950: A culture is the relatively constant nonmaterial content transmitted
251 in a society by means of processes of sociation.

Table 12: Genetic Definitions – Subgroup F3: Emphasis on symbols

F3–1 Bain, 1942: 87 Culture is all behavior mediated by symbols.
F3–2 White, 1943: Culture is an organization of phenomena – material objects, bodily
335 acts, ideas, and sentiments – which consists of or is dependent upon
the use of symbols.
F3–3 White, 1949b: The cultural category, or order, of phenomena is made up of events
15 that are dependent upon a faculty peculiar to the human species,
namely, the ability to use symbols. These events are the ideas, beliefs,
languages, tools, utensils, customs, sentiments, and institutions that
make up the civilization – or culture, to use the anthropological term –
of any people regardless of time, place, or degree of development.
F3–4 White, 1949a: […] culture is the name of a distinct order, or class, of phenomena,
363 namely, those things and events that are dependent upon the exercise
of a mental ability, peculiar to the human species, that we have
termed symbolling. To be more specific, culture consists of material
objects – tools, utensils, ornaments, amulets, etc. – acts, beliefs, and
attitudes that function in contexts characterized by symbolling. It is
an elaborate mechanism, an organization of exosomatic ways and
means employed by a particular animal species, man, in the struggle
for existence or survival.
F3–5 K. Davis, 1949: […] it [culture] embraces all modes of thought and behavior that
3–4 are handed down by communicative interaction – i.e., by symbolic
transmission – rather than by genetic inheritance.
or D2.
 A Formal Concept of Culture in the Classification of Alfred L. Kroeber... 93

Table 13: Genetic Definitions – Subgroup F4: Residual category definitions

F4–1 Ostwald, 1907: That which distinguishes men from animals we call culture.
510
F4–2 Ostwald, 1915: These specifically human peculiarities which differentiate the race of
192 the Homo sapiens from all other species of animals is comprehended
in the name culture [...].
F4–3 Blumenthal, Culture consists of all nongenetically produced means of
1941: 9 adjustment.
F4–4 Roheim, 1943: Civilization or culture should be understood here in the sense of
v a possible minimum definition, that is, it includes whatever is above
the animal level in mankind.
F4–5 Kluckhohn […] culture includes all those ways of feeling, thinking, and acting
i Kelly, 1945a: 87 which are not inevitable as a result of human biological equipment
and process and (or) objective external situations.

Group G
Incomplete definitions

Table 14: Incomplete Definitions – Group G

G1 Sapir, 1921: 233 Culture may be defined as what a society does and thinks.
G2 Marett, 1928: 54 Culture […] is communicable intelligence. […] In its material no
less than in its oral form culture is, then, as it were, the language of
social life, the sole medium for expressing the consciousness of our
common humanity.
G3 Benedict, 1934: What really binds men together is their culture – the ideas and the
16 standards they have in common.
G4 Rouse, 1939: 17 Elements of culture or standards of behavior.
(chart)
G5 Osgood, 1942: 22 Culture will be conceived of as comprising the actual artifacts, plus
any ideas or behavior of the people who made them which can be
inferred from these specimens.
G6 Morris, 1946: 207 Culture is largely a sign configuration […].
G7 Bryson, 1947: 74 […] culture is human energy organized in patterns of repetitive
behavior.
94 Robert Boroch

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96 Robert Boroch

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1941 Dodd S.C, Views on Definitions of Culture, Committee on Conceptual Inte-
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1941 Hart H., Views on Definitions of Culture, Committee on Conceptual Integra-
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1942 Bernard L.L., An Introduction to Sociology, New York (F1).
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98 Robert Boroch

1946 Morris C.W., Signs, Language and Behavior, New York (D1).
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ENDNOTES
1
Alfred L. Kroeber, Clyde Kluckhohn, Culture. A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions,
assistance of Wayne Untereiner, appendices by Alfred G. Meyer, Papers of the Peabody Mu-
seum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, vol. XLVII, no. 1, Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts 1952.
2
Members of Kroeber’s and Kluckhohn’s team: a) collecting reference materials, preparing the
manuscript, proof-reading, technical assistance: Hermia Kaplan, Mildred Geiger, Lois Walk,
100 Robert Boroch

Muriel Levin, Kathryn Gore, Carol Trosch; b) substantive editing: Wayne Untereiner, Alfred
G. Meyer and Cliford Geertz, Jr., Charles Griffith, Ralph Patric.
3
See: Robert Boroch, Kultura w systematyce Alfreda L. Kroebera i Clyde Kluckhohna, Warsaw
2013, pp. 120–125.
4
Items (a)–(e) on the basis of: P. Hage, F. Harary, Structural Models in Anthropology. Cam-
bridge 1983, p. 9.
5
The above-mentioned chronology is for reference only.
6
This article uses „definition” term meaning „apparent definition”.
7
„Actually, if additional definitions in Part III, in footnotes, and in quotations throughout the
monograph are counted, there are probably close to three hundred «definitions» in these pag-
es”, ibidem, p. 149, footnote 42.
8
„In Part II we have cited one hundred sixty four definitions of culture”. Culture…, p. 149.
9
See: Robert Boroch, Formalna Analiza Konceptualna – Reprezentacja Wiedzy – Przekład,
„Roczniki Humanistyczne. Studia Translatoryczne”, Volume LX, z. 6, 2013, pp. 121–154.
10
Rudolf Wille, Restructuring Lattice Theory… K. E. Wolff, A First Course in Formal Concept
Analysis. How to Understand Line Diagrams, [w:] SoftStat’93, t. 4: Advances in Statistical
Software, red. F. Faulbaum, Stuttgart 1994, pp. 429–438.
11
Based on: Uta Priss, Formal Concept Analysis in Information Science, [in:] Annual Review of
Information Science and Technology, ed. B. Cronin, Volume 40, 2006, pp. 521–543.
12
All quotations after Alfred L. Kroeber, Clyde Kluckhohn, op. cit.
13
„The year in parentheses represents date of first publication, the second year the date of source
cited”, ibidem, s. 43, footnote 3.
14
No bibliographical address in Alfred L. Kroeber, Clyde Kluckhohn, op. cit.

Robert Boroch
A Formal Concept of Culture in the Classification
of Alfred L. Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn
STRESZCZENIE
Celem niniejszego artykułu jest poddanie analizie zgromadzonych przez
Alfred L. Kroeber i Clyde Kluckhohn definicji kultury opublikowanych
w pracy Culture. A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions w roku 1952.
W artykule zwracam uwagę na możliwości nowej analizy zgromadzonego
przez tych badaczy materiału (Kroeber–Kluckhohn Culture Classification,
dalej KKCC). W artykule wykazuję, że materiał KKCC stanowi spójny pa-
radygmat pojęciowo-teoretyczny. Paradygmat ten został poddany analizie
kontekstowej, frekwencyjnej oraz konceptualnej (Formalna Analiza Koncep-
tualna, dalej FCA). Otrzymane wyniki badań pozwoliły na opracowanie for-
malnego konceptu kultury KKCC, który może być wykorzystany jako model
do dalszych analiz. Wnioski końcowe są następujące: (1) pojęcie „kultury”
jest definiowalne tylko w granicach spójnego pojęciowo paradygmatu; (2) do
określenia paradygmatu niezbędne jest repozytorium materiałowe (resp. kor-
pus tekstowy); (3) analiza kontekstowa i frekwencyjna pozwalają na indek-
 A Formal Concept of Culture in the Classification of Alfred L. Kroeber... 101

sowanie takiego repozytorium w celu określenia kategorii ramowych, które

zostaną użyte do opracowania formalnego konceptu; (4) formalny koncept
kultury KKCC wyznacza ramę wszelkich potencjalnych analiz teoretycznych
odnośnie do znaczenia pojęcia „kultura” w antropologii; (5) KKCC stanowi
reprezentację jednej teorii kultury.

Słowa kluczowe: Antropologia kultury, antropologia teoretyczna, teoria kultury,

strukturalne modele w antropologii

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