With the increasing maturity of anthropological science, reflections upon the nature of their subject matter and concepts led to a multiplication and diversification of definitions of culture. In Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions (1952), U.S. anthropologists A.L. Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn cited 164 definitions of culture, ranging from "learned behavior" to "ideas in the mind," "a logical construct," "a statistical fiction," "a psychic defense mechanism," and so on. The definition of culture that is preferred by Kroeber and Kluckhohn and also by many other anthropologists is that culture is an abstraction or, more specifically, "an abstraction from behavior." These conceptions have defects or shortcomings. The existence of behavioral traditions--that is, patterns of behavior transmitted by social rather than by biologic hereditary means--has definitely been established for non-human animals. "Ideas in the mind" become significant in society only as expressed in language, acts, and objects. "A logical construct" or "a statistical fiction" is not specific enough to be useful. The conception of culture as an abstraction led, first, to a questioning of the reality of culture (inasmuch as abstractions were regarded as imperceptible) and, second, to a denial of its existence; thus, the subject matter of non-biological anthropology, "culture," was defined out of existence, and without real, objective things and events in the external world there can be no science. Kroeber and Kluckhohn were led to their conclusion that culture is an abstraction by reasoning that if culture is behavior, it becomes the subject matter of psychology; therefore, they concluded that culture "is an abstraction from concrete behavior but is not itself behavior." But what is an abstraction of a marriage ceremony or a pottery bowl, using Kroeber and Kluckhohn's examples? A solution was provided by Leslie A. White in the essay "The Concept of Culture" (1959). The issue is not really whether culture is real or an abstraction, he reasoned; the issue is the context of the scientific interpretation. When things and events are considered in the context of their relation to the human organism, they constitute behavior; when they are considered not in terms of their relation to human, but in their relationship to one another, they become culture. The mother-in-law taboo is a complex of concepts, attitudes, and acts. When one considers them in their relationship to the human, they become behavior by definition. When one considers the mother-in-law taboo in its relationship to the place of residence of a newly married couple, the customary division of labor between the sexes, their respective roles in the society, and these in turn to the technology of society, the mother-in-law taboo becomes, again by definition, culture. When words are considered in their relationship to the human, as acts--they become behavior. But when they are considered in terms of their relationship to one another, grammar, syntax, and so forth, they become language, the subject matter not of psychology but of the science of linguistics. Culture, therefore, is the name given to a class of things and events dependent upon symboling (i.e., articulate speech) that are considered in a kind of extra-human context. Man alone due to ability possesses culture. The question of whether the difference between the mind of man and that of animals is one of kind or of degree has been debated for many years, and even today reputable scientists can be found on both sides of this issue. But no one who holds the view that the difference is one of degree has adduced any evidence to show that animals are capable of a kind of behavior that all human beings exhibit. This kind of behavior may be illustrated by the following examples: remembering the Sabbath to keep it holy, classifying one's relatives and distinguishing one class from another (such as uncles from cousins), defining and prohibiting

Some topics in this essay:
Navajo Indians, Kurnai Australia, Clark Wissler's, Concept Culture, Australopithecine’s Africa, Helen Keller, Tylor Supreme, Hopi Indian, Kroeber Kluckhohn, Pueblo Southwest, socio-cultural systems, culture culture, social life, mutual aid, culture abstraction, subject matter, law custom, custom law, socio-cultural system, concept culture, defined indefinite groupings, ability symbol realized, logical construct statistical, distinction custom law, edward burnett tylor,