Culture is... what? Who's morals? What about my ethics?

Culture

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a comedic critique
of wealth culture during the late 1980s.

In the 1988 comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Steve Martin replies to Michael Caine's advice on appropriate spending with the line, "I've got culture coming out of my ass." The line achieves comedic effect if the audience understands the definition of culture as concerning art, literature and polite society. But, as Joshua Rothman points out, finding a single definition of culture is frustrating at best.

Reading Rothman's article, I'm reminded of a concept taught during my undergraduate communications studies known as the "Three As." Language is Abstract, Ambiguous and Arbitrary. I believe this relates to Rothman's point of definitions for culture being nebulous. He references Merrium-Webster's six definitions of "culture," but the dictionary contains more than six when factoring in separate pages defining culture for English-language learners and kids.   

The multitude of definitions for "culture" and Rothman's argument that the word has evolved into negative connotations support the ambiguous nature of culture. It's a concept used to describe groups or ideas. As a concept, culture is abstract. Any abstraction becomes ambiguous depending on the audience. Rothman's correct in stating defining culture is confusing.

As for arbitrary, examine the second half of Rothman's article. He cynically describes companies espousing cultures of "transparency" and "accountibility" as having neither. Without supporting evidence, this is an arbitrary assumption. Rothman cites examples of "culture" used in the negative, specifically the term "rape-culture" but also says there's no "culture" term in relation to African-American deaths from police. He uses this example to support "culture" as a malevolent force. Assigning negative definitions to "culture" is a conscious decision. As an abstract concept, subscribing to any one particular definition of culture is arbitrary.

Personally, I like simplifying the definition of culture as describing group behaviors. Arguing abstract definitions is easy, but observable behaviors are a bit more concrete. Defining culture through a behavioral lens includes any group, human or not, including the bacteria of Merriam-Webster's sixth definition.

Morals and Ethics

Like the article on culture, the other readings covering morals and ethics allow for a variety of interpretations on those topics. Cementing one's self-identity and justifying behavior seem to be the connecting threads between each reading. "Moral Minds" covers the natural/evolutionary behind moral/ethical behavior. "Ethics and Moral Reasoning" lays out a method for decision making. "What's morally acceptable?" brings culture back into moral/ethical behavior justification. "Raising a moral child" combines aspects from each of the other readings: nature vs. nurture, behavior justification and cultural membership.

The first step for raising moral children should be defining what a "moral child" is. Gant addresses this question by referencing a study claiming parents place more emphasis on kindness than achievement. Though not mentioned in Gant's article, a 2012 study titled, "Giving Leads to Happiness in Young Children" found toddlers under the age of two are happier when giving. Gant targets parents of older kids, but the 2012 study supports the nature side of child rearing and universal morals. Gant does cite a genetic twin study which found that, "anywhere from a quarter to more than half our propensity to be giving and caring is inherited." 

Generally, parents pass the morals of whatever cultural group they belong to on to their children. Poushter's article predicts Pakistani parents teaching different morals to youth in regards to contraception than German parents would. Essentially, moral upbringing is a product of cultural membership. Extending the nurture argument, Gant outlines current practices designed to elicit moral behavior from children.

If I needed to justify parenting decisions as an American, I'd certainly cite Gant and "Ethics and Moral Reasoning." Understand these arguments may only work when engaging members of the same or similar cultural group. Moral, ethical and cultural beliefs vary widely. As with most things, it depends on an individual's point of view. A good take away for this group of readings is to worry less what others believe, define your own moral/ethical rubric and support that view with logic. Behavior will follow.   

Side Note
French culture's acceptance of infidelity, highlighted by Poushter, interests me. Personally, I'm against infidelity, but I understand it happens frequently worldwide. I wonder what the rates of infidelity are within the countries rating the practice as morally unacceptable. Did all the countries surveyed define infidelity in the same terms?
Mostly, I bring it up so I can quote Dirty Rotten Scoundrels again, "To be with another woman, that is French. To be caught, that is American."