Reaction to Long's View on Culture

Stephen Long's perspective and definition of culture reflects the debate of what is definition in the first place, which is something we have been trying to do in class for the past week. I agree with Long in that we cannot exactly pinpoint one exact definition, and that it depends on geography, history, actions, and beliefs of each individual and their perspective on the world and nature to define a certain culture. Long says that culture is a metaphor, an imagery that equates the cultivation of plants and people, and that it brings both good and bad attributes. He states that culture is what happened to people, their history and past, the cultivation of people through practices, language, communities, and doctrines. In order to define a metaphor, you have to define the literal parts of the metaphor itself- and with his idea of the cultivation of people, one must define their history and roots in order to create a cultural influence. I agree with Long when he says that culture is attributed to human activity, and that theology has a large part to do with culture today because of the many different religious practices and rituals of our world, and the fact that religion has shaped so much of the world issues. I think that culture is definitely subjective, which correlates with the idiographic view of culture, in which one has to stand within culture to understand it, and that it is particular to one's self and different experiences and ways of life, but i also believe that viewing culture from the outside is always very influential. I think that what it comes down to is that culture is a circular definition, in which people create the culture and culture creates the people.