Society and culture

The primary research question underlying this thesis questions whether the users of the Internet and Usenet global computer networks form a society that has a distinct culture of its own. In considering this first research question there is a need to agree upon definitions of the terms society and culture. A review of the anthropological literature, however, provides numerous and diverse definitions of these terms indicating that there are no widely agreed upon definitions.

* Society: A more or less organised group of people of both sexes that share a common culture.

* Society:: A territorial population speaking a language not generally understood by neighbouring territorial populations.

* The term society signifies a group of people who share a common habitat and who are dependent on each other for their survival and well-being.

* Society: An abstraction of the ways in which interaction among humans is patterned.

* Society: A group of people who are dependent on one another for survival or well-being and who share a particular way of life.

* Culture: The shared behaviour learned by members of a society, the way of life of a group of people.

* A culture is the way of life of a group of people, the complex of shared concepts and patterns of learned behaviour that are handed down from one generation to the next through the means of language and imitation.

* Culture: The set of learned behaviours, beliefs, attitudes and ideals that are characteristic of a particular society or population.

* Culture . . . taken in its wide ethnographic sense is that complex whole that includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of a society.

* Culture: The customary manner in which human groups learn to organise their behaviour in relation to their environment.

* Culture (general): The learned and shared kinds of behaviour that make up the major instrument of human adaption. Culture (particular): The way of life characteristic of a particular human society.

Note that societies do not necessarily have to correspond to our notion of nations. There are many nations that have within their boundaries different peoples speaking mutually unintelligible languages. By definition, such nations are composed of many different societies and cultures. Also some societies may even include more than one nation. For example, it is possible to think of Canadians and Americans as a single society because both groups generally speak English as well as having other similarities. Not everyone would agree with such a statement; some would prefer to consider the United States and Canada two different societies because they are separate political entities.