Culture is yet another of those concepts that seem just so easy to comprehend. But what does culture entail? Surely music, art, theater, dance -- the performing cultures are nearly always benign. There is nothing inherently good or bad in these. They are the mere expressions of all mankind of trying to fill non-work hours.
But what about aspects of culture like throwing virgins into volcanoes? Or not allowing woman to drive? Or the honor killings that are in some cultures, where if you "dishonor" one person their family gets to kill someone in your family. Is this good? Are these cultural aspects good?
And certainly within any large culture, say French or Chinese or American culture, there are subcultures. There are the religious aspects of culture, there are drug cultures. There are people who engage in suburban culture as compared to those who are of a rural culture. There is a culture that of those who live near the sea that is different from the culture of those who live in the mountains.
All these different aspects of culture must be seperated out to talk about them coherently. Some parts of a culture might be good, and salvageable. Other parts are nothing short of abominable and should be done away with as quickly as possible. And still other parts are somewhat distasteful to non-adherents to a culture, but they're willing to live with them as something quaint. The Amish culture is surely the best example of this.
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