What is culture?

A silly question, perhaps, but nevertheless one that has been bugging me in my Cultural Studies class.

First of all, it's not entirely clear to me whether the definitional question must be answered in order to embark on a project of culture/cultural studies. I've never heard of anyone seriously problematizing pornography studies, yet the most famous definition of pornography is probably:

I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [hard-core pornography]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.

(Justice Potter Stewart in Jacobellis v. Ohio, 1964)

Definitions of culture surely say more about the definers than they do about the culture.

So, here's mine. Tell me what is says about me.

Culture is the confluence/nexus of institutions (ideologies) subscribed to, imposed upon, or in any other way involved with any group of two or more people.

Humans are narrative creatures. We live in a semiosphere that suggests we're hardwired to derive narrative meaning from discrete and even incompatible data. Ideologies are narratives, narratives of power that are implemented through institutions. The more ritualized the better, since rituals are inherently narrative.

Many contemporary institutions (including, in Marxist parlance, control of the means of productions, etc.) have been created or co-opted to advance a ritualistic, even religious (in the sense of "faith-based" rather than evidential or rational) subservience to power. The irrational obeisance and obedience to power is a salient characteristic of the dystopic nature of contemporary American society. It means that the genuflecting populace have internalized narratives (ideologies) of their own powerlessness, isolation, etc.

In a society (dare I call it a culture?) in which certain freedoms of thought, action, and speech are at least nominally guaranteed it's important to have the illusion of free thought and free debate (I suppose most people accept restrictions on action as necessary for social order). Having the people internalize the limits of acceptable thinking and debate becomes a major task of power. In other words, "racism is bad," "Holocaust denial is wrong," "human rights only extend to the right to live, not to the right to live well," "the free market is mysterious and wise (just like God)," etc. provide de facto limits on the realm of acceptable "civil" debate. Any claim made within this framework requires little or no factual support; the obvious corollary is that any argument made from an enunciative position outside the socially sanctioned one is subjected to the most rigorous proof requirements (and is usually rejected regardless). So if I dare to say that our human rights should include the right to a modicum of nutritious food, the idea is so heretical that it is rejected outright. However, the ideologies and institutions of "human rights" are no less arbitrary social/cultural constructions. If they were truly universal human rights, could we not all agree on them? We don't, which is proof enough that they are not universal. And why should they be? But then again, why shouldn't everyone have enough food to eat? And how about shelter? Education? You get the picture.

Anyway, back to culture. My point is that the ideas and structures that shape the lives of any group of people are their culture. This is by no means a static mesh (Matrix?) enveloping our lives: new experiences, paradigm shifts, changing technologies of power and governmentality, etc. all constantly alter the cultural landscape.

This compounds the two-headed monster of observer effect and the uncertainty principle: we cannot measure (or define) culture without altering it—the ideological bias of the observer and actual violence done to the observed—nor can we measure all of the trajectories and characteristics of a so-defined "culture" at any moment.

More when my brain is working a little better...perhaps after some sleep...or some coffee...but most clearly not after more reading about the definition of culture.