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Does everyone have a specific culture? Define culture?

One time during Peace Child class discussion we came across a question, "What is a culture?". When this question was brought up, I found myself pondering upon it. The dictionary.com defines culture as behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group. I believe a culture is a way of identifying any specific group of people by their common beliefs or certain behaviors. Most people today, seem to believe that the word, "culture" is used only to describe a nation or a certain racial group. However, they are mistaken in the fact that the word culture is used not only to define a nation but to define any group of people with shared beliefs and behaviour.

As a "third culture kid" growing up in two different environments, Korea and the States, I was able to see many cultural differences between the two. Furthermore, among many differences, there was also a difference in the ways people of each culture thought. Some things that are normal in one culture are considered inhumane in other culture. For instance, eating a dog meat is well practiced one of many Korean eating cultures. However, in the States, i heard many people commenting negatively about eating dog meat. While I was acknowledging all these cultural differences, I noticed something else that was very intriguing to me. It was that such differences of people's ways of thinking can exist in small communities within cultures. In other words, cultures can exist within cultures. Within Sawi culture, for example, there were people who did not practice cannibalism. Basically, I believe, those people in Sawi culture who do not practice cannibalism can be sub-categorized into a different culture, a culture that does not practice cannibalism. Such categorization can apply to small communities even as minute as cliques, which students categorize themselves at schools. Students, whether consciously or not, engender cliques among themselves. These cliques divide students with common intersts and beliefs into groups. Thus, within those groups, in time, students form their own small culture. Ultimately, everyone belongs to a culture, whether it is a small cultures such as cliques or major cultures such as a nation.