That is, any item of behavior, any tradition or pattern, can be evaluated correctly only in the light of its meaning to the people who practice it, its relation to other elements of the culture, and the part it plays in the adaptation of the people to their environment or to one another. Cultures are systems of behaviors and customs passed from one generation to the next. The rules, language, religion, family systems, recreation, and education that a group of people share provide predictability and safety in their daily lives. When people are bound together by common beliefs and practices, they understand each other and the world around them has meaning. As Brown suggests, a culture is a complex and evolving pattern of life, rooted in tradition as well as place.
Culture is indelibly a part of each person's identity, but individuals also influence culture.
It defines how we see ourselves and how we perceive others. One way is to view differences through a neutral framework that organizes cultural traits around a set of common functions. Over the years anthropologists have developed lists of cultural universals, or functions, that are found in some form in every culture on earth. For example, all cultures have customs and habits related to food. Emily Harker's host may slaughter her own chicken while a U.S. family buys a precooked bird from a local fast-food restaurant, but each action has the same function to acquire food.