Culture can be defined as not so much sacred values or social ideals but more shared practices, folkways , accepted ways of doing things. Here established social conventions, traditions, rituals, and relationships are close to the core of culture. Culture therefore can be more behaviors than values , more practices than ideals. This is how Erikson can be read as seeing it, though values are important for him too. As was mentioned by several members of the class, Erikson is prone to seeing culture as not static , as something that changes, that works to enable people in a community or social network to share ways of doing things and to mark their membership in that community or network by engaging in those practices, improving them, elaborating them, proliferating new and better ways of practicing that culture.
Culture can grow and develop and people's participation in it can be empowering.
It can be an eclectic set of tools for living. Culture can provide resources, social capital, etc. Culture therefore can be a way of coping with other changes and sustaining life in the face of stress and adversity. It is a way of being resilient . Erikson emphasizes how the culture of Appalachia varied from stressing independence and self-reliance to stressing community and mutual aid.