T HE definition of culture most often quoted is that of Tyler: "Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." A particular culture has been defined by Redfield as "an organized body of conventional understandings, mnanifest in act and artifact, which, persisting through tradition, characterizes a human group." Excellent definitions both, yet culture is one of those large concepts, like democracy or science, a definition of which seems very bare and inadequate to convey its rich meanings. Different students will emphasize different aspects of culture as most significant, and in the future important new ideas about culture may be discovered. At the present time the aspects of culture of most interest to sociologists may be grouped around four ideas.