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昨天的討論，Sophia丟出了一個很大的問題：多元文化當中一定有很多我們不能接受的習俗，那我們是嘗試去接受還是試著去改變他們，那之中的界線抑或者說是衡量標準為何？如果不需要改變它，那貧窮這件事情，是不是也因著文化差異而造成的，那何須破除貧窮呢？

這個問題，三言兩語真的很難解釋清楚。當下第一個在腦海浮現的想法是，堅持自己所堅持的信念，但同時需要接受異見的發聲。相互尊重，是我覺得去打破別人信念前，絕對需要的條件。那是不是說尊重他人的文化，對於一些被人為侵犯人身自由生命安全的文化習俗，我們選擇沉默接受還是極力反對呢？

我想，在做出判斷之前，了解文化是甚麼？甚麼是文化？文化代表著甚麼？是需要稍微做些功課的。以下節錄了一些網路上的內容：

文化在漢語中實際是「人文教化」的簡稱。前提是有「人」才有文化，意即文化是討論人類社會的專屬語；「文」是基礎和工具，包括語言和/或文字；「教化」是這個詞的真正重心所在：作為名詞的「教化」是人群精神活動和物質活動的共同規範（同時這一規範在精神活動和物質活動的對象化成果中得到體現），作為動詞的「教化」是共同規範產生、傳承、傳播及得到認同的過程和手段。

漢 劉向《說苑．指武》：「凡武之興，為不服也，文化不改，然後加誅。」
晉 束晰《補亡詩．由儀》：「文化內輯，武功外悠。」
前蜀 杜光庭《賀鶴鳴化枯樹再生表》：「修文化而服遐荒，耀武威而平九有。」
元 耶律楚材《太陽十六題》詩之七：「垂衣端拱愧佳兵，文化優遊致太平。」
《花月痕》第四七回：「爾詐爾虞，如鬼如蜮，梗兩朝之文化，勞九伐之天威。」

Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate,") generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significant importance. Different definitions of "culture" reflect different theoretical bases for understanding, or criteria for evaluating, human activity.

Culture is manifested in music, literature, painting and sculpture, theater and film. Although some people identify culture in terms of consumption and consumer goods (as in high culture, low culture, folk culture, or popular culture), anthropologists understand "culture" to refer not only to consumption goods, but to the general processes which produce such goods and give them meaning, and to the social relationships and practices in which such objects and processes become embedded. For them, culture thus includes technology, art, science, as well as moral systems.

Anthropologists most commonly use the term "culture" to refer to the universal human capacity to classify, codify and communicate their experiences symbolically. This capacity has long been taken as a defining feature of the humans.

However, primatologists have identified aspects of culture among humankind's closest relatives in the animal kingdom.As a rule, archaeologists focus on material culture (the material remains of human activity), whereas social anthropologists focus on social interactions, statuses and institutions, and cultural anthropologists focus on norms and values. This division of labor reflects the different conditions under which different anthropologists have worked, and the practical need to focus research. It does not necessarily reflect a theory of culture that conceptually distinguishes between the material, the social, and the normative, nor does it reflect three competing theories of culture.

不同的學科對文化有著不同的理解。從哲學角度解釋文化，認為文化從本質上講是哲學思想的表現形式。由於哲學的時代和地域性從而決定了文化的不同風格。一般來說，哲學思想的變革引起社會制度的變化，與之伴隨的有對舊文化的鎮壓和新文化的興起。

從存在主義的角度，文化是對一個人或一群人的存在方式的描述。人們存在於自然中，同時也存在於歷史和時代中；時間是一個人或一群人存在於自然中的重要平臺；社會、國家和民族（家族）是一個人或一群人存在於歷史和時代中的另一個重要平臺；文化是指人們在這種存在過程中的言說或表述方式、交往或行為方式、意識或認知方式。文化不僅用於描述一群人的外在行為，文化特別包括作為個體的人的自我的心靈意識和感知方式。一個人在回到自己內心世界的時的一種自我的對話、觀察的方式。

功能主義學派認為﹐文化包括物質和精神兩個方面，不論是具體的物質現象﹐如手杖﹑工具﹑器皿等，還是抽象的社會現象，如風俗習慣、思想意識﹑社會制度等，都具有滿足人類實際生活需要的作用。

文化的核心是其符號系統，如文字。各文字體系有相應的認知心理。

通過對不同文化的比較研究，才能了解文化的特點。文化是共有的，它是一系列共有的概念、價值觀和行為準則，它是使個人行為能力為集體所接受的共同標準。文化與社會是密切相關的，沒有社會就不會有文化，但是也存在沒有文化的社會。在同一社會內部，文化也具有不一致性。例如，在任何社會中，男性的文化和女性的文化就有不同。此外，不同的年齡、職業、階級等之間也存在著亞文化的差異。

文化是學習得來的，而不是通過遺傳而天生具有的。生理的滿足方式是由文化決定的，每種文化決定這些需求如何得到滿足。從這一角度看，非人的靈長目動物也有各種文化行為的能力，但是這些文化行為只是單向的文化表現如吃白蟻的方式警戒的呼喊聲等。這和人類社會中龐大複雜的文化象徵體系相比較僅顯得有些微不足道。

文化的基礎是象徵。這些其中最重要的是語言和文字，但也包含其他表現方式如圖像(如圖騰旗幟)肢體動作(如握手吐舌)行為解讀(送禮)等我們幾乎可以說整個文化體系是透過龐大無比的象徵體系深植在人類的思維之中而人們也透過這套象徵符號體系理解解讀呈現在眼前的中種種事物。因此如何解讀各種象徵在該文化的實質意義便成為人類學和語言學等社會學科詮釋人類心智的重要方式之一此外，文化作為相互關係的整體而呈現出一體化的趨勢。

Cultures, by predisposition, both embrace and resist change, depending on culture traits. For example, men and women have complementary roles in many cultures. One gender might desire changes that affect the other, as happened in the second half of the 20th century in western cultures. Thus there are both dynamic influences that encourage acceptance of new things, and conservative forces that resist change.

Three kinds of influence cause both change and resistance to it:
forces at work within a society
contact between societies
changes in the natural environment.

Cultural change can come about due to the environment, to inventions (and other internal influences), and to contact with other cultures. For example, the end of the last ice age helped lead to the invention of agriculture, which in its turn brought about many cultural innovations.

In diffusion, the form of something (though not necessarily its meaning) moves from one culture to another. For example, hamburgers, mundane in the United States, seemed exotic when introduced into China. "Stimulus diffusion" refers to an element of one culture leading to an invention in another. Diffusion of innovations theory presents a research-based model of why and when individuals and cultures adopt new ideas, practices, and products.

"Acculturation" has different meanings, but in this context refers to replacement of the traits of one culture with those of another, such has happened to certain Native American tribes and to many indigenous peoples across the globe during the process of colonization. Related processes on an individual level include assimilation (adoption of a different culture by an individual) and transculturation.

Cultural invention has come to mean any innovation that is new and found to be useful to a group of people and expressed in their behavior but which does not exist as a physical object. Humanity is in a global "accelerating culture change period", driven by the expansion of international commerce, the mass media, and above all, the human population explosion, among other factors. The world's population now doubles in less than 40 years.

Culture change is complex and has far-ranging effects. Sociologists and anthropologists believe that a holistic approach to the study of cultures and their environments is needed to understand all of the various aspects of change. Human existence may best be looked at as a "multifaceted whole." Only from this vantage can one grasp the realities of culture change.

縱觀上述的一些論點，我個人認為文化是一種群體共同意識，所接受所產生的。我並不認為文化的差異，需要去改變或是選擇改變。我們生活的社會，文化價值在哪裡，其實也一直很困擾著我的。因著全球化導致互通訊息的頻率變高，接受以文化的機會也變得更高。說的好聽一些，是大家有了文化交流的機會，可以摒棄自身的劣習俗，學習別人優良的一面。真實來說，世界正走向單一文化的局面。至於全球化文化，是好是壞，則各說各話。

文化，是因為學習得來，同時也因著學習別人的，而改變自己的。我想，目前的我，還是會堅持尊重別人的文化，對於極度傷害性的文化習俗，可以讓他們知道我們反對的立基點在哪裡，讓他們知道自己的劣勢在哪裡，而不是因此一昧要求別人像自己一樣。回歸到原點，就如Paul Farmer寫的，不是受害者無法真正了解到正在受害者的真實心情。