Culture as a learning process

Learning means the process of acquiring new knowledge, skills, or behaviour. In culture humans always accumulate knowledge and skills they have acquired and hand them over for generations. The knowledge, skills, and behaviour cover a wide range of topics, such as arts, religion, communications, technology, etc. In communications, for instance, humans have created and improved the Braille and sign languages, which allow the blind and the deaf to communicate with the world. As for technology, humans have invented different tools and machines enabling themselves to speed up the manufacture of goods—e.g. batik clothes, initially hand-painted by individuals, can be now produced using a stamp or a printing machine, which is much faster and more economical. The said examples obviously show that human knowledge accumulates along with human efforts to learn.

The accumulation and transfer of knowledge and skills are made possible thanks to language. This is perhaps the greatest human invention since it underlies all human activities, thereby rendering them possible. The term ‘language’ is defined broadly, including all forms of symbols and signs, which are manifested in words, pictures, dances, etc. Symbols are made by humans, external to their bodies, and thus are easy to modify to suit any problems that arise. For instance, when humans stored water only at room temperature, there was only one single tap needed. When humans created a machine able to heat water and store it, another tap was required—hence two colours, typically red and blue, identifying warm and cool water respectively.

Culture as a learning process indicates that humans have sociocultural inheritance, apart from biological inheritance. It means that learning activity always surpasses mere natural behaviour. For example, eating is a natural behaviour that occurs in all organic creatures. However, humans can go beyond their animal instinct by preparing the meal—cooking, decorating, and serving it in a delicate way—so that food satisfies not only their biological need but also their aesthetic sense. 

Stages of learning process

Humans start to learn when they cast doubt on a problem or phenomenon. Being sceptical, they do not believe that a particular problem is inevitable and will last for good. They then ask questions in order to solve the problem. When they work on it for the first time, it is likely that they encounter mistakes on the way. However, the trial-and-error method is indeed a process of acquiring new knowledge and skills.

When humans eventually find a solution to a problem, they are able to transfer this knowledge through language and symbol. As a result, the subsequent generations need not repeat the same mistakes as the previous generations did, nor do they start from scratch. The accumulation of knowledge since thousands of years ago has helped humankind to make progress in the world. However, they ought to ever criticise and evaluate their civilisation they have been building because no one can guarantee that a culture is always leading to wisdom, progress, and prosperity.