The so-called culture of a group of human beings, as it is treated by the cultural anthropologist, is essentially a systematic list of all the socially inherited patterns of behavior which may be illustrated in the actual behavior of all or most of the individuals of the group. The true locus of these processes which, when abstracted into a totality, constitute culture is not society, for the term "society" is itself a cultural construct which is employed by individuals who stand in significant relations to each other in order to help them in the interpretation of certain aspects of their behavior. The true locus of culture is in tho interactions of specific individuals and, on the subjective side, in the world of meanings which each one of these individuals may unconsciously abstract for himself from his participation in these interactions. Every individual is, then a representative of at least one sub-culture. Frequently, he is a representative of more than one sub-culture, and the degree to which the socialized behavior of any given individual can be abstracted from the generalized culture of a single group varies enormously from person to person.
It is impossible to think of any set of cultural patterns which can, in the literal sense of the word, be referred to society as such. There are no facts of political organization or family life or religious belief or magical procedure or technology or aesthetic endeavor which are coterminous with society or with any mechanically defined segment of society. The fact that John Doe is registered in some municipal office as a member of such and such a ward only vaguely defines him with reference to those cultural patterns which are conveniently assembled under "municipal administration." The psychological and the cultural realities of John Doe's registration may vary enormously. If John Doe is paying taxes on a house which is likely to keep him a resident of the ward for the rest of his life and if he also happens to be in personal contact with a number of municipal officers, ward classification may easily become a symbol of his orientation in his world of meanings which is comparable to his definition as a father or as a frequent participant in golf. Ward membership, for such an individual, may easily precipitate itself into many visible forms of behavior. The ward system and its functions, real or supposed, may for such a John Doe assume an impersonal and objective reality which is comparable to the objective reality of rain or sunshine.
But there is sure to be another John Doe, perhaps a neighbor of the first, who does not even know that the town is divided into wards and that he is enrolled in one of them and that he has certain duties and privileges connected with such enrollment. While the municipal office classifies these two John Does in exactly the same way and while there is a theory that ward organization is an entirely impersonal matter to which all members of a given society must adjust, it is rather obvious that such a manner of speech is a metaphor. The cultures of these two individuals are as significantly different, on the given level and scale, as though one were the representative of Italian culture and the other of Turkish culture. Such differences of culture never seem as significant as they really are; partly because in the workaday world of experience they [do] not emerge into sharp consciousness, partly because the economy of interpersonal relations and the friendly ambiguities of language reinterpret for each individual all behavior in the terms of those meanings which are relevant to his own life. The concept of culture, as it is handled by the cultural anthropologist, is necessarily something of a statistical fiction and it is easy to see that the social psychologist and the psychiatrist must eventually induce him to the carefully reconsider his terms. It is not the concept of culture which is subtly misleading but the metaphysical locus to which culture is generally assigned.