What is the difference between culture and heritage?
5 Answers
kmj23 | (Level 2) Educator
According to the Umass Amherst Center, heritage is defined as the "full range of our inherited traditions" which includes things like language, literature, style of dress, songs, and buildings. Heritage is not just about preserving old things. In fact, heritage includes ideas and memories, too. So, it is about preserving our shared past rather than just keeping specific items.
In contrast, according to Texas A&M University, culture has many different definitions. For some, culture refers to the "way of life" of a particular group of people. But it might also refer to the behaviors learned through socialization or the shared knowledge and experiences of a particular group in society.
So, there is a key distinction to remember between these two concepts: heritage refers to the things that we inherit, while culture is about what we create.
litteacher8 | High School Teacher | (Level 3) Distinguished Educator
missy575 | High School Teacher | (Level 1) Educator Emeritus
Culture refers to the daily living, attitudes, traditions, and norms of a society. One's cultural values can change over a lifetime as a person moves or participates in norms of a society in different places. Culture changes over time as technology and industry change.
Heritage is not capable of change. Heritage includes a set of ethnic traits you are born with or inherit. You can't change yourself from European to Hispanic or Asian. This is inside of you.
Culture is our outward display of our values and living attitudes, it often reflects heritage, but the two are not the same.
subrataray | High School Teacher | (Level 1) Valedictorian
Heritage of a nation is the wealth of the past .Culture takes its birth from the heritage .But it changes with time , as the people of a particular heritage change their life -style .If the human body is heritage , then its dress and countenance are the cultures .Another example is diamond with its reflecting light .Here the light is the heritage .Again culture in a particular time may be a mixed one , but the heritage among some races would always remain different .
krishna-agrawala | College Teacher | (Level 3) Valedictorian
Culture refers to the common ways of living and behaving that is practiced by a large group pf people such a people of a country, geographic area or a religion.
Culture includes a very wide range of components such as beliefs, customs, dress, food, technology, festivals, art and so on. The culture is the result of the developments that take place in the society over a period. These changes are partly influenced by the demand of the changing environment, and partly from the earlier culture handed down from earlier times or ancestry. Heritage refers to this aspect of culture handed down to people from earlier times.