Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 October 2001
The definition of the term culture has become so vague as to be almost synonymous with human life; as an analytic term it has become nearly valueless. Of course, it can be used as a description of artistic activity, but this also becomes dubious when applied to popular mass culture. Culture often carries a sense of superior ethical values, but this too declines into confusion when multiculturism is opposed to culture as a whole.