ABSTRACT
Culture is a lens for viewing the connections and relationships that define the human experience. Just as physics has become more and more focused on the connections and relationships among energy and matter, so too have the human sciences come to focus on these sources of connectivity. We believe that the construct of “culture” provides a means for understanding and explaining the connections among people as well as between people and their environment. At the same time, it helps explain how people's various identities come together to create the self. We consider culture to be like a “lens” because it focuses us on these connections, helping us see more clearly something that, while containing material objects, is actually symbolic.
