ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to show that culture can be analyzed at several different levels, with the term level meaning the degree to which the cultural phenomenon is visible to the observer. Some of the confusion surrounding the definition of what culture really is results from not differentiating the levels at which it manifests itself. Many other culture researchers prefer the term basic values to describe the concept of the deepest levels. At the surface is the level of artifacts, which includes all the phenomena that one sees, hears, and feels when one encounters a new group with an unfamiliar culture. Artifacts also include, for purposes of cultural analysis, the organizational processes by which such behaviour is made routine, and structural elements such as charters, formal descriptions of how the organization works, and organization charts. Every facet of a group’s life produces artifacts, creating the problem of classification.
