Culture is what we are, civilization is what we have.

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INTRODUCTION
Culture is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities acquired by man as a member of society.” It is “the handiwork of man and the medium through which he achieves his ends.” It is “an organised body of conventional understanding manifest in art and artifact, which, persisting through tradition, characterises a human group.” It is “the quintessence of all natural goods of the world and of those gifts and qualities which, while. belonging to man, lie beyond the immediate sphere of his needs and wants.” In sum culture is what we are.
A civilization is a complex human society, usually made up of different cities, with certain characteristics of cultural and technological development. In many parts of the world, early civilizations formed when people began coming together in urban settlements.The word “civilization” relates to the Latin word “civitas” or “city.” This is why the most basic definition of the word “civilization” is “a society made up of cities.” But early in the development of the term, sociologists used “civilization” and “civilized society” to differentiate between societies they found culturally superior (which they were often a part of), and those they found culturally inferior (which they referred to as “savage” or “barbaric” cultures). Still, most sociologists agree on some criteria to define a society as a civilization. First, civilizations have some kind of urban settlements and are not nomadic. With support from the other people living in the settlement, labor is divided up into specific jobs (called the division of labor), so not everyone has to focus on growing their own food. From this specialization comes class structure and government, both aspects of a civilization. Another criterion for civilization is a surplus of food, which comes from having tools to aid in growing crops. Writing, trading, artwork and monuments, and development of science and technology are all aspects of civilizations. In sum civilization is what we have.
CULTURE IS WHAT WE ARE

• Culture is an accumulation which a new generation inherits. It is a heritage into which a child is born. Thus a person lacking in culture is an impossibility because individuals of necessity share in the culture of their group. The essential point in regard to culture is that it is acquired by man as a member of society and persists through tradition.
• The essential factor in this acquisition through tradition is the ability to learn from the group. Man learns his behaviour and behaviour which is learnt denotes his culture. Singing, talking, dancing and eating belong to the category of culture. Moreover, the behaviours are not his own but are shared by others.
• They have been transmitted to him by someone, be it his school teacher, his parents or friend. It is the product of human experience, i.e., it is man-made. It is the sum of what the group has learned about living together under the particular circumstances, physical and biological, in which it has found itself.
• Thus culture is a system of learned behaviour shared by and transmitted among the members of a group. Man begins to learn it since his birth. By picking up the culture and by tapping the heritage of his past, man becomes distinctively human. Man has, therefore, been called the’ culture-bearing animal.
• Culture is an acquired quality: Culture is not innate. Traits learned through socialization, habits and thoughts are what is called culture. Culture is learned. Any behaviour which is socially acquired is called learned behaviour.
• Culture is social, not individual heritage of man: It is inclusive of the expectations of the members of the groups. It is a social product which is shared by most members of the group.
• Culture is idealistic: Culture embodies the ideas and norms of a group. It is a sum-total of the ideal patterns and norms of behaviour of a group. It is the manifestation of human mind in the course of history.
• Culture is the total social heritage: Culture is linked with the past. The past endures because it lives in culture. It is passed from one generation to another through traditions and customs.
• Culture fulfills some needs: Culture fulfills those ethical and social needs of the groups which are ends in themselves.
• Culture is an integrated system: Culture possesses an order and system. Its various parts are integrated with each other and any new element which is introduced is also integrated.
• Language is the chief vehicle of culture: Man lives not only in the present but also in the past and future. This he is enabled to do because he possesses language which transmits to him what was learnt in the past and enables him to transmit the accumulated wisdom. Culture evolves into more complex forms through division of labour which develops special skills and increases the interdependence of society’s members.

CIVILIZATION IS WHAT WE HAVE

• Civilization denoted utilitarian things used as apparatus. To understand the term ‘culture’ clearly it would be desirable to distinguish it from ‘civilization.’ Writers have many different concepts of civilization. Civilization is considered to have begun at the time of writing and the advent of metals.
• As history begins with writing, so does civilization. Ogburn and Nimkoff conceived of civilization as the latter phase of the superorganic culture. Some based civilization on civil organisation as contrasted to clan or kinship organisation. Since civil organisation was found more commonly in large towns, so people living in these towns were called ‘civilized.’
• Others reserve the word ‘civilization’ for some selected part of a culture. Brooks Adam thinks of civilization as being essentially a highly developed organisation. His concept implies order maintained over an area by governmental power. To Arnold Toynbee, a civilization is essentially a religious and ethical system holding sway over an area often larger than a state or nation.
• Such a system is unified by customs, institutions and ideologies. Some sociologists divide culture into two parts—the material and non-material. By material is meant concrete objects, like dwellings, pens, radio, articles of clothing, utensils, tools, books and paintings; by non-material is meant the abstract creations of man such as language; literature, science, art, law, and religion.
• The sociologists John Lewis Gillin and John Phillip Gillin employed the term, ‘culture’ to designate the ideas and techniques behind the concrete objects, and “Cultural equipment” to describe the objects themselves. According to them, civilization is a more complex and evolved form of culture. MacIver uses the word “Civilization” to denote utilitarian things—the whole mechanism and social organism, techniques and material instruments—which have been devised by man in his endeavour to control the conditions of his life.
• These things operate as means to ends. They are wanted because by using them as means we can secure certain satisfactions. Civilization in this sense would include the radio, the ballot box, the telephone, rail-roads, the schools, the banks and the tractor, etc. All these belong to the realm of civilization. A. W. Green holds that “A culture becomes civilization only when it possesses written language, science, philosophy, as specialized division of labour and a complex technology and political system.
  DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION:
• Civilization has a precise standard of measurement, but not culture: Civilization is susceptible of being quantitatively measured on the grounds of efficiency. When comparing the products of civilization we can prove which is superior and which is inferior. Their efficiency can be estimated and in fact be measured. A lorry runs faster than a bullock cart, an aeroplane runs faster than a lorry, a power loom produces more than a handloom. The tractor is superior to the hand plough. The modern currency system is superior to the barter system. None can dispute these facts. Or the contrary, there is no measuring rod by which we can assess the cultural objects. Different ages and different groups have their own standards of judgments. No discussion about tastes ; if possible. Thus the paintings of Picasso may appear to some are abomination while to others them are invaluable models of art T some Bernard Shaw is a better dramatist than Shakespeare. Some like folk songs, others prefer film songs.
• Civilization is always advancing, but not culture: “Civilization not only marches, it marches always ahead, provided there is no catastrophic break of social continuity in the same direction.” Civilization “how’s a persistent upward trend. It is unilinear and cumulative and tends to advance indefinitely. Since man invented automobile, it has continuously improved. Similar is the case with other means of transportation like railway, ship, aeroplane which are constantly growing more swift, more efficient and better designed. They are vastly superior to those employed by our ancestors. Culture, on the other hand, advances slowly and is often subject to retrogression. It does not march assuredly to higher or improved standards. Our paintings are not as good as or better than those of Ajanta Caves. Can we say that our poetry, drama and literature are superior to those of ancient times?
• Civilization is passed on without effort, but not culture: Culture is transmitted on a different principle from that of civilization. The former can only be assimilated by the like-minded. It can be had only by those who are worthy of it. No one without the quality of the artist can appreciate art, nor classical music can be judged by those who do not have an ear for it. Civilization in general makes no such demand. We can enjoy its products without sharing the capacity which creates them. Everyone can use the breeze from a ceiling fan whether he knows the mechanism of the fan or not.
• The works of civilization can be improved by any body but that is not possible in the case of culture: Lesser minds can improve the work of the great inventors, but lesser artists instead of improving may rather spoil the poems of Milton or Tagore. The accomplishments of culture can be perfected only by the persons who produced them. Again, the product of the artist is more revelatory of his personality than is that of the technician. Culture, being the immediate expression of the human spirit, can advance only if that spirit is capable of finer efforts, has itself something more to express.
• Civilization is external and mechanical while culture is internal and organic: Civilization is inclusive of external things, culture is related to internal thoughts, feelings, ideals, values etc. MacIver remarks, “Civilization is what we have, culture is what we are.’ In Mathew Arnold’s words, culture is “the study of perfection and of harmonious perfection; general perfection and perfection which consists in becoming something, rather than in having something, in an inward condition of the mind and spirit, not in an outward set of circumstances.”
• Civilization is borrowed without change or loss, but not culture: The transference of civilization from one generation to another is quick and easy. Given adequate means of communication things of civilization can quickly spread to the whole world. Radio, television. X-ray, automobiles are no longer the monopoly of any one country. The corporate form of industry has encroached everywhere on older forms. The factory has displaced the domestic system of production. Even the savage is ready to give up the bow and spear and to adopt the gun. The new techniques of constructing buildings and building roads nave everywhere been adopted. Culture, on the other hand, has an intrinsic quality and can only be imbibed. It will have a limited appeal. In India we have borrowed much western civilization, but not western culture. Though there may be some cultural “borrowings” but they are insignificant compared to the borrowings of civilization. It is only a few aspects of culture which are borrowed and even in this act of borrowing, borrowed culture is largely modified by the personality of the borrowers. Thus it is clear that expansion of a civilization follows different principles from those which determine cultural development. Civilization proceeds more rapidly, more simply, less selectively, always spreading outward from the foci of technological advance.

CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION ARE INTERDEPENDENT:

• Culture and civilization, different as they are, will hardly exist apart from each other. The two are not only interdependent but also interactive. The articles of civilization called artifacts are influenced by culture called “mentifacts” and culture is influenced by articles of civilization. Man does not simply want a thing but he wants a thing which may also be beautiful and appealing to his senses.
  Here culture influences civilization. An automobile or radio may be a useful thing, but the models and finish are determined by our culture. Similarly, our philosophies, novels, and all our learning have been much influenced by the printing press.
  The tools of the primitive communities are not merely tools, they are more than that. They are the symbols of culture. The numerous articles like pot, clothing, coins, tools, etc. found in excavations reveal the culture of primitive people. Likewise a constitution or code of laws is not simply a means of government, but it at the same time expresses the spirit of a people and is treasured as the embodiment of culture. In this way the objects that fall mainly in the realms of civilization have generally a cultural aspect.
• All the cultural expressions depend on some technical medium and technical process. The expression of art is limited and modified by technical requirements. It is impossible to translate a poem into a foreign language and to give in that language the entire significance of the original blending of meaningful sound and rhythms.
  Often an artist finds himself hampered by the difficulties of expression when he wants to communicate to others some experience he has had or some scene he has witnessed. He has constantly to struggle to master his medium. Thus civilization puts limitations under which we are to live and pursue our satisfactions. It determines the degree in which cultural activity, of whatever kind, is released or limited.
  CULTURE ALSO AFFECTS CIVILIZATION:
• The people must interpret their inventions, new devices, techniques and power in the light of the valuations. Every people, and every age had its characteristic ways of looking at things, its characteristic attitudes and its own thought forms and philosophies. Civilization cannot escape from the influence of the creed and the standards and the styles of age.
• Culture has a consistency of its own which is sometimes very hard to defeat. Culture succeeds civilization in case of a clash between the two. Every change in culture valuations has its repercussions on the civilizational structure of the group. We can say that civilization is a ship “which can set sail to various ports. The port we sail to remains a cultural choice. Without the ship we could not sail at all. According to the character of the ship we sail fast or slow, take longer or shorter voyages; our lives are also accommodated to the conditions of shipboard and our experiences vary accordingly. But the direction in which we travel is not predestinated by the design of the ship. The more efficient it is, the more ports lie within the range of our choosing. In short, civilization is the driving force of society: culture is its steering wheel.”
  CONCLUSION

Not only civilization and culture are interdependent, the two are interactive. Culture responds to the stage of technological development. Thus the form of literary art has been greatly affected by the development of printing. Before the advent of the cinematograph, the dramatic performances were costly and could be enjoyed only by a few rich people.
But today through films the performances are enjoyed by a large number of people in different and distant places. The evolution of the means of communication has had a profound effect on the modes of expression. Civilization, as MacIver points out, is a vehicle of culture. In the past the influence of civilization on culture was less observed, but in our own age, with its rapid technological development, the fact has become a commonplace. Our philosophies, arts and ethics are being modified and deflected by our civilization. Due to the scientific instruments which have given us better insight into the universe, we have become less superstitious.