現今坊間使用頻繁的“文化＂一詞，內容豐富而多元，為探索與界定“文化＂的內涵，本文透過文化的定義、文化的要素、文化的特徵等三點來進行討論。在文化的定義方面，分別從人類學觀點、社會學觀點與藝術美學觀點等三個面向來界說其內容。文化的要素是指非物質文化中的符號、語言、規範和價值等四點，文化的特徵則是指：文化是一個不斷創造生成的過程、文化是後天習得的行為、文化是社會互動行為的管道、文化是群體界域的維繫工具等四點而言。文化的要素與特徵能使人確定社會情境的意義，確保社會互動的穩定性與可預測性，是個人與社會之間互動的重要媒介。

As “culture” becomes a popular terminology world-wide, its covers a variety of contexts and diversities. In this paper, the authors are going to define and probe the culture and its essentials from the perspectives of “definition,” “essentials,” and “characteristics.” In the section of Definition of Culture, viewpoints of anthropology, sociology, and art-aesthetics will be explored and explained. The areas of the symbol, the language, the norm, and the value, comprising of the cultural fundamental elements, will be further discussed in the second section. In sum, the characteristics of culture are a productive process of creativity, an acquiring learned behavior, a channel of social interaction, and a collective means of communication.