Final answer:
Tools to influence culture vary and include social practices and policies, with innovation, invention, and discovery being significant to cultural change. Subcultures differ from the larger culture with distinct behaviors, while countercultures challenge mainstream cultural values actively.
Step-by-step explanation:
Tools used to influence culture are varied and intricately linked to social practices, policies, and individual actions. These include but are not limited to legislative measures, education, media and communication channels, arts, and social movements. Subculture refers to a group within a larger culture that differentiates itself through a distinct set of behaviors, values, or beliefs, often congruent with the larger culture to some extent. Counterculture, conversely, actively opposes certain aspects of the larger culture, seeking to enact change or create an alternative way of life.
Innovation, invention, and discovery are powerful engines of cultural change, as they introduce new ways of thinking, living, and relating with each other and the environment. They often lead to the diffusion of cultural elements across societies, which is a fundamental mechanism of cultural change. Throughout history, the exchange of cultural ideas and practices across different societies has continually reshaped cultures in various ways.