Final answer:
Culture provides meaning to acts through a shared understanding of values, beliefs, and practices that inform both the use of material objects and nonmaterial expressions. Cultural change introduces new meanings and practices, which then alter the cultural landscape. Culture is collectively understood and guides how members of a group interpret and navigate their environment.
Step-by-step explanation:
Culture adds meaning to acts by infusing them with shared values, beliefs, and practices that are understood within a specific community. This process involves both material and nonmaterial elements of culture. Material culture consists of physical objects, such as the carpets sold by Turkish merchants or the elaborate costumes worn during Brazilian Carnival, while nonmaterial culture pertains to the thoughts, actions, and shared meanings that give significance to these material objects. For instance, Ahmed, a carpet seller in the Istanbul Grand Bazaar, incorporates both material and nonmaterial culture in his sales strategies, using gestures and speech that reflect the values and expectations of his culture. Similarly, the idiom of distress, such as hanging "the evil eye" or tying a yellow ribbon, is culturally specific ways of expressing feelings that are understood within that cultural context.
Cultural change occurs when new items are added to a group's material culture, and new meanings are developed for these additions. This ongoing adaptation alters the existing cultural components, leading to a dynamic and evolving cultural landscape. For example, new technologies can revolutionize communication patterns, which leads to new behaviors and practices in social interaction, affecting the culture at large.
Culture is shared, and it is the collective understanding of beliefs and practices that provides coherence and identity to members of a group. It guides how people interpret their surroundings, as seen in the different ways a house and a restaurant are identified based on societal knowledge and expectations. The shared understanding of cultural practices, such as winking or offering tea to a customer, creates a baseline of expected behaviors within a cultural group.