Final answer:
Culture encompasses the broad patterns of behavior present in all aspects of social life, from personal interactions to institutional norms. These patterns include laws, morals, values, customs, and rituals, and serve to align individual behaviors with group values, maintain social order, and provide a sense of security.
Step-by-step explanation:
The patterns of behavior we exhibit in our families, relationships, religions, laws, moral codes, songs, art, business, and everyday interactions are all aspects of culture. Culture includes laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and cultural rules that govern social life. It is through these patterns that people learn to align themselves with groups that share similar values and practices. Cultural behaviors manifest in the form of traditions, such as shaking hands or bowing when greeting, dressing appropriately for different events, and adhering to the norms of communication within different contexts. These behaviors, based on learned customs and traditions, help maintain social order and cohesion, making people feel secure and 'normal'.
Furthermore, these behavior patterns act as a form of social control through elements such as religious beliefs, exemplified by the Ten Commandments, which outline acceptable and unacceptable behaviors and specify supernatural consequences for misbehavior. Culture also influences our larger social needs, integration, norms, and mobility within society's stratification system. Both formal and informal institutions, such as schools and media, play a crucial role in communicating and reinforcing these cultural norms and values.
From a sociological perspective, the purpose of examining culture is to understand the contexts in which certain behaviors are expected or not, and how this helps to align humanity with a broader sense of order or the cosmos, as was the belief of the Tang elite in their cultural practices. By doing culture, they believed they were giving merit to themselves and aligning with cosmic patterns.