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Culture and the arts

The word culture is derived from the Latin root cultura or cultus meaning to "inhabit, cultivate, or honour". In general, culture refers to human activity; different definitions of culture reflect different theories for understanding, or criteria for valuing human activity. Present day Anthropologists use the term to refer to the universal human capacity to classify experiences and to encode and communicate them symbolically. They regard this capacity as a defining feature of the genus Homo. Since culture is learned, people living in different places have different cultures. There can be different cultures in different countries, and there can also be shared cultures among continents.

The arts are a vast subdivision of culture, composed of many creative endeavors and disciplines. It is a broader term than "art," which as a description of a field usually means only the visual arts. The arts encompasses visual arts, literary arts and the performing arts - music, theatre, dance, spoken word and film, among others.

Art, in its broadest meaning, is the expression of creativity or imagination. The word art comes from the Latin word ars, which, loosely translated, means "arrangement". Art is commonly understood as the act of making works (or artworks) which use the human creative impulse and which have meaning beyond simple description. Art is often distinguished from crafts and recreational hobby activities. The term creative arts denotes a collection of disciplines whose principal purpose is the output of material for the viewer or audience to interpret. As such, art may be taken to include forms as diverse as prose writing, poetry, dance, acting or drama, film, music, sculpture, photography, illustration, architecture, collage, painting, craft and fashion. Art may also be understood as relating to creativity, æsthetics and the generation of emotion.

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Culture and the arts: Overview • Lists • Outlines • Portals • Categories • Glossaries • Indexes

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Overview (see for all subject areas)

Culture and Humanities – Celebrities • Classics • Critical theory • Language • Movements • Mythology • Philosophy • Popular culture • Traditions • Tourism

Literature – Poetry

Art and The arts – Museums

Performing arts – Comedy ( Humour) • Dance • Film • Music • Opera • Theatre • Circus

Visual arts – Animation • Architecture • Comics • Design • Drawing • Painting • Photography • Sculpture • Textile arts • Fashion • Color

Entertainment and Recreation – Cooking • Festivals • Hobbies • Parties

Games and Toys – Board games • Card games • Computer and video games • Role-playing games

Sports – Association football (Soccer) • American football • Baseball • Basketball • Cricket • Cue sports • Golf • Ice hockey • Olympics • Racing (Cycling, Formula One) • Rugby • Swimming • Tennis

Mass media – Internet (Blogosphere, Podcasts, and Websites) • Newspaper • Publications • Publishing • Radio • Television

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Outlines (see for all subject areas)

Culture – set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that define a group of people, such as the people of a particular region. Culture includes the elements that characterize a particular peoples' way of life.

The arts – vast subdivision of culture, composed of many creative endeavors and disciplines. The arts encompasses visual arts, literary arts and the performing arts.
- Literature – the art of written works.
  - Fiction – any form of narrative which deals, in part or in whole, with events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary and invented by its author(s).
  - Poetry – literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning.
  - Critical theory – examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities.
- Visual arts – art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature.
  - Architecture – The art and science of designing and erecting buildings and other physical structures.
    - Classical architecture – architecture of classical antiquity and later architectural styles influenced by it.
  - Crafts – recreational activities and hobbies that involve making things with one's hands and skill.
  - Drawing – visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium.
  - Design – the process for planning the overall look of an object.
  - Film – motion pictures.
  - Painting – practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface with a brush or other object.
    - History of painting
  - Photography – art, science, and practice of creating pictures by recording radiation on a radiation-sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or electronic image sensors.
  - Sculpture – three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials - typically stone such as marble - or metal, glass, or wood.
- Performing arts – those forms of art that use the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium.
  - Dance – art form of movement of the body.
  - Film – moving pictures, the art form that records performances visually.
  - Theatre – collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place.
  - Music – art form the medium of which is sound and silence.
    - Music genres
      - Jazz – musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States, mixing African and European music traditions.
      - Opera – art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text (called a libretto) and musical score.
    - Musical instruments – devices created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds.
      - Guitars – the guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with either nylon or steel strings.
  - Stagecraft – technical aspects of theatrical, film, and video production. It includes, but is not limited to, constructing and rigging scenery, hanging and focusing of lighting, design and procurement of costumes, makeup, procurement of props, stage management, and recording and mixing of sound.
Gastronomy – the art and science of good eating, including the study of food and culture.
- Food preparation – act of preparing foodstuffs for eating. It encompasses a vast range of methods, tools, and combinations of ingredients to improve the flavour and digestibility of food. Includes but is not limited to cooking.
- Cuisines – styles of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, techniques and dishes, each usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region.
- Meals – eating occasions that take place at a certain time and includes specific prepared food.
- Food and drink
  - Chocolate – raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree.
  - Wine – alcoholic beverage made from fermented fruit juice (typically from grapes).
Recreation and Entertainment – any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie.
- Festivals – entertainment events centering on and celebrating a unique aspect of a community, usually staged by that community.
- Fiction – any form of narrative which deals, in part or in whole, with events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary and invented by its author(s).
  - Spy fiction – genre of fiction concerning forms of espionage
    - James Bond – fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming. Since then, the character has grown to icon status, featured in many novels, movies, video games and other media.
  - Fantasy – genre of fiction using magic and the supernatural as primary elements of plot, theme or setting, often in imaginary worlds, generally avoiding the technical/scientific content typical of Science fiction, but overlapping with it
    - Middle-earth – fantasy setting by writer J.R.R. Tolkien, home to hobbits, orcs, and many other mystical races and creatures.
    - Narnia – fantasy setting by C.S. Lewis, home to talking animals, centaurs, witches, and many other mythical creatures and characters.
  - Science fiction – a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible (or at least nonsupernatural) content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, giant monsters (Kaiju), and paranormal abilities. Exploring the consequences of scientific innovations is one purpose of science fiction, making it a "literature of ideas".
- Games – structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment, involving goals, rules, challenge, and interaction.
  - Board games
    - Chess – two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. Each player begins the game with sixteen pieces: One king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns.
  - Card games
    - Poker – family of card games that share betting rules and usually (but not always) hand rankings.
  - Video games – electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device.
- Sports – organized, competitive, entertaining, and skillful activity requiring commitment, strategy, and fair play, in which a winner can be defined by objective means. Generally speaking, a sport is a game based in physical athleticism.
  - Ball games
    - Baseball – bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each where the aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond.
    - Basketball – team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules.
    - Cricket – bat-and-ball team sport, the most popular form played on an oval-shaped outdoor arena known as a cricket field at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard (20.12 m) long pitch that is the focus of the game.
    - Tennis – sport usually played between two players (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles), using specialized racquets to strike a felt-covered hollow rubber ball over a net into the opponent's court.
  - Canoeing and kayaking – two closely related forms of watercraft paddling, involving manually propelling and navigating specialized boats called canoes and kayaks using a blade that is joined to a shaft, known as a paddle, in the water.
  - Combat sports
    - Fencing – family of combat sports using bladed weapons. It is also known as french swordfighting or french swordfencing.
    - Martial arts – extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development.
  - Outline of cycling – use of bicycles or other non-motorized cycles for transport, recreation, or for sport. Also called bicycling or biking.
  - Motorcycling – riding a motorcycle. A variety of subcultures and lifestyles have been built up around motorcycling and motorcycle racing.
  - Running – moving rapidly on foot, during which both feet are off the ground at regular intervals.
Humanities – academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences.
- Area studies – comprehensive interdisciplinary research and academic study of the people and communities of particular regions. Disciplines applied include history, political science, sociology, cultural studies, languages, geography, literature, and related disciplines.
  - Sinology – study of China and things related to China, such as its classical language and literature.
- Classical studies – branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and all other cultural elements of the ancient Mediterranean world (Bronze Age ca. BC 3000 – Late Antiquity ca. AD 300–600); especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.