What is Culture?

Interesting topic of conversation today during class.

Hip-hop the world over is thought to be a culture. What defines a culture?

The Merriam-Webster Dictory defines culture as the following:

... "the act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties especially by education [...] expert care and training [...] enlightenment and excellence of taste acquired by intellectual and aesthetic training b : acquaintance with and taste in fine arts, humanities, and broad aspects of science as distinguished from vocational and technical skills [...] the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations" ...

When applied to hip-hop, it would seem that the definition would aptly apply. Of course we like to dissect both sides of an argument, so here we go: what about, for instance, bicycle culture? Residents of the city of Los Angeles are currently working hard to fight for recognition of the biking community, to make streets more bike-friendly for those who utilize bicycles as part of their daily lives, whether for fun or for function. But is bicycle culture a culture, or rather is it a dimension of an already-established culture that allows its participants to express themselves in a non-threatening environment?

What about hip-hop?

Think, and discuss.