Definitions of culture and religion

[Ligeia]

I'd like to know how'd you define culture and religion from a Marxist point of view.
E.g. I have the notion that culture is the way people live which is dependent on factors like economy, geography,...relations to the means of production.
Then I think that religion can be a part of this "way of living" since it also arises from those economic relations among other things...it's a set of rituals around a belief arising from those conditions.
Because of their dependance on such things as relation to economy, they are also not static but changing in nature.
(But I'm not sure if those are good or coherent definitions.)

Still, I'd like to read other's people's definition of those concepts with some examples from history to underline the given definitions. Or if you think neither exist/should be defined,...then explain why.

Another question relating to this:
I've often read that things like sexism, racism, ...etc. would vanish in a communist society. Does it mean that those are attitudes needed for certain economic relations to function or are they products of them?

I'm not really well-read in those topics, thus my questions.

[Luisrah]

Another question relating to this:
I've often read that things like sexism, racism, ...etc. would vanish in a communist society. Does it mean that those are attitudes needed for certain economic relations to function or are they products of them?


Yes. Racism is a tool that imperialist nations many times use to be, well, imperialist!
If you need to go to X place and do something that will bring profit to your company, but you know that X inhabitants will resist, than telling your people that those X inhabitants are inferior because of their skin color, than your people will support a military act against them.
There.

Sexism can also be used (as I think it was by the time of Thatcher), as a way of increasing production. By saying that the woman belongs home, caring to the children and cleaning the house and cooking, you'll have less unemployment, and a better workforce, since the housewives can breed more, and take better care of their families.

Those are just examples

[Ligeia]

^^^^
Thanks for those examples, they are pretty easy to understand.
:)
What would you say about accusations of witchcraft on women or children? What's their purpose?

[bcbm]

What would you say about accusations of witchcraft on women or children? What's their purpose?

destroy feminine solidarity, destroy the position of women in the community by turning others against them. the book "caliban and the witch" goes in to a fair bit of depth about the witch hunts in europe and the americas.

[Ligeia]

What about the actual overall topic of my thread....definitions of culture and religion?
I'd like to see a Marxist perspective on those.

[Hit The North]

What about the actual overall topic of my thread....definitions of culture and religion?
I'd like to see a Marxist perspective on those.

I think that your initial formulations are in accord with the way most Marxists would articulate them: the key charateristics being change and interaction. Your method of analysis and understanding of cultural and ideological phenomena, based on examining the material practices which support them and their effect back upon material practice, is also Marxian.