query

[A. Maberry]

I was involved in a discussion yesterday concerning "medical culture"
which broadened into "x culture" ("legal culture", "military culture",
etc.).
This led to a check of the usage in the American Heritage Dictionary
(online version) 4th ed. 2000, which has the following:

"Ever since C.P.  Snow wrote of the gap between the two cultures (the
humanities and science) in the 1950s, the notion that culture can refer to
smaller segments of society has seemed implicit. Its usage in the
corporate world may also have been facilitated by increased awareness of
the importance of genuine cultural differences in a global economy, as
between Americans and the Japanese, that have a broad effect on business
practices."

My questions are: is there any evidence for the usage of "x culture"
before 1950, has there been anything published on this, and is this usage
more American than British? (American Heritage dates "corporate culture"
to "business jargon of the late 1980s and early 1990s".

A Google search turned up: "medical culture" 2,050 hits, "military
culture" 6,080 hits, "cowboy culture" 2,790 hits, "beer culture" 1,650
hits, "software engineering culture" 790 hits and "six-pack culture" 7
hits. I'm guessing the software one is comparatively recent.

Since it is not strictly about dialect, please feel free to respond
to me personally unless you think it of interest to the list.

Thanks very much.

allen
maberry at u.washington.edu