What factors influence culture?What are the characteristics of culture?

Another great influence on culture is geography. Cultural development is often a function of in what part of the world a culture is situated.  If the geography is such that it is easy to hunt game, a culture will have attributes that emphasize that feature, for example, stories about hunting, ceremonies that feature hunting skills, etc.  If a people is in a coastal area, water is likely to play an important part in the culture.  In Japan, for example, there are creation myths that draw heavily on the fact that Japan is a place surrounded by water.  Also, Japanese food relies heavily on its natural resources, fish and land that lends itself to rice-growing.  Japan is also a good example of how cultural attributes such as art forms are a function of geography.  Because Japan is an island nation, space is severely limited. This generates art forms such as the haiku, which is a very tiny poem, and bonsai, which creates a tree of great beauty in a very small pot.  Desert cultures have very different attributes, for example, burial customs that allow bodies to be buried quite quickly.  If you look at geography, you will usually find a connection with culture.