Culture as coordination infrastructure

Culture should be seen as a set of evolved coordination equilibria — shared expectations, enforcement practices, and trust networks — that structure what actions are feasible and which institutions work. This view treats music and food as surface symptoms while centering deeper variables like impartiality norms, intergroup trust, and rule‑following incentives. — Recasting culture this way changes policy debates: it turns multiculturalism and culture‑war arguments into questions about coordination costs, enforcement mechanisms, and institutional design rather than mere taste or immutable identity.