Here is my brief (and crude) reply to your question:
> Eugene -- can you tell me more about "Culture is slice of history"?
The (Hegelian) idea is that all societies are undergo development according
to some universal laws. However, due to local and historical circumstances,
the pace of the development is different for different societies. So,
current state of different societies indicates positions or each society on
the scale of the universal societal development. Thus, besides local
peculiarities (such as climate, geographical location, customs, and so on),
cultures are nothing more but societies at different developmental stages on
the universal scale (some more advanced and some more backward). I think
this is a very modernist theory that was very popular probably up to 60s
(and still is very popular in different Western communities).
Does it make sense?
Eugene