Arthropods in culture astrological signs of the zodiac. Culture consists of the social behaviour and norms found in human societies and transmitted through social learning. Cultural universals in all human societies include expressive forms like art, music, dance, ritual, religion, and technologies like tool usage, cooking, shelter, and clothing. The concept of material culture covers physical expressions such as technology, architecture and art, whereas immaterial culture includes principles of social organization, mythology, philosophy, literature, and science. This article describes the roles played by arthropods in human culture. The arthropods are a phylum of animals with jointed legs; they include the insects, arachnids such
Threatened arthropods millions of undocumented arthropods on Earth. Arthropods as a group have been very successful organisms on this planet, comprising over half of all the higher life forms. However the expanding human population has led to demise of many arthropod species through the mechanisms of deforestation, conventional farming, slash-and-burn methods in the tropics, habitat fragmentation via urban development, excessive use of pesticides and even the success of forest fire suppression. The social/political practice whereby a species is given a formal designation as "Endangered" or "Protected" is a different matter, called "Conservation status", and discussed elsewhere; see Endangered Species List for the