It's all very how long is a piece of string though UG. Traditionally and (pre)historically it has been a conceptual construct to explain the inexplicable and has also doubled up as historical and cultural almanac. These days it might just as well serve as an atavastic expression of angst in response to Future Shock. It can be good, bad, indifferent, extinct, raised from the dead (in the image of the raiser more often than not), esoteric, bizarre, a bringer together, a forcer apart. It is as many things as people and motives are different really Doubtless it is often used to shore up power bases or by individuals to exercise power over others, but that's a side-effect, not a definition.