Chapter 5 Flashcards
What is culture?
is a system of behaviours, beliefs, knowledge, practices, values, concrete materials including buildings, tools, and sacred items.
How is culture expressed?
Through language and artifacts (things we make).
What does it mean that cultures are dynamic?
Cultures change over time.
Why is culture considered contested?
There is little agreement on who and what belongs to a culture, even among members of the same cultural group.
What is a key point of contestation in culture?
The idea of authenticity—what is considered true or genuine to a particular culture.
What are two central oppositions used to distinguish types of cultures?
1) Dominant culture vs. subculture and counterculture
2) High culture vs. popular and mass culture
What is dominant culture?
The culture that, through political and economic power, imposes its values, language, behaviors, and interpretations on a given society.
Who are the dominants in a society?
People closely linked with the cultural mainstream, typically benefiting from political, economic, or social privilege.
Who are the dominant group members in Canada?
White, English-speaking, heterosexual, male university graduates of European background, aged 30-55, in good health, living in middle-class neighborhoods of cities in Ontario or Quebec, and homeowners.
What are minority cultures?
Cultures that fall outside the cultural mainstream.
What are the two subcategories of minority cultures?
1) Countercultures
2) Subcultures
What are countercultures?
Minority cultures that exist in opposition to the dominant culture, challenging its power and norms (e.g., through clothing styles or sexual norms).
Can you give examples of countercultures?
Hippies, biker gangs, and alternative music and fashion movements.
Subcultures
minority cultures that differ in some way from the dominant culture but don’t directly oppose it.
– E.g., groups organized around occupations or hobbies
What is high culture?
The culture of the elite, a distinct minority, associated with the arts such as theatre, opera, ballet, and classical music.
What concept did Pierre Bourdieu associate with high culture?
Cultural capital – a set of skills and knowledge needed to develop sophisticated tastes that mark someone as part of high culture.
What is popular culture?
The culture of the majority, especially those without power, such as the working class, the less educated, women, and racialized minorities.
Who are the primary participants in popular culture?
The working class, the less educated, women, and racialized minorities.
How do cultural studies contribute to understanding popular culture?
They shed light on the significance and meanings expressed within popular culture.
How do cultural studies contribute to understanding popular culture?
They shed light on the significance and meanings expressed within popular culture.
What is mass culture?
A form of culture where people have little or no agency in the culture they consume, as large companies dictate what they watch, buy, value, or believe.
Who creates mass culture?
It is created by those in power for the masses.
What is a key distinction between popular culture and mass culture?
The difference lies in agency—popular culture allows “the people” to be creative or productive with the materials provided by the dominant culture, while mass culture limits such agency.
What are simulacra in the context of mass culture?
Stereotypical cultural images produced and reproduced like material goods or commodities by the media and sometimes by scholars.
Who is the scholar associated with the concept of simulacra?
Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007).
Can you give an example of simulacra?
The representation of Inuit people through stereotypes such as igloos and kayaks.
What does it mean that simulacra are “hyperreal”?
They are more likely to be perceived as real than the actual reality they represent, distorting contemporary realities (e.g., the lived experience of Inuit people).
What is decipherment in cultural analysis?
The process of looking in a text for the definitive interpretation and the intended purpose (conscious or unconscious) of the culture industry that created it.
What is reading in the context of cultural analysis?
The process in which people treat cultural texts as resources to be interpreted according to their own perspectives, rather than as the creators intended.
How do decipherment and reading differ?
Decipherment seeks to uncover the creator’s intended meaning, while reading allows individuals to interpret texts in personal and potentially unintended ways.
What are norms?
Rules or standards of behavior expected of a group, society, or culture.
Along what lines may norms be contested?
Ethnicity, “race,” gender, and age.
How are norms expressed in a culture?
Through various means, including ceremonies that reflect cultural customs (e.g., weddings) and symbolic articles of dress (e.g., the white dress worn by brides).
