SA 150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Edward Said, Selfie Stick, Behaviorism
8 Jun 2018
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CHAPTER 3 & 4: CULTURE AND SOCIALIZATION
Culture
• When defining culture there is often a struggle between culture as a standard of
excellence and
• Culture is a system involving behaviour, beliefs, knowledge, practices, values, and
material such as buildings, tools, and sacred items
• Often contested
• Not total agreement as to what constitutes a culture, even by those who belong to
the group
• It is not static (e.g. The American South). Shifts and changes, doesn’t know any
boundaries or borders.
Raymond Williams
“Culture is Ordinary” = We all have culture, not only the elite
Authenticity
• One of the points of contestation is authenticity
• Carries the ideas of being true to a particle culture
• Traditional practices change as culture changes
Orientalism
• Culture often associated with oppression
• Sometimes contested, functioning as instruments of oppression (e.g. Edward Said,
Orientalism)
• Related to the idea of power
Dominant Culture VS Subculture and Counterculture
Dominant
• Culture through its political and economic power is able to impose its values,
language, and ways of behaving and behaviour on a given society
• Canada’s dominant culture:
• English speaking
•White
• Heterosexual
• University Graduate
• English background
• ages of 25-55
• good health
• owns a home in middle-class neighbourhood in Quebec or Ontario
Subculture
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• Group of people who share a distinctive set of cultural beliefs and behaviors that
differ in some significant way, but are not necessarily opposed to, that the dominant
culture
•Examples: lawyers, endurance runners, snow globe collectors
Counterculture
• Groups that reject selected elements of the dominant culture (e.g. clothing styles or
sexual norms)
• Represent noise and interfere with the order
• Can be seen as threatening to dominant culture
• Examples: hippies, Black Panthers (late 1960’s)
Roland Barthes: characterized petit-bourgeois (middle class/mainstream person) as
person “unable to imagine the Other… the Other is a scandal which threatens his
existence”
High Culture VS Popular Culture and Mass Culture
High Culture
• Culture of the elite— things such as theatre, opera, classical music, ballet, Proust,
artsy films, clothing made by high-end fashion designers
• Requires a set of skills and knowledge, culture capital, what sets elite apart from the
masses
Pierre Bordieu: coined term cultural capital
Culture Capital: the knowledge and skills needed to acquire the sophisticated
tastes that mark someone as a person of high culture
Bordieu’s Distinction (1979): most famous text, thesis: judgements of taste
are related to social position
Popular Culture
•Culture of the majority
•We would consider programs, YouTube, music videos, and fast food restaurants part
of popular culture
•Reflects the idea that people take an active role in the culture they consume
Mass Culture
•Created by those in power for the masses
•Refers to the people who have little or no agency in the culture they consume
•Assumes that tastes are dictated from powerful companies, governments, etc.
Distinction between Mass and Popular Culture: AGENCY
Jean Baudrillard: studied mass culture and developed the theory of simulacra
•Simulacra: feature of mass culture, cultural images or stereotypes that are
(re)produced like material goods or commodities and associated with groups of
people
•Likely to be considered more real than what actually exists (hyperreal)
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Document Summary
It is not static (e. g. the american south). Shifts and changes, doesn"t know any boundaries or borders. Culture is ordinary = we all have culture, not only the elite. Authenticity: one of the points of contestation is authenticity, carries the ideas of being true to a particle culture, traditional practices change as culture changes. Orientalism: culture often associated with oppression, sometimes contested, functioning as instruments of oppression (e. g. edward said, Orientalism: related to the idea of power. 14: group of people who share a distinctive set of cultural beliefs and behaviors that differ in some significant way, but are not necessarily opposed to, that the dominant culture, examples: lawyers, endurance runners, snow globe collectors. Counterculture: groups that reject selected elements of the dominant culture (e. g. clothing styles or sexual norms, represent noise and interfere with the order, can be seen as threatening to dominant culture, examples: hippies, black panthers (late 1960"s)
