Concept of Culture

The ethnocentric view of the Social Darwinist anthropologists was later replaced by the concept of cultural relativism.

Let's go over the many forms of culture that exist or have existed in society.

High culture refers to cultural artefacts and goods that have been assigned 'high' status. They are usually associated with the activities and tastes of the upper and middle classes.

Fig. 1 - Ballet is considered high culture.

Low culture denotes cultural artefacts and goods that have been assigned 'low' status. These are generally associated with the activities and tastes of poor people, the working classes, and minority racial, ethnic, and cultural groups. Mass and popular culture is seen as a form of low culture.

A subculture is a small social group that has the same cultural values and practices, but which differ from those of the wider culture they exist in. They belong to the bigger cultural group and are not critical of those values, but they hold certain beliefs or engage in practices that are specific to them. There are many subcultures within all the major cultural groups in the world.

A counterculture is a group in society that actively rejects some of the values, norms, or practices of the wider culture it resides in. Countercultural groups can become very radical in terms of establishing their own rules. They often leave wider society and practice their beliefs and lifestyle outside of it.

Folk culture existed largely in agricultural societies that were flourishing before industrialisation in the West, predominantly in the countryside. Folk culture was usually expressed at festivals, fairs, and national holidays, so it required active participation. It was passed down from one generation to the next by word-of-mouth.

Elite theorists of the 20th century believed that folk culture was wiped out by the generic, artificial mass culture that emerged after industrialisation.

The term mass culture was created by a branch of Marxist sociologists, collectively known as the Frankfurt School. It referred to the widespread American low culture that developed during industrialisation. There are many different views around mass culture. Most sociologists in the 20th century were critical of it, seeing it as a danger to ‘real’ authentic art and high culture, as well as to the consumers who are manipulated through it. They believed that the goal of mass culture was the generation of profits. Consequently, it was predictable, intellectually undemanding, and standardised.

Fig. 2 - Cinema was one of the most important forms of mass and popular culture.

Popular culture refers to the beliefs, norms, practices, and products that exist in mainstream modern capitalist society. It is said to have developed from mass culture and is present in very similar forms, like cinema, television, radio, and music. It is often considered low culture due to its mass appeal and accessibility; however, it can sometimes overlap with high culture.

The world has experienced cultural globalisation in the past decades. Many different cultural ideas, products, and trends have travelled to faraway places where they have adapted to location-specific value systems. Postmodernists like Fabienne Darling-Wolf claim that this is how hybrids of contemporary culture have developed.

The internet and social media have made global culture especially accessible. It encourages active participation and blurs the line between high and low cultures.

Let's look at some of the key sociological perspectives on culture.

Functionalists claim that the role of culture is to provide protection against foreign elements in society and to create collective consciousness within the society.

Émile Durkheim (1912) on the role of culture in society

Durkheim saw culture as a system of representation that maintains the collective consciousness of society. He saw cultural practices, products, and beliefs as necessary in creating and strengthening social ties and a sense of collective purpose.

Pierre Bourdieu (1979) on the role of culture in society

Pierre Bourdieu based his theory of culture on the concept of habitus. Habitus meant a world-view ingrained in the individuals of a certain social group, that determined their culture. He claims that children are socialised by their parents, families, friends and their school to act in a certain way in life. They learn the habitus of their class as they grow up, which will influence the type of culture they will adopt.

According to Bourdieu, social mobility was very difficult. However, there could be certain influences in an individual’s life that made them change their habitus and move to different social classes.

Talcott Parsons on the role of culture in society

Parsons argued that an individual learns the patterns, norms, and values of a certain culture primarily through their family. He believed that the two-parent nuclear family provides the perfect environment for children to learn about social and cultural roles. However, he was often criticised by feminists for stating that women’s role was exclusively to be home-makers and carers for children.

Karl Marx's argument was that the ruling class uses culture to deceive and oppress the working class. He claimed that the bourgeoisie imposes their culture (the ideas, values, art, and consumerist products that benefit them) on the working class through cultural institutions. They aim to make the proletariat believe that the capitalist culture and system is a natural and desirable one, a system that ultimately benefits all of society.

The Frankfurt School on the role of culture in society

The Frankfurt School of Critical Theory, led by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, researched society’s consumption of mass culture. They concluded that capitalist values are reinforced through mass media and other forms of mass culture. The working class are manipulated into believing in the success of the capitalist system. They argued that the masses are reduced to passive consumers of ready-made products and ideologies, rid of creativity, identity, and free will. Standardisation for the sake of profit, as the Frankfurt School claimed, turns people into numbers in a system.

Neo-Marxism on the role of culture in society

Neo-Marxist theorists believe that culture has the power to connect people and give them identities. Antonio Gramsci established the concept of cultural hegemony. He claimed that the culture of social classes differs from each other due to the diverse social experiences of each class. These different social classes and their cultures are in constant competition and conflict with each other. One always gains the leading position, either through the real or forced consent of the others.

Symbolic interactionists like Erving Goffman (1958) believe that we live in a socially constructed world, based on a culture that is developed through human interactions, language, and memory. Culture for interactionists is a symbolic universe of meaning that people try to navigate through categorisation and labelling. Interactionists see culture as fluid, since people’s interactions and interpretations of meanings change constantly over time.

Feminists in the second half of the 20th century analysed the ways in which patriarchal culture represents and thus oppresses women. They paid particular attention to commercials addressed to housewives and to the ways women appeared on film and television. Women were usually presented through the lens of male fantasy, either as perfect home-makers or as seductive mistresses. Feminists pointed out that women needed to participate more in the creation of culture in order to gain control over their images and identities.

Postmodernists and pluralist thinkers reject meta-narratives and the idea of one homogenous culture, says John Storey. They believe in cultural diversity and the concept of individual choice. Postmodernist sociologists think individuals actively participate in culture, but their choice of culture is influenced by their background and social circumstances. Different social groups develop different cultural norms, traditions, and values which can overlap with other cultures, but still makes them unique and gives them a sense of belonging.

Dominic Strinati (1995) on the role of culture in society

Dominic Strinati identified five main features of today’s popular culture that are the results of postmodern influence: