AS Unit 1 Aspects of Culture

Part One: Understanding and appreciation of the nature and importance of culture

• The idea of 'national culture'
• Western culture
• High culture
• Popular culture
• Activities

The idea of 'national culture'

Culture can be defined in a variety of ways, but it is generally agreed that culture means human beliefs, knowledge and behaviour, which form a distinctive pattern or system. Each society has its own culture based on such things as a separate language, a separate history, different rituals and customs (e.g. French culture, Scottish culture, Maori culture, Asian culture). This idea of culture has led to stereotyping, so that Scottish culture is often seen in terms of associations such as the kilt, the bagpipes and haggis.

Activity

For information and activities on culture click here

A Harvard professor, Samuel Huntington, has written that, 'in the post Cold War World, the most important distinctions among people are not ideological, political or economic. They are cultural.' Of course, it could be argued that 'culture' includes ideology, politics and economics (as well as language, religion, art, technology etc.). Huntington distinguishes seven or eight major cultures, or 'civilisations' (he was unsure whether Africa qualified as such). These are labelled 1-8 on the map below.

However, in the second half of the twentieth century, cultures began to mix much more and the old monocultural idea (where each society has only one culture, which everyone accepts and lives by) has been displaced, as most societies have become multicultural. In a multicultural society, there may be groups living according to a variety of ethnic cultures, but there will also be some subcultures such as teen culture, urban culture, rural culture, pop culture, mass culture, high culture. Nowadays, the culture into which an individual is born may have a much smaller influence than it used to have. Individuals now have the opportunity to choose their own culture, in the sense that in a multicultural society any individual will be influenced by several cultures.

Western culture

Western culture is the basic culture of Europe and the USA and has a major effect on most other cultures in the world. Much argument about culture is based around whether it is inevitable that all cultures will eventually become subcultures of western culture and whether western culture has a good or bad effect. Japan is a typical example of this argument. Its economy and media are thoroughly western culture, but Japanese culture still dominates many aspects of people's personal lives (attitudes towards and rituals concerning birth, marriage, death, festivals etc.).

The main features of western culture are:

1. a concern for individual rights - free speech, freedom to choose or reject a religion, free choice of marriage partner, freedom for an individual to move from the bottom to the top of society, freedom from arbitrary arrest (if arrested, people must be brought before an open court within a short length of time);

2. equality of opportunity - free education available to everyone, all jobs (especially government jobs) open to anyone, legislation against racist or sexist bias;

3. protection of the poor - healthcare and payments to the unemployed, the sick and the old through taxation;

4. democratic system of government;

5. the arts following certain forms (see 'high culture' and 'popular culture' below);

6. dress and lifestyle based on the individual (rather than the group);

7. festivals and holidays based on Christianity (e.g. Christmas and Easter);

8. moral values based on Christianity (respect for monogamy, honesty, loving one's neighbour, etc.)

9. the media reflecting the lifestyles and arts (especially 'popular culture' -link here) and having a great importance in people's lives.

Many people would not accept all these features and some critics of western culture see its key features and symbols as jeans, Coca Cola, McDonalds and pop music, which they also see as destroying the indigenous cultures of the world.

Did You Know?

The Académie Française: The French government is worried that French culture is being taken over by American culture. The Académie Française (which is in charge of the French language) has written French words for the many English words that have come into the average French vocabulary (e.g. le jogging, le weekend, la pop music, le duty-free - such words are called Franglais). The Académie is trying to persuade French people to use the French words. In the same way, French chefs are complaining about the effects of McDonalds fast food on French restaurants and are running campaigns to persuade people to eat French food. There are also attempts to ban British and American films and pop music in order to protect and encourage French culture. However, it appears that ordinary French people are not responding to these attempts to save French culture.

High culture

Many people link culture with the arts and use the term 'cultured person' to refer to someone who appreciates, and is knowledgeable about classical music, opera, ballet, great literature, poetry, serious theatre and film, painting and sculpture. It is claimed that this type of culture is a sign of civilisation because these arts speak to us about the meaning of life, speak to 'the human spirit' and pass on human values.

Popular culture

Popular culture is often used in a derogatory sense to indicate the type of culture that is less educated and less valuable than high culture, However, each area of high culture has a corresponding feature in popular culture. Music is perhaps the easiest example, where popular music is a major business worldwide. Groups and popstars can attract massive audiences at concerts almost anywhere in the world and their records sell millions of copies.

Closely connected with popular music is a variety of dance forms from ordinary people dancing in a nightclub to professional dancers in modern dance shows. Popular literature ranges from thrillers and romances to biographies of sports and pop stars.

	Theatres and cinemas also make their money from the popular shows and films they put on.
	Andy Warhol developed a form of painting that he called pop art, but no painting can ever be popular in one sense because only the rich can afford to buy original paintings.
Campbell's Soup - A Warhol

However, most homes will have some cheap reproductions of famous paintings, which may reveal that paintings are often more a part of popular culture than high culture, e.g. Constable's Haywain.
	Many modern sculptures are publicly funded and can become popular because they are in places frequented by the public. The Angel of the North in Gateshead seems to be more popular with ordinary people than with those who consider themselves 'cultured', and such is perhaps an example of popular sculpture.

This sculpture also identifies a major problem with trying to make a division between high culture and popular culture, as there are so many fringe areas. James Horner's theme music for Titanic appeared in both the pop music charts and the classical music charts. Serious films such as Brassed Off and The Full Monty have also been hugely popular. Perhaps this is more easily seen in television, where traditionally ITV is the popular culture channel with BBC2 and Channel 4 as the high culture channels, although it is ITV that screens The South Bank Show, a programme all about high culture. The differences between high and popular culture (and the fact that high culture can only survive through subsidies from the taxes of people who do not like it) are all dealt with at greater length in Topic 5 ('Aesthetic evaluation' - link here).

Activities

1. To test your understanding of the issues raised in this topic click here and do the two activities as instructed: AS guru/gs/culture/page 5
   
   
2. Listen to 30 minutes of Classic FM, 30 minutes of Radio 1 and 30 minutes of an Asian radio programme. Decide whether the music played on Classic FM or the Asian station has most in common with the music of Radio 1 and why.
   
   
3. Make a list of the arguments for and against western culture being adopted throughout the world.
   
   
4. Make a list of the arguments for and against the claim that high culture is superior and therefore more important than popular culture.