Name: Hirva P VoraSem: 2

Roll No: 09Culture: Its concept & Origin

What is Culture?

• ‘Culture’ derives from ‘cultura’ and ‘colere’, meaning ‘to cultivate’.

• By the 19th century in Europe it meant the habits, customs and tastes of the upper classes.

• ‘Culture’ which makes a society ‘’ a cultured society’’

What ‘Culture’ means now in Cultural Studies:

• Culture is the mode of generating meanings and ideas.

• Meanings are governed by power relations• Elite culture controls meanings because it

controls the terms of the debates.• Non-elite views on life and art are rejected as

‘tasteless’ , ‘useless’ or even stupid by the elite.

• The aim of ‘Cultural Studies’.

• Margaret Mead: “Culture is the learned behavior of society or a subgroup.’’

• Clifford Geertz: ‘’ Culture is simply the ensemble of stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.’’

Origins

• The growth of cultural studies is linked to the rise in interest in popular culture in Western societies in the 1960s.

• More leisure time, widespread television viewing, music and other cultural ‘states’, especially among the youth, brought popular culture to the forefront of critical scrutiny.

• Within the academy cultural anthropologists , sociologists and historians were beginning to express greater interest in social history, especially those of the subordinated groups such as women, African Americans and the colonized.

• The tone of this early version of cultural studies was set by students if the British New Left, especially Richard Hoggart and Raymond Williams.

Popular Culture

The Production and Consumption of Culture

• Matter of Class• Matter of economy• Matter of representation• Culture is a Product: made, Marketed and

consumed.

Thank you