SOCI1513 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: High Culture
Document Summary
Popular culture, by contrast, is more mainstream and influenced by mass media and the common opinion. Popular culture tends to change as tastes and opinions change over time, whereas high culture generally stays the same throughout the years. Spears is considered pop culture; mozart is likely to still be popular in 100 years, but britney spears will likely be forgotten by all but a few. Early colonial definitions of culture equated culture and civilization and characterized aboriginal people as uncivilized and uncultured. This definition of culture only recognizes a single standard of refinement to which all groups are held accountable. Thus, people who differ from those who believe themselves to be cultured in this sense are not usually understood as having a different culture; they are understood as being uncultured. Although we still see remnants of this idea of high culture today, it has largely fallen out of practice.
