Introduction to Culture Studies 9789350431979, 9789350245316

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INTRODUCTION TO CULTURE STU·DIES PROF. RUMINA RAI M.A. Co-ordinator & Lecturer Bachelor of Mess Media (BMM) Bhavan's College, Andheri l'NJ Mumbai.

PROF. KISHWAR PANNA M.A. Lecturer, BMM Department, Usha Pravin Gandhi College of Management, Vile Parle, Mumbai.

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I CONTENTS I Page No.

1

What Is Culture?

2 Evolution and need for Culture Studies

1 -7 8 - 15

3 Concepts related to the Study of Culture

16 - 21

4 Cultural Theories

22 - 32

5

Dimensions of Culture

33 - 46

6

Components of Culture-Material Culture and Non-matet1al Culture

47 - 55

7

Construction of Culture

56 - 62

8

Agents of Cultural Transmission

63 -73

9

Factors of Cultural Change with Reference to Media

74 - 84

10 Media and Culture

85 - 93

"This page is Intentionally Left Blank"

WHAT IS

CUr;fURE? Introduction In everyday life, we make use of the term 'culture'. We speak about it very often in context to 'how culture exists', 'how culture is changing' and 'what are the elements that represent our culture'. Now let us examine, what exactly is 'culture' . Culture is all that man learns and acquires by virtue ofbcing a member of society.

Do animals have a culture? Is their culture similar to that of humans? Let's answer some of these basic questions that we most of th2 time take for granted, by looking at human and animal culture separately. In the case of animals, their genes playa very important role and in the case of humans, learni1lg, traini1lg a1ld socialization play an important role than genes. Different species of animals call survive 011 a restricted diet only. Example: lion cannot survive on grass. Mall call survive 011 a variety offood items and are not dependent on a restricted diet.

2

Introduction to Culture Studies

Animals have to eat in order to survive. But humans in certain situations can refuse food, for certain hours, days and months. Example: Jain rishis survive on only water for months. This shows that man can transcend his biological needs to a certain extent for spiritual and religious reasons. But in the case of animals, they are rooted in their organismic needs. Thus, culture intervenes in the satisfaction of biological needs. In the case of sexual needs, man can deny it for religious, psychological and personal reasons. This shows that man can control his sexual urge. Nature and culture intervenes in the satisfaction of the sexual urge. Example: marriage through which this satisfaction is institutionalized. In addition, humans also have incest taboos. Hence, culture . intervenes in the satisfaction of the ·sexual urges of man. However, in the case of animals they have no taboos. Both, humans and animals adapt to the environment. But animals have no external assets; they have to depend on their biological organs. However, in humans- they have 'culture'.

Culture helps in adaptation to the environment. Example: Igloos protect Eskimos. This is a cultural condition. There is much more to the relationship between man and environment, other than adaptation. Man not only atiaptsand adjusts to the environment, but also changes the environment to suit his needs and preferences. Unlike animals, human beings also have the ability to change behaviour in response to a wide range of environmental demands. This ability in humans is known as plasticity. This has allowed humans to survive under a wide variety of ecological conditions. Definition of Culture Culture comes from the Gennan word - 'Kultur' meaning 'growing'. 'Culture' in social anthropology means "knowledge",

What is Cullllre?

3

it is knowledge about humanity which is learned or acquired but not natural. Edward Tylor has given one of the oldest and a classical definition of culture as, "Culture is that complex whole

which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." It suggests that culture includes tools, weapons, fire, agriculture, animal domestication, metallurgy, wliting, the steam engine, glasses, airplanes, computers, penicillin, nuclear power, rock-and-roll, video games, designer jeans, religion, political systems, subsistence patterns, science, sports and social organizations. For Tylor, culture includes all aspects of human activity from the fine arts to popular entertainment, from everyday behaviour to the development of sophisticated technology. It includes plans, rules, techniques, designs and policies for living. Some of the features of culture are as follows: (1) Every human group has a culture. It differs from society

to society. It also has different origins, that is, it is marked by uniqueness. (2) Culture also provides its group with a notion of identity, by telling you who you are. (3) It gives the person a sense of belonginglless which means the person belongs to a particular group, a particular society. Example - A person may belong to a Punjabi community or a Bengali community. (4) Culture gives us a sense of pride. (5) It is social as it occurs in a group. (6) Culture is acquired - it is something man is not born with, but something man is born into. It is something man learns by virtue of being a member of society.

4

illfroduction to Culture Studies

(7) Culture is learnt through the process of socialization. (8) Culture is a social helitage - it is a social helitage as it .is transmitted and communicated to other members of a society. When an individual is born into a society, the social symbols, artifacts etc. of hislher culture are passed on to himlher. (9) It is gratifying as it satisfies the needs of its individuals. Example: Need for love and security is satisfied by the institutions of family and marriage. (10) Culture tends to be patterned. It involves repeating

similar approved behaviour, so that it has a recognizable form or structure. Example: Religious practices and customs are different in different communities. (11) Culture tends to be integrated. It ha3 consistent premises, values or goals which give it a unity. Example: If there is a festival, everyone celebrates, irrespective of their caste or religion, thus integrating people of different castes and religions together. (12) Culture can be institutionalized, it can exist and represent itself in a set of institutions and thus enable to create a notion of order. Example: Institutions of family and marriage help people have a stable and weIldefined life. (13~

Culture is a 'continuum', which means that cultural traditions have accumulated without any break in continuity. The structure of culture is transmitted from one generation to .the next and every generation adds, subtracts or changes what it inherits. This aspect of change and continuity shows that it is a process and not stagnant. Example: Marriage, customs and traditions.

5

What i.1 CII/tllrl'?

(14) Culture is super-organic, it is above society. People and societies come and go but culture continues to survive. Culture is therefore super-individual and superorganic. (15) Culture is symbolic. It has a range of symbols, which represent both the material world (dress, food) and non-material world (values, beliefs, customs). Symbols are conceptual devices used to communicate ideas to people. Example: Different types of flags convey different meanings to individuals. Culture is symbolic in nature; it includes the capacity to communicate through symbols. Example: In the Indian society, 'sindoor' and 'mangalsutra' wom by women symbolize that they are manied. (16) Culture has the ability to innovate, that is, to create. Example: In music and computers etc.

FEATURES OF CULTURE

6

Introduction to Culture Studies

Relation of Cultute with Mass Media There is a very close relationship between culture and mass media. They both influence each other to a great degree. On the one hand, culture determines the content matter of mass media. Example: the different films and telesoaps are based and greatly influenced by some or the other kind of culture. Culture also influences people's choice of a particular kind of media. Example: The different economic and social strata of people in a society select and prefer to access different convenient forms of mass media. The lower income groups prefer audio-visual forms of media compared to the print media. On the other hand, mass media also influences culture. It is generally believed and often asserted that the Mass Media is a very powerful means of spreading culture, determining and controlling thoughts and actions of people to a very great degree in society. Mass media is an important tool of reinforcing the existing culture and values of a particular society. Example: The latest trend amongst people, to have many ceremonies relating to marriage, popularized by the media, which in turn reinforces the traditional cultural heritage. The impact and influence of persuasive mass communication is tremendous on the minds of the younger generations. No wonder then, Mass Media has radically altered the attitudes, thoughts and life-styles of the people all over the world. There is a close connection between the Mass Media of communication and the emergence of Mass culture. Mass culture has emerged as a result of the dynamic revolutionary roles played by the modern Mass Media of communications. Example: Movies, radio, television and mass circulation magazines have extended the mass culture in our country.

What is Culture?

7

There are various theoretical perspectives with respect to culture. Some of them are as follows: (1) 19th Century Evolutionism - By E.B. Tylor and L.H.

Morgan: A universal human culture is shared, in different degrees, by all societies. (2) Functionalism - By A.R . Radcliffe Brown and Bronislaw Malinowski: Social practices support society's structure or fill the needs of individuals. (3) Structuralism - By Claude Levi Strauss: All cultures reflect the universal biological .structure of the human mind. (4) Symbolic and Interpretive Anthropology - By Mary Douglas and Clifford Geertz: Culture is the way in which members of a society understand who they are and give their lives meaning. (5) Post-modernism - By Renato Rosaldo and Vincent Crapanzano: Because understanding of cultures mostly reflects the observer's biases, culture can never be completely or accurately described .

.-------~l QUESTIONSJI---------. 1. Define Culture and explain the features of Culture. 2 Culture is symbolic. Explain. 3. Culture helps in the adaptation to the environment. Comment. 4. How does culture provide one with a sense of belongingness? 5. Write short notes on: (a) Do animals have a culture? (b) Relation of culture with mass media.

EVOLUTION AND NEED FOR

CULTURE STUDIES During the 1950's and 1960's, interest in cultural theories of mass communication began to develop and take hold. Limited effects theory focuses on whether media content can have an immediate and direct effect on specific thoughts and actions of -individuals. But it is possible to approach the study of mass media in another way. Instead of focusing on specific effects on individuals, we can focus instead pn changes in cultuj·~, on how shared understandings and sociaI' norms change. Instead of trying to locate hundreds of small effects and add them all, we can ask whether the development of mass media has profound implications for the way we create, share, learn and apply culture. These new perspectives argued that media might have the power to intrude into and alter how we make sense of ourselves and our social world. These theOlies are .quite diverse and offer very different answers to questions about the role of media in social life. But in all these theories, the concept of cullure is ce ntral Media affects society because they affect how culture is crea ted. s hared. learned and applied. Cultural theories ofler a broad range of interesting ideas about how (~)

El'Olutioll alld Need for ClIllllre Studies

9

mediC)."can affect culture and also provide many different views concerning the long-term consequences of the cultural changes affected by media. There are microscopic, interpretive theories that focus on how individuals and social groups use media to create and foster forms of culture that structure ev~ryday life. These theories are referred to as cultural studies theories. There are macroscopic, structural theories that focus on how social elites use their economic power to gain control over and exploit media institutions. These theories argue that elites effectively use media to propagate hegemonic culture as a means of maintaining their dominant position in the social order. They are called political economy theories because they place priority on individual how economic power provides a basis for ideological and political power. Cultural studies are less concerned with the long-term consequence of media for social order and more concerned with looking at how media effect our individual lives. These theories are said to be micro level or microscopic because they emphasize larger issues about the social order in favour of questions involving the everyday life of average people. Critical theories and political theories by contrast are macroscopic, cultural theories, which are less concerned with developing detailed explanation of how individuals are influenced by media and more concerned with how the social order as a whole is affected. Ideally, these theories ought to be complementary. Yet until recently, macroscopic and microscopic cultural theories developed in relative isolation. Theorists were separated by differences in geography, politics and research objectives.

10

Introductioll to Culture Studies

Rise of Cultural Theories in Europe European social research has been characterized by grand social theories - highly ambitious, macroscopic and speculative theOI;es that attempt to understand and predict important trends in culture and society. Ironically, in the 1970's and 1980's, at the very time that Marxism failed as a practical guide for politics and economics in Eastern Europe, grand social theories based on Marxist thought were gaining increasing acceptance in Western Europe.

Marxist Theory Marx developed his theory in the latter part of the 19 th century during one of the most volatile periods of social changes in Europe. He identified industrialization and urbanization as problems but argued that these changes were not bad. Instead he blamed ruthless capitalists for creating social problems because they maximized personal profits by exploiting workers. Marx was a utopian, calling for the creation of an entirely new social order in which all social classes would be abolished. The worker would rise against capitalists and demand an end to exploitation. They would band together to create an egalitarian, democratic social order. Marx argued that the hierarchical class system was at the root of all social problems and must be ended by a revolution of the worker or proletariats. He believed that elites dominated society through their direct control over the means of production (labour, factories, land) - referred to as base of society. But elites also maintained themselves through their control over culture or superstructure of society. (Ideology) Marx concluded that the only hope for social change was a revolution in which the masses seized control of the base - the means of production. Control over the superstructure (ideology) would naturally follow. He saw little possibility that refonns in

Evolution and Need for Culture Studies

11

the superstructure could lead to social evolution. (Elites would never willingly surrender power. Power must be taken from them.)

Neo-Marxism Most British cultural studies theories can be labelled NeoMarxist. The importance that Neo-Marxists attach to the superstructure has created a fundamental division within Marxism. They assure that change can begin with peaceful, ideological reform rather than violent revolution in which the working class seizes control of the means of production. Some call for radical transformation of the superstructure, while others call for modest reforms.

Textual Analysis and Literary Criticism Modem European cultural studies theories have a second, very different source - a tradition of humanist criticism of religious and literary texts that is referred to as hermeneutics. One common objective was to identify those texts that had greatest cultural value and to interpret them so that their value would be understood and appreciated by others. Texts were seen as a civilizing force in the society. Hermeneutics was used to enhance this force. The Humanist focused on working to identify and pressure, what came to be known as the "literary canon" - a body of great literature. The literary canon was part of what was referred to as high culture, a set of cultural artifacts music, art, literature and poetry - that Humanists judged to have the highest value. By identifying and explaining these important texts, the Humanists attempted to make them more accessible to more people, preserve and gradually raise the level of culture - to enable even more people to become humane and civilized.

12

Jlltroductioll to Culture Studies

The Frankfurt School One early prominent school of neo-Marxist theory developed during the 1930's at the University of Frankfurt and became known as the Frankfurt school. Two most famous individuals associated with the school were Max Horkheimer and T. Adorno. This school combined Marxist critical theory with hermeneutics. They viewed high culture as something that had its own integlity, had inherent value, and could not be used by elites to enhance their personal power. Horkheimer and Adorno were skeptical that high culture could be communicated through mass media. Adorno claimed that mass media reproductions of high culture were inferior. The Frankfurt school has been cIiticized for being too elitist and paternalistic.

Development of Nco-Marxist Theory in Britain During the 1960's and 1970's two important schools of neomarxist theory emerged in Great Britain: British Cultural studies and Political Economic theory. The British cultural studies theory has attempted to trace historic elite domination over culture to criticize the social consequences o~ this domination, and to demonstrate how it continued to be exercised over specific minority groups or subcultures. These studies criticize and contrast elite notions of culture, including high culture, with popular everyday forms practiced by minorities. The superiority of all fonns of elite culture induding high culture is challenged and compared with useful, valuable forms of popular culture.

Graham Murdock traced the rise of British cultural studies during the 1950's and 196C),s. Another dominant early theorist was Raymond Williams. He questioned the importance of high culture and seriously considered the ro~e of folk culture. Toward the end of 1960's and 1970's, Williams turned his attention to the Illass media. He developed a pessimistic

£I'O/utioll tllld Need for ClIlrllre .'III/din

13

perspective of mass media's role in modern society. His ideas inspired a generation of young British media, first at the center for contemporary cultural studies at the University of Binningham and then at England and Europe. Williams was oroadly more cO'nrerned with issue of cultural change and development as well as elite domination of culture. He argued that mass media posed a threat to cultural development He rejected the literary canon as a standard (with notions of high culture). He was equally reluctant to embrace folk culture. He felt, that if there were to be genuine progress, it would have to come through significant reform of social institutions. The first imp011ant school of cultural studies theorists w'as formed at the University of Birmingham during the 1960's by Stuart Hall. Hall argued that mass media can be best understood as a pluralistic public forum (the idea that media may prove a place where the power of dominant elites can be challenged.) A key strength and limitation of British culture theorists is their direct involvement in various radical social movements. They not only studied the social movements, they enlist in them and even lead them. They have been active in a broad range of British social movements including feminism, youth movements, and racial and ethnic minority movement. But active involvement can make objective analysis of movements difficult. However, these theorists reject the possibilities of objectivity anyway and doubt its utility for social research. In the U.S., the British cultural studies are influencing research by scholars in many fields.

NEED FOR CULTURE STUDIES Cultural Studies • Focuses on the use of media to create forms of culture that structures everyday life.

14

Imroduction to Culture Studies

• It was inaugurated by the University of Birmingham Center for contemporary cultural studies, which develop a variety of critical methods for the analysis, interpretation and criticism of cultural artifacts.

Need for Culture Studies (1) It provides tools that enable one to read and interpret one's culture critically.

(2) It subverts the distinction between the high and low culture. (3) It allows critical scrutiny of culture without the prior prejudices, towards one or another sort of cultural text. (4) It situates culture within a theory of social production and reproduction, specifying ways that cultural forms serv.e, to further social domination or to enable people to resist and struggle against domination. (5) It asserts value of popular culture, empowers minority and values their culture, stressing on cultural pluralism and egalitarianism. (6) It specifies what if any ideology is operative in a given cultural artifact. (7) Lends itself to a multiculturist programme.

(8) Makes people sensitive to how relations of power and domination are encoded in cultural texts. (9). Shows, how much media culture manipulates and indoctrinates us, thus empowering individuals to resist the domination meaning.

Components of a Critical Cultural Studies Cultural studies rontains three-fold project of analyzing: (a) Production and political economy of culture.

15

Evo/llrion Gnd NeedJor CIi/lUre Srudies

(b) Cultural text analysis. (c) Audience reception of texts and their efforts.

(a) Production and political economy: Political economy of culture means to analyze cultural texts within their system of production and distribution.

(b) Textual analysis: Products of media culture require multi-dimensional, textual readings to analyze their various forms of discourses, ideological positions, narrative strategies, construction and effects. It can be done through: (i) Content analysis: That is analysis of contents of communication, which involves classifying contents in such a way so as to bring out their basic structure.

(ii) Semiology: analyses how linguistic and non-linguistic cultural 'signs' form system of meanings.

(c) Audience reception and use of media culture: All texts are subject to multiple readmgs, depending on the perspectives and subject positions of the reader. Audiences are of three types: • • •

Information seeking Reaction seeking Conversional seeking

,....-------1:

QUESTIONS

lr.---------,

1. Explain the Marxist ideas on culture? 2. Discuss in detail the ideas of Neo Marxism on culture.

3. Elaborate on the need for culture studies. 4. Discuss the components of critical cultural studies. 5. Trace the evolution of culture studies.

CONCEPTS RELATED TO THE STUDY OF CULTURE 1. CULTURAL RELATIVITY AND ETHNOCENTRISM An interest in cultural diversity has been evident throughout history. Everywhere people have recognized the existence of different values, nonns, beliefs and practices in different societies. It has been found that whenever different societies come into contact with each other, people compare and c~)I1trast their respective cultural traditions. Based on these differenc~s in cultural patterns, societies differentiate themselves from the others. There have been many writings on the diversity of cultures, based on ethnocentric attitudes. Ethnocentrism is the practice of judging another society by the values and standards of one's own society. This term was coined by William Sumner. It can be defined as ''that view of things in which one's own group is the centre of everything and all other members are scaled and rated with reference to it." In other words, ethnocentrism is the tendency to evaluate other cultures by standards of one's own. This type of behaviour has existed throughout history. It develops because of the psychological, egoistic character in every individual. It is also the act of dominaticn or power by (16)

COllcepts Related to the Study of Cullllre

17

which a person feels that he or she is superior. It is also found in people who have a low self esteem of themselves and want to improve it by engaging in ethnocentrism. Example: the root cause of communal riots is this feeling of ethnocentrism in individuals. The study of cultural diversity became popular in the 19th century. In order to deal with the problem of ethnocentrism, the concept of cultural relativism was developed. The function and meaning of a trait cannot be judged as good or bad but only as functional or dysfunctional for the culture within which it operates and it is relative to its own cultural setting. If we wish to understand a culture or sub-culture other than our own, we must examine it in terms of its own values, norms, standards and patterns of living. We must make every effort possible to see that the culture we are interested in, we see as the members see it. The cultural relativists say that culture is a universal category that cannot be judged as superior or ini'erior. Culture can be seen in terms of how people adjust in th~ir environment. Cultural relativism tells us that evaluations of culture that are not based on a uniformed understanding of that culture are both prejudistic and misleading. Example: Fraternal Polyandry is a form of marriage in Himachal Pradesh, in which all brothers within a family marry one woman. The reason behind this form of marriage is that since there is little land and in order to avoid division of it, the men (brothers) get married and bring in only one woman. However, now they do have monogamous marriages to a certain extent. Thus, the traditions of these societies must be seen as objectively as possible. Even though cultural relativism helps to deal with the problem of ethnocentrism. it does involve some serious ethical problems. This is hecause sometimes there are certain cultural practicc~ on which some kind of value judgement has to be

18

Introduction to Culture Studies

made. Example: practices like infanticide, torturing of political prisoners etc., need to be condemned but the concept of cultural relativism would not allow for this.

2. CULTURAL ETHOS This refers to the socially acceptable norms within a society. It is a system of norms and values and this gives every culture a characteristic feeling. Example: in Hinduism, the belief is KarmaDharma-Moksha.

3. CULTURE PATTERN Culture includes everything. It is a very complex term. When we study culture, we find that it is made up of many components. The structure of culture can be seen in its various parts. These are culture trait, culture complex and culture pattern.

• Culture trait: This refers to the smallest significant unit or part of culture that can be identified. A cultural trait cannot be divided further. The trait can be both material (cricket ball, bat) and non-material (rules pertaining to cricket). Example: In a Hindu marriage, taking the 'pheras' around the fire is a culture trait. • Culture complex: This is a combination of various culture traits put together. Example: the full game of cricket would be a culture complex. Ex:ample: the culture traits in a Hindu marriage like 'taking pheras', 'saptagrahan', etc., put together make the culture complex of Hindu marriage. • Culture pattern: Culture complexes combine to form culture patterns. Example: all games like cricket, football, tennis etc., form the sports pattern. Example: marriage, family, religion, etc., all constitute different types of institutions of human society, and hence a culture pattem.

COllcepts Related to the Study of Culture

19

Another way of looking at this concept of culture pattern has been given by eminent anthropologist Ruth Benedict, who has made immense contributions on this subject. According to her, there are two aspects of culture patterns:(a) It is a form, for example: when we see the Red Fort or the Taj Mahal, we say that it is based on Mughal architecture or that the temples of South India have been based on Dravidian architectural design. This is the form aspect. (b) It is a set of patterned behaviour and sanctioned responses. Culture pattern also includes consensus of behaviour. Example: in a ~indu marriage, the marriage has a ritual character. The ceremony is performed by a Brahman and there are seven 'pheras' or rounds around the fire. It is a consensus because the marriage is seen as being legitimate by religion as well as by courts of law.

4. ACCULTURATION According to sociologist Kroeber "Acculturation comprises those changes produced in a culture by the influence of another culture which results in the increased similarity of the two." The process of acculturation tends to be gradual rather than abrupt. According to some sociologists, it is the strongest mechanism of culture change.

Acculturation has certain characteristic features: (i), According to sociologist Linton, acculturation is always

the impact of a dominant prestige laden society, which influences the backward people. The culture of the backward people could also influence the dominant group.

20

Introductioll to Culture Studies

(ii) Acculturation studies the changes, which are purposely directed or controlled by the superior society through political domination or market domination. (Iii) Acculturation may result in the disappearance of the minority group/culture in its cultural and social fusion.

Acculturation is a social process. It helps us understmd social change.

Example: Britishers coming to India to rule the Indian territory. With their politico administrative policies, brought about changes in the Indian society in the socio-economic spheres. Indians adopted their language 'English', style of wearing clothes, lifestyle, food habits etc. After 50 years of independence, it is difficult to say what the original 'Indianess' was.

5. ENCULTURATION The process of enculturation in social anthropology is what we call socialization in sociology. Socialization is a process by which man adjusts in society. It is through the process of learning that man become members of society. Sociologist Herskovits in his cultural anthropology defines enculturation as "the aspects of the learning experience that mark off man from other creatures and by means of which he achieves competence in his culture." Soon after birth, the child learns the cultural traits and complexes of his society. It is through the process of socialization that the large body of traditions - economic, social, technologicaL religious, aesthetic and linguistic is learnt by the child. In short, enculturation is a process ofieaming. Herskovits brings out two types of enculturation: conscious and unconscious conditioning.

21

Concepts Related to the Study of ClIltllre

The process of enculturation is a process of adaptation. This process does not terminate at the finish of infancy. As an individual continues through childhood to the adult status, he is continuously exposed to the process of learning which can be set to an end only with his death. This process is very important in inducing change and all this is very often unconsciously learnt. Culture is transmitted from generation to generation. The family norms are handed over from one generation to the next. Thus, in the process of cultural transmission, enculturation is a basic process. Example: In the present era of information technology, enculturation has assumed a new identity. The process has become intense and complex. Learning of new computer languages and regularly updating them is .enculturation in the LT. world .

.--------11

QUESTIONS

}I---------.

1. Explain the inter-relationship between ethnocentrism and cultural relativity. 2. Distinguish between Acculturation and Enculturation. 3. Elaborate on Culture pattern.

CULTURAL THEORIES

[A] DIFFUSIONISM By the 20th century, most anthropologists felt uncomfortable with the evolutionary approach. They felt that it was based on the speculation and lacked evidence. So gradually it was replaced by diffusionism - an approach that views the transformation of culture change and evolution of society. Diffusionism is another school of thought that has used the comparative method to explain why different societies are at different levels in terms of their development. Diffusionism . developed in the early part of the 20th century. It maintaips that societal change takes place when societies borrow cultural traits from one another. It is from one society to another that cultural knowledge relating to technology, religion, economy or art get diffused. Diffusionism focuses on the process whereby material traits, values, ideas, institutions, cultural patterns spread from one centre of civilization to the others. It is a process of change whereby two cultures meet at a given point in time and interact with one another, and as a result of which elements and traits are borrowed and they get diffused. (22)

Cultural Theories

23

In the history of diffusion, there have been two broad approaches: (1) One group of anthropologists called Extreme

Diffusionists - included Smith and Perry. ,They were the British group. They believed that civilization has originated only once in human history. It originated in Ancient Egypt. From here, all the aspects of civilization, ranging from technology to religion, spread to other parts of the world. (2) The other group is called the Historical Diffusionists - included Graebner, Schmidt and Koppers - the German-Austrian group. They maintain that civilization originated in a literate area in Middle East - (Iraq, Persia, and Syria) and then spread to the rest of the world.

Limitations • One limitation was that that the diffusionists assumed that some people were not innovative enough to develop their own cultural traits. • Another limitation 'was the assumption that cultural traits in the same geographi'cal vicinity would inevitably spread from one society to the other.

Strengths • Diffusionism is a means of understanding the societal development.

DifTusionism Theory in Media States how innovations are introduced and adopted by various communities. Developed by E. Rogers (1962) - felt that role of communication was to transfer objects of technology to masses, as planned by authorities and policy makers.

24

Transmission takes place in 5 stages. Stages: (1) Awareness: Awareness of innovations through mass media

(2) Adoption: Adopted by small group of innovators. (3) Acceptance: Opinion leaders learn from, early adopted and try the innovations themselves. (4) Spread: From opinion leaders to opinion leader's followers. (5) Change: After most of the people have adopted

innovations, group of late adopters make the Change.

[B] CULTURAL EVOLUTION The 1st systematic ~ttempt to apply evolutionary principles to cultural development was made by Lewis Henry Morgan. He studied the evolution of family, technology, economic, political and religious zonditions throughout the world. He wrote a-popular book during the end of the 19'" century - "Ancient Society", and in this book he set up the principles and laws of cultural evolution. He maintains that cultural change is subject to certain universal laws which apply to all societies, regardless of time and space. So cultural change is a manifestation of an underlined universal law and in the process of cultural change, the most important role is played by technology. He maintains that every society in every age has to pass through 7 distinctive stages of evolutionary development.

(a) Lower savagery: Form the earliest forms of humanity Subsistence level- fruits and nuts

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25

(b) Middle savagery: Began with the discovery of fishing technology and use of fire.

(c) Upper savagery: Began with invention of the bow and arrow.

(d) Lower Barbarism: Began with the art of pottery making.

(e) Middle Barbarism: Began with the domestication of plants and animals, irrigation and cultivation.

(j)

Upper Barbarism: Began with smelting of iron and use of iron tools.

(g) Civilization: Began with the invention of alphabets and writing. Another anthropologist who advocated the evolutionary approach was Edward B. Tylor. He published a major work in 1871 titled 'Primitive Culture'. Tylor gave the idea of unilineal evolution which is the view that all societies evolve in a single direction towards complexity, progress and civilization. He said that as all humans are bestowed with innate rational faculties, they continuously improve their societies. And it is through this process of evolutIon that societies move towards 'progress' and 'civilization'. He used accounts from Western observers and compared certain cultural elements from different societies like technology, family, political organization, art, religion and philosophy. Then he organized the evidence into categ0ries ranging from 'savagery' to 'barbarism' and 'civilization' categories. These categories reflected the unilineal evolutionary ideas of the 19th century. This view was etQnocentric as it was based on the belief that Western society is the centre of the civilized world and that non- Western societies are inherently inferior. Tylor felt that society passed through universal stages of development.

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He identified 3 stages of development:

(a) Savagery: Characterized by simple food gathering and hunting.

(b) Barbarism: Human communications settle down and began pottery making, domesticate plants and animals, discovered the use of iron, learnt to make tools and implements, and beginning of agriculture through irrigation.

(c) Civilization: It emerged with the invention of alphabet and writing.

I I I

Civilisation

Barbarism Savagery

STAGES OF CULTURAL EVOLUTION

Critique The views of these thinkers were seen as being ethnocentric, contradictary and speculative. Their evidence was said to be second hand, based on the accounts of biased Europeans. The evolutionary scheme was also thought to be too simplistic to account for the development of different societies. During the 20th century, Franz Boas set out to criticize the evolutionary theory of cultural development. He launched a critique of this theory and said that this theory was based on conjecturelhypothesis and lacks empiIical evidence. Every society has evolved according to its own historical configuration of development.

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Despite these criticisms, evolutionary theory provided the fIrst systematic method for explaining the similarity and diversity of human societies.

[C] FUNCTIONALISM Functionalism is the view that society consists of institutions which serve important purposes for people. Rather than focusing on origins and evolution of society, the functionalists explored the relationships among different institutions and how these institutions functioned to serve society or individuals. There are 2 divisions in functionalism:

1.

Psychological functionalism - Bronislaw Malinowski's functionalism focused on how society functions to serve the individual's needs or interests.

2.

Structural functionalism - A.R. Radcliffe Brown is associated with this type of functionalism. He stressed on the structure of society, the way it was reflected in the differing institutions which function to perpetuate the survival of society. For him, a society'S economic, political, religious and social institutions serve to integrate the society as a whole.

Both, British anthropologist B. Malinowski, and the other Cambridge educated A. Radcliffe Brown worked independently, in 1922, and brought out this initial field monograph, defining afunctional approach to the study of culture. Malinowski's "Argonauts of the Western Pacific" and R. Brown's "The Andaman Islanders"- are both recognized as classics. Each of these scholars, highly individualistic, rarely in personal contact, produced in due course a quite different system of theory. They employed markedly different concepts.

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Malinowski, a brilliantly social person, and a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, addressed himself boldly to intellectual circles at large, writing books on topic after topic. He said that every culture, is a working whole; an "integrated unity, in which every element has a functional contribution to make". The "function" of an "institution" i.e., an organized system of activity, is the part it plays within the interrelated whole in fulfilling human purposes or "needs". In developing this need concept he tried out several schemes, but usually he distinguished 3 types or levels of needs, which had to be met by all cultures, hence were universal:-

• Primary or biological needs: Procreation, nutrition, defense and protection. • Derived or instmmentai needs: Economical organization, law and education. • Integrative or synthetic needs: Knowledge, magic and religion, art and play. Malinowski emphasized that cultures form working codes. He worked out a theory of human needs in relation to institution. He maintained that there are certain basic psycho-biological needs and every society has to evolve institutions to fulfill them. Behind every institution there is the basic psychological and biological need.

Example: (1) The institution of marriage exists in every society to

fulfill the psycho-biological needs of sexuality. (2) Similarly, family exists in every society to fulfill the need of upbringing and training children.

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Malinowski tried to apply the functionalism theory to the study of primitive people. In a sense, the functional theory when applied to people and culture, maintains that an anthropologist should never rely on infol1natiol1 provided by others. He must collect it himself ill the lield. Only then can he be certain about their customs and beliefs. The institutions, cultural traits of primitive people should not be seen in isolation. They form an integral p:.u1 of larger systems - institution and society. He applied this approach to institution of primitive people like magic, superstitions and beliefs. He tried to explain the functions of magic in primitive soci~ty. On the face of it, we would dismiss magic as an irrational superstition. But according to Malinowski, we must find out the psychological and social functions that magic performs. Social functions of magic - is that the primitive people engages in magic collectively and this participation reinforces social and group solidarity and cohesiveness of groups. Psychologically - magic relieves pent up anxiety, uncertainty and tension. Example - Primitive people resol1 to magical activities in situations of uncertainty like during hunting. fishing expeditions.

Radcliffe Brown According to Brown - the main object of study in anthropology is the social structure and not culture. The social system comprises the sum total of all social relationships of individuals in a given society, who occupy social role .... Brown knew that the basic need of every society is coadaptation - which means mutual adjustment of the interest of individual members.

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introduction to Culture Studies

A society exists and involves institutions to fulfill this basic need. He tried to explain this by reference to totemism in primitive society. Totemism may be seemingly irrational, it may seem to be founded on superstition but it fulfills basic needs of society. Through, totemism, man tries to establish a system of solidarity between the animal world and humans. Totemism is a means through which humans domesticate nature. While Malinowski built system of thought around the concept of culture, Brown made the concept of society central. According to Brown - the "functions" of an element of culture is "the part it plays in the social life as a whole, and therefore the contribution it makes to the maintenance of the structural continuity." In this sense, he sometimes spoke of culture as an adaptation system in which each element has its special functions contributing to survival.

Limitations Functionalism fails to explain why societies are different or similar, that means that some societies have different institutions to meet the same need/function. This was because they were not concerned with the historical development of different institutions but instead focused on how these institutions serve society and individuals. The functionalists were also not able to explain social and cultural change very well as they viewed societies as being static and unchanging.

[D] SOCIAL INTERACTION (Symbolic Interactionism) Symbolic interaction was one of the first social theories to address, we use culture to learn. This theory developed during the 1920's and 1930's and it had a variety of labels until Herbert Blumer gave its current name in 1969.

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G.H. Mead (1934), a University of Chicago philosopher and social activist, provided a way of understanding social life. Each of us learn many different social roles through interaction with others. Our actions are being "conditioned" by others while we are affecting their actions. The goal is not to manipulate or dominate each other but rather to create and sustain a productive, social unit - a group that provides its members with certain rewards in return for their willingness to take on specific roles. We learn social roles through ilJt~raction and through experiences in daily life situations. Over time, we internalize the rules inherent in the situations and structure our actions accordingly. Only in rare cases, do we consciously reflect on and analyze our actions. Once internalized, these roles provide us with a powerful means of controlling our actions. In time, our identity becomes bound up with them we feel good about ourselves because we play certain roles that are respected by others. Mead offered another important insight into the socialization process. Unlike animals that are conditioned to respond to stimuli in predetermined ways, human socialization permits more or less conscious interpretation of stimuli and planned responses. And this happens because of symbols. Symbols are arbitrary, often quite abstract representations of unseen phenomenon. The use of symbols transforms the socialization process. Mead argues that we use symbols to create our experience of consciousness (mind), our understanding of ourselves (self), and our knowledge of the larger social order (society). In other words, symbols mediate and structure our ability to perceive and interpret what goes on around us. Our actions in response to symbols are mediated (or controlled) largely by those same symbols. Therefore, a person's understanding of and relation to his or her physical or objective reality is moderated by the symbolic environment - the mind,

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Introduction to Culture Studies

self and society that we have internalized. The messages we give to symbols define us and the realities that we experience. As we are socialized, culturally agreed upon messages assume control over our interactions with our environment. .

...---------1:

QUESTIONS : . - . - - - - - - ,

1. Write a detailed note on Cultural Evolutionism. 2. Explain the theory of Diffusionism in relation to the mass media. 3. Explain Malinowski's views on functionalism. 4. Write a note on Structural functionalism. 5. Elaborate on the theory of Social Interactionism.

DIMENSIONS OF CULTURE

1. LANGUAGE

Introduction: Communication is the act of transmitting a message that influences the behaviour of another organism. Both humans and animals communicate. Animals make use of sounds and movements to communicate or share information. For example, crows caw as a signal of danger and crickets chirp when tliey are ready to mate. Communication among animals is critical to their survival. This communication among animals can be referred to as non-human communication. And it is quite limited compared to human communication. Human communication is comparatively complex. One form of communication is language. -Language is a system of symbols with standard meanings. It is through language that the members of a society can communicate with each other. Language is an integral part of culture. Culture and language, both exist before the birth of an individual and they are publicly shared by all members of a society. Language provides the context for symbolic understanding within different societies and language as a part of culture, transcends individuals. (33)

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Introduction to Culture Studies

Language is capable of recreating complex thought patterns and experiences. Humans, would have difficulty in transmitting culture .' if language was not there.

Characteristics of Language Human language is a very unique system of communication. It is distinct from other animal communication in 3 ways-

1. Conventionality - This describes the association that is present between a meaningful sequence of sounds and an object, action or idea. Words stand for things simply because the speakers of that particular language agree that they do. Example: the animal dog (English) is the same but the terms to refer to it change like chien (French) or perro (Spanish). Conventionality is the capacity to separate the vocal symbol from its referent. In human language, words are only arbitrarily or conventionally connected to the things for which they stand. Words seldom have any necessary connection with the concrete objects or abstract symbols that they represent. 2. Productivity - Human language is productive. Humans constantly make new combination of words. This productive capacity makes it an extremely flexible instrument for communication and is capable of conveying all kinds of new information. Productivity is the idea that humans can combine words and sounds into new meaningful utterances, that they have never heard before. 3. Displacement - This is the ability of language to convey information about something which may not be present in the immediate environment. It is the capacity of all human languages to describe things that are not happening in the present. This helps humans to describe things that have happened in the past, that could happen in the future or things that exist only in the mind and could be hypothetical. This feature of language helps humans to think abstractly.

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Structure of Language Every language has a structure. It consists of 4 subsystems:

• Phonology - the sound system of a language • Morphology - a system for creating words from sounds • Syntax - a series of rules for combining words into meaningful sentences • Semantics - a system that relates words to meaning. Acquiring Language: Language is a part of culture, and an individual learns a language only by interaction with other human beings who speak that language. Although human infants are born with the ability to speak a language, they are not born preprogrammed, in order to speak any particular language like English, French etc. Evidence suggests that humans come into the world equipped not only to learn language but to learn any human language.. Language and Culture: Language not only reflect') culture, but it is also a way in which individuals in a culture are introduced to the physical and social environments. The language spoken by a person has a great impact on the way he/she perceives and conceptualizes the world. In the first half of the 20th century, Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Lee Whorf carried out a study on a wide variety of languages and culture. Their ideas are known as Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. This hypothesis assumes that there is a close relationship between language and culture and that language defines experiences for us. Non-verbal communication: Aside from using language, humans use other methods of communication as well. Nonverbal communication is divided into many fields like aI1ifacts, haptics, chronernics, proxemics, and kenesics.

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• Artifacts refer to understanding messages sent by clothing, jewellery, tattoos, piercings etc. For example, in India, mangalsutra (a piece of jewellery) is tile symbol of a married woman. • Haptics is the study and analysis of touch. For example, handshaking, pats on the back or head, kisses, hugs etc. •

Chronemics is the study"of different ways in which cultures understand time and use it to communicate. For example, in India, showing up late at parties or weddings communicates popularity or trying to get attention of other people.

• Proxemics is the study of social space. •

Kenesics is the study of body positions, movement, facial expressions and gaze.

In conclusion, we can say that language makes it possible for humans, to exchange abstract and complex thoughts, which playa crucial role in the maintenance of social relationships within societies. It is impossible to socialize children into the workings of their culture, without language. Language helps in the transmission of traditions, rituals, values, myths and beliefs, which instill a sense of group identity and maintain ~ocial order in society. Without human language, human culture cannot exist.

2. GENDER We need to make an important distinction, between sex and gender. In general, sociologists use the term sex to refer to the anatomical and physiological differences that define male and female bodies. Gender, by contrast, concerns the psychological, social and cultural differences between males and females. Gender is linked to socially constructed notions of

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masculinity and femininity; it is not necessarily a direct product of an individual's biological sex. The distinction between sex and gender is a fundamental one, since many differences between males and females are not biological in origin.

How far are differences in the behaviour of women and men the result of sex rather than gender? In other words, how much are they the result of biological differ.ences? Some authors hold that aspects of human biology - ranging from hormones to chromosomes to brain size to genetics are responsible for innate differences in behaviour between men and women. These differences, they claim, can be seen in some form across all cultures, implying that natural factors are responsible for the inequalities between genders which characterize most societies. Such researchers are likely to draw attention to the fact,for example, that in almost all cultures, men rather than women take part in hunting and warfare. Surely, they argue, this indicates that men possess biologically based tendencies towards aggression that women lack. Many researchers are unconvinced by this argument. The level of aggressiveness of males, they say, varies widely between different cultures, and women are expected to be more passive or gentle in some cultures than in others. Gender Socialization Another route to take in understanding the origins of gender differences is the study of gender socialization, the learning of gender roles with the help of social agencies such as the family and the media. Such an approach makes a distinction between biological sex and social gender - an individual is born with the first and develops the second. Through contact with various agencies of socialization, both primary and secondary, children gradually internalize the social norms and expectations which

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Introduction to Culture Studies

are seen to correspond with their sex. Gwder differences are not biologically determined, they are culturally produced. According to this view, gender inequalities result because men and women are socialized into different roles. Theories of gender socialization have been favoured by functionalists who see boys and girls as learning 'sex roles' and the male and female identities - masculinity and femininity which accompany them. They are guided in this process by positive and negative sanctions, socially applied forces which reward or restrain behaviour.

Example: Compared to girls, boys are allowed a greater degree of moral and social freedom like boys being allowed to take up a job in another ci ty is acceptable. The role women play is considered subordinate. She is socialized to be docile, submissive, polite and prepared for marriage, right from childhood. The man acquires the front seat and she becomes the follower. Arundhati Roy, in her book 'The God of Small Things,' also mentions women waiting for her drunkard husband. Although times have changed, the evils of marriage, dOWIY and sati, still continue. There are certain roles that are gender-specific. Women should cook, clean, stitch, take care of the house, home maker and a child-rearer, whereas the man is looked as a 'breadwinner' and thus enjoys a higher status in society and family. India is divided on the reservation policy for women. Till today we have not been able to reach a consensus on this issue in the Parliament. Gender roles vary in accordance with the technological, economic, social and cultural traditions of particular types of societies.

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The Functionalists maintain that gender differentiation has contributed to the overall social stability. The Conflict theorists contain that the relationship between females and males has been one of unequal power with men in a dominant position over women. The Interactionists perspective generally agrees with the conflict theory that men hold a dominant position over women. In examining the profound changes affecting men in late modern societies; many observers believe that economic and social transformations are provoking a crisis of masculinity. Traditional notions of masculinity are being eroded by a combination of influences, from the changing labour market to high rates of divorce. If at one time the average man enjoyed security in the workforce, the family and in society as a whole, his position is being undermined by a multiplicity of forces, leaving him unsure of himself and his role in society.

Some of the factors affecting the traditional notion of masculinity are:(a) Unemployment Willott and Griffin emphasize, the role of 'provider' had been challenged by unemployment. There was a weakening of certain elements of traditional masculinity. (b) Crime In the past, the young men had a clear set of goals to aim for in life: getting a legitimate job and becoming the breadwinner for a wife and family. But such a male breadwinner role,. Campbell argues, is now under strain, particularly for young men. Many men thus have resorted to crime as a means of livelihood.

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(c) StatUs!Attitude of Women Moreover, women have become more independent than they used to be, and don't need a man to achieve status in the wider society. They are educated and hold respectable positions at the work place and society. They have achieved economic and social freedom. They no longer want to be suppressed by men and the egalitarian attitude has gained prominence. (d) Media Portrayals Changing portrayals of masculinity in popular culture, the press, advertisements and fashion have been considered by J. Rutherford (1988). Rutherford has noted two idealized images of men which reflect opposite reactions to the challenges of feminism and the changing role of women . • The first is 'retributive man', who corresponds to public understandings of traditional masculinity. • Alternatively, there is the so-called new man - a figure who began appearing with increasing frequency in media and advertising campaigns in the 1980s. The new man demonstrates sensitivity in his attitudes to women, children and his own emotional needs. He makes fatherhood fashionable, appearing as a strong and gentle nurturer. The popularity of the new sexualized, sensitive man can be seen as an attempt to reconstruct ideas of masculinity in the wake of the challenge of feminism. (3) RELIGION Humans have populated their world with unseen beings and powers. They have spun out mythic accounts of ancient and wondrous happenings; they have also created elaborate rituals which must be performed correctly so that human life can prosper. Every society has something that is identified as

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religion. Religion is a cultural universal, but every society varies in terms of their religion. The practices and beliefs vary significantly from society to society. Example: some religions worship many deities, some have no deities and some worship an all-knowing and all-powerful supreme being. Religion serves the purpose of adaptation and it also meets the deep needs of the lives of individuals. Religion is related to a world which is beyond immediate experience.

Religions involve a set of symbols, invoking feelings of reverence or awe, and are linked to rituals or ceremonials engaged in by a community of believers. More than a century ago, Edward B. Tylor defined religion as a "belief in spiritual beings". It is believed that some of the earlier forms of religion were: 1. Animism: This is a belief in spirits or ghosts, thought to populate the same world as humans beings: Such spirits may be either seen as benign or malevolent, and may influence human behaviour in numerous respects. Example: In some cultures, spirits are believed to cause illness and may also possess individuals in such a way so as to control their behaviour. 2. Animatism: This is a belief in diffuse, impersonal spiritual power. 3. Totemism: The word 'totem' originated among North American Indian tribes, but has been widely used to refer to species of animals or plants believed to have supernatural powers. Usually each kinship group or clan within a society has its own particular totem, with which various ritual activities are associated. Totemic beliefs might seem alien to those living in industrialized societies, yet in certain minor contexts, symbols similar to those of totemism

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Introduction to Culture Studies

are familiar - as when a sports team has an animal or plant for its emblem. Mascots are totems. Religion is a social process which helps to bring order in society and to provide its members with meaning, unity, peace of mind and gives them a degree of control over events they believe are possible.

Functions of Religion: 1. It provides meaning and order in the lives of people. 2. It can reduce social anxiety and give people a sense of control over their destinies. 3. It can promote change or reinforce the status quo in a given society. 4. It can affect the way a culture l~elates to its environment. 5. It explains important existential questions like why humans die, how the world came to be, why human efforts succeed or fail etc. 6. Religions validate and give meaning to certain human acts. 7. Religion reinforces the ability of humans to cope with the fragility of human life, death, illness, famine, t100d etc. Religion defines the way the world is in such a manner that it also establishes an appropriate stance which has to be taken towards it. Myths: They are accounts about how the world came to be the way it is. It consists of people's assumed knowledge about the universe, the natural. the supernatural and humanity's place in these worlds. Ritual,,: The lituals associated \\lith religion are very diverse. Ritual acts may include praying, chanting, singing, eating cCltain

Dimensions of Culture

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kinds of food or refraining from doing so, fasting on certain days, and so on. Since ritual acts are oriented towards religious symbols, they are usually seen as quite distinct from the habits and procedures of ordinary life. e.g. Ganesh pooja, Laxmi pooja and Narnaz in Rarnzan. Religious rituals contain a unique, personal and psychological experience for every group who participates. Religious rituals are often carried on by individuals in isolation, but all religions also involve ceremonials practiced collectively by believers. Regular ceremonials normally occur in special places - churches, temples or the shrines (where the 'miracle' of the Gods drinking milk happened in India).They reinforce collective sentiment and social integration.

Religious Specialists: In traditional societies, religion usually plays a central part in social life. Religious symbols and rituals are often integrated with the material and artistic culture of the society - music, painting or carving, dance, story-telling and literature. In small cultures, there is no professional priesthood, but there are always certain individuals who specialize in knowledge of religious practices. Although there are various sorts of such specialists, one common type is the shaman (a word originating among North American Indians). A shaman is an individual believed to be able to direct spirits or non-natural forces through ritual means. Shamans are sometimes essentially magicians rather tI"dl religious leaders, however, and are often consulted by individuals dissatisfied with what is offered in the religious rituals of the community. Anthropologists use terms 'native healer', 'medicine man' and 'medicine woman'. Priests and Kazis are full time religious specialists trained through fonnal educational processes to maintain religious traditions and rituals. They are the custodians of sacred knowledge.

Religion and Change: Religion is generally a force that preserves social order. But sometimes under certain circumstances religion becomes a vehicle of resistance to

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Introduction to Culture Studies

domination and then becomes catalysts for social change. As far as change in religion is concerned, it is the material aspect of religion which undergoes a certain amount of change, as compared to non-material aspect. For Example: during diwali make use of electric diya instead of the traditional oil diya. Thus, the material aspect has been modified with the nonmaterial part remaining constant.

4. KINSHIP "Blood is thicker than water" - goes an old saying. Society is closely knit by kinship relations. Kinship is important in social anthropology. • A person eams his livelihood through kinship. • The career of an individual is planned and executed by kinsmen. • Matrimonial arrangements are made through kinship. • Mourning period, birth and death are observed through kinship. • Kinship is related to economy, celebration of festivals, worship and folkways. • The social organization of a society revolves around kinship. • . Kinship provides continuity between generations. Inheritance (transfer of property) and succession (transfer of social position) takes place within kinship groups. • Kinship provides for an individual, a group of people he can depend upon. Kinship is the basis of group formation. Relationships between individuals are governed through the norms of kinship.

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Dimensions of Culture

Kinship ties help in allying groups to each other and help to incorporate strangers into a group. In many cultures across the world, kinship is central in determining people's rights and responsibilities. Being born to particular parents, defines membership of an individual in a group. It places the individual in a network of obligation and co-operation. Kinship is a culturally defined relationship established on the basis of blood ties or through marriage. It includes relationships through blood (consanguineal) as well as relationships through marriage (affinal). In every society, regulation of behaviour and also the formation of groups depend to some extent on the socially recognized ties of kinship. Even though kinship ties rely on some kind of biological relationships, at the same time kinship is also a cultural phenomena. The ways in which societies classify their kin are culturally based. For Example: 'Father' can refer to a child's biological father or it could also refer to a man who takes the responsibility for the upbringing of the child or it is a man socially recognized as the father.

D

0

Where

I

I

I

D

0

0

D

represents a male

0

represents a female indicates marriage indicates siblings

FAMILY AND KINSHIP There are two basic types of descent rules or kinship ideology which operate in society. Some cultural systems have a unilineal system of descent where group membership depends

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Introduction to Culture Studies

upon links through either paternal or maternal line. Certain other cultural systems have a bilateral descent syste-:n, where both maternal and paternal lines are used as a basis for reckoning descent. Thus, kinship is the most important social bond. Once kinship systems are established, they continue to have an important influence on behaviour.

,..--------Il QUESTIONS JI---------. 1. Explain the characteristics and structure of language. 2. Language and culture share a unique relationship. Comment. 3. Discuss Non-verbal communication. 4. Write a note on Gender socialization. 5. Discuss the inter-relationship between gender and culture. 6. Explain Crisis of Masculinity. 7. Define religion and give its functions. 8. Analyze change with respect to religion. 9. Discuss the role of kinship within culture.

COMPONENTS OF CULTIJRE-MATERIAL CULTURE AND NON· MATERIAL CULTURE William Ogburn has given two forms of culture: (A) Material Culture (B) Non-Material Culture

CULlURE

/

IMA~I CULlURE

NON MATERlAL CULlURE

COMPONENTS OF CULTURE (A) MATERIAL CULTURE

All things that man has created, which are observable and tangible are material al1ifacts. Example: tools, table, chair ctc. (47)

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Introduction to Culture Studies

Certain elements of materifll culture in society can be observed through:

(1) ART It refers to those forms of creative expression which are guided by aesthetic principles and which involve imagination, skill and style. Every aultur~ and society has their own characteristic forms of art. for Example: tea drinking is a form of art in Japan; calligraphy isa form of art in China ·a nd the Islamic Middle East. Art is a universal aspect of human experience and there is no such known culture where art is not present. Art is a means by which people express their values, perceptions of reality and the identity of their culture. -

(2) ARCIDTECTURE AND HOUSING We can learn a lot about the culture of a period by looking at the material artifacts of that age. Indian art and architecture are distinguished by their religious content, exquisite style and philosophical outlook. The artistic remains show their close connection with religion.

• Architecture of the Pre-Historic Period - In North India, the Stone Age was followed by the Copper Age, which was followed by the Iron Age. 6ut in South India, Stone Age was followed by the Iron Age.

• Harappan Architecture - The discoveries of the cities like Mohenjo Daro and Harappa show that the Indus Valley civilization was highly advanced. The Harappan people made statues and different kinds of jewels. Indus valley houses and the town planning show that they had made much progress in architecture. The public baths

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49

and public buildings show that their architecture was characterized by its simplicity and utilitarianism.

• Architecture during Vedic Culture - Aryans developed a new culture in North India around 2000

B.c. The great epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana make reference to many places, royal courts, buildings and cities and a high degree of excellence in arts and architectural sense.

• Buddhist Period - Not much progress in art and architecture. Materials like the earth bamboo and wood were used for the purpose of construction. A few buildings were made of stone.

• Mauryan Period - Mauryan Empire made much progress to art and architecture. Mau:yan kings patronized many artists, architects and engineers. Chandragupta had built a large and beautiful wooden palace. King Ashoka built many Stupas in honour of Lord Buddha.

•• Gupta Period - The Gupta era is regarded as the golden age in the history of ancient India. Art and architecture entered its classical phase and a lot of progress happened in .archltecture.

• Mughal-Maratha Period - The Indo-Islamic art of the earlier period was combined and there were not many changes. To a certain extent, Persian influence was pre-dominant upto the end of the reign of Akbar after which Indian style dominated.

(3) TOOLS OF COMMUNICATION There are different tools of communication used by different communities. Some of them are:

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Introduction to Culture Studies

(i)

Oral Culture - Communication here is generally faceto-face and verbal.

(ii) Writing - More than 5,000 years ago, the development of alphabets took place independently in several places around the world. The medium used for carrying out this form of communication was clay tablets by the Sumerians, but Egyptians, Greeks and Romans eventually made use of papyrus. Romans later began to use parchment. By A.D. 100, the Chinese developed a paper which was made from rags. Today, writing is no longer dependent on such rudimentary techniques and a variety of paper and writing materials are used.

(iii) Printing Press- This led to the spread of written material and to mass communication being possible.

(iv) Modern Communication Technologies- These include newspapers, magazines, motion pictures, radio, television and more recently the internet.

(4) FOOD Food is also considered as a form of art in many societies and cultures. In many cultures, it is seen as a tradition and traditional recipes are handed down from one generation to the next, from mother to daughter. The type of food eaten is also a part of culture. For Example: In China and India, pigs are eaten and are seen as a source of protein but religious traditions of Islam and Judaism forbid eating of pork.

(B) NON-MATERIAL CULTURE This refers to various symbolic creations of man. It consists of the intangible products of human society. Example: values, norms, attitudes. They are called Mentifacts. Both, matelial and

Components of Culture-Material Culture alld NOli-material Culture

51

non-material cultures are organically linked. Material culture emerges out of non-material culture. Material culture changes more frequently, whereas non-material culture is slow to change. This gap between their paces of change is known as Culture Lag. Example: Material aspect of Indian culture has changed a lot, in terms of technology and lifestyle; whereas non-material aspects like religion and social values change slowly.

Certain elements of non-material culture in society call be observed through: (A) Cognitive

(a) Knowledge: All information about the material world that can be objectively substantiated. It is the storage and recall of learned information.

(b) Beliefs: Ideas and speCUlation about the physical, social and supernatural reality, not as easily supported by facts. They are cultural conventions that are concerned with true or false assumptions, specific descriptions of the nature of the universe and the place of human beings in it.

(B) Normative (a)

Values.- They are a part of the cultural system and are inculcated into the psychological system through socialization and are instrumental in shaping and determining behaviour in groups and other social systems. Example: Driving at high speed leads to accidents is a belief; driving should not exceed a certain limit is a value.

(b) Norms: These are usually derived from values. They are standards of behaviour expected of individuals by their social groups and therefore norms supplement values.

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Values tend to be broad and non-specific and norms are specific and definite.

Norms can be:

• Prescriptive Norms- are those which prescribe or allow some kinds of behaviour to take place. Example: in college, you should study.

• Proscriptive Norms- are those which prohibit certain kinds of behaviour. Example: murder and crime are those acts which are forbidden by society.

• Cultural Norms- states how culture should be ideally followed, that is, how it actually should be. Example: one should always be honest.

• Statistical Norm- is the measure of the actual conduct in the society. It is the 'the actual behaviour of a person in a given situation.' Example: one shouldn't break a traffic light - this is a norm, but when one is in hurry and one breaks it, then it is a statistical norm.

Norms include

(1) Folkways: they are workable pa.tterns accepted as appropriate but not insisted upon. Example: if you eat food with your hand, you won't be punished. They are passed down from generation to generation either throui,h .deliberate teaching or mere imitation.

(2) Mores: they are morally and strongly sanctioned folkways regarded as important for the survival of the group. Example: wearing clothes is a mores. Negative mores are called taboos, which mean that something should not be done. Example: Incest- a sexual relationship between father and daughter.

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(3) Customs: a custom is a long established usage or practice, gradually accepted as an appropriate mode of behaviour. Customs are sanctioned by group pressure. In traditional societies the hold of customs is very strong. (4) Laws: Laws are codified norms or rules enacted by those who exercise political power and are enforced through state machinery. There is an element of force or compulsion in law. They are needed in a modem, complex society to maintain social order. It is more formal as compared to the folkways, mores and norms in the society.

Different cultures manifest their non-material culture through: (1) Folklores: Folklores are an important part of many cultures, especially the primitive communities. In primitive communities, cultural transmission takes place through folklores. Folklores contain the philosophy of the people of that society or culture. Most of the folklores have a reference made to the mutual relation of the people to their gods. Folklores help in socialization as they point out how different types of offences are punished by the supernatural powers. They also contain descriptions about birds, beasts, trees and human beings etc. (2) Myths: Myths owe their origin to beliefs and ideals associated with leaders, patriots, national heroes, institutions and individuals. They are handed down from one generation to the next. They set examples and guide people in their life. Despite the fact that they are imaginative and unrealistic, they are still very important. For Example: In India, myths have originated in connection with Lord Krishna, Bhishma, Tulsidas etc. Myths have functions in a society like making the socialcultural reality stable, predictable. and capable of being endured. They also maintain the rel(ltionship or link between the past,

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present and future. They also induce a feeling of security and ascertain the beliefs of people. (3) Legends: They are a form of social myth which are based on some part on historical facts and deal mainly with heroes and events, which are related to the successes and failures in a group of society. Mostly the heroes are religious and the events related to them, are of a divine supra-social nature. For Example: In India, there are many legends attached to the life of Lord Krishna. There are different types of legends: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Religious legends- Shri Krishna, Sai Baba, etc, Political legends- Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln. Economic legend- Karl Marx. Social legend- Mother Terc!sa.

Legends evolve due to many reasons and they are very important because they represent the ideals and values in a society and they provide an opportunity for the individual to acquaint himselflherself with the culture of that society. Legends are also important because they are attached with the emotions, feelings and assumptions of a particular society and culture. (4) Aesthetics: In every society, people express themselves through different ways of creative expression. These are guided by aesthetic principles involving imagination, beauty, skill and style. Example: Many cultures have a history of appreciating music, poetry, forms of dance and paintings. Every culture includes both material as well as non-material culture. Even though material culture changes more frequently and drastically, as compared to non-material culture, without either of them, no culture is complete.

Components of Culture·Material Culture and NOIl·material Culture

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QUESTIONS

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:f---------,

L Define culture. Explain the components of culture. 2. Explain how housing and architecture are components of material culture. 3. Explain the Cognitive and Normative elements of non-material culture. 4. Discuss how non-material culture manifest itself. 5. Write short notes on: • Art • Legends • Tools of Communication • Norms

CONSTRUCTION OF CULTURE .

(A) ASPECTS OF CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION Human beings have certain types of social relationships which comprise a part of their culture. These different social relationships include the economic relationships which are there in the economic system, the political system and its different relations, the social relations which are a part of the social system and also relationships in the system of religion. These different systems provide the base or infrastructure of society. They help in building up or constructing the culture. ECONOMY

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CONSTRUCTION OF CULTURE (56)

COllstruction of Culture

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The different dimensions that construct any culture are as follows: 1. Political System The political organization is made up of the patterned ways in which the power is legitimately used in a society for regulating behaviour. All cultures have some or the other type of political organization. Political institutions in a complex society provide organizational means for defense against invasion. They may at times, also provide the ruling class with a means of perpetuating their power and maintaining the relationships of producers and consumers, rules and the ruled. The nature of political systems is very dynamic. In bands and tribes, we find people having a different type of system of ruling; they may not have a properly developed 'political system'. Tribal societies for instance, have leaders, but they do not have a centralized government. For example, the tribal leader found in Melanesia and New Guinea is called as the 'big man', he is a self-made leader and he gains power through personal achievements rather than through holding office and in a democratic system like in India, we have the President who is the nominal head of the country and the Prime Minister who is the elected representative. The most complex form of political organization is the state. 'STATE' is a hierarchical and centralized form of political organization. Here, there is a Central Government which has legal monopoly over the use of force. States are more populous, heterogeneous and powerful than any other type of political organization. An example of state would be any of the developed nations in the world like India. India follows a democratic form of government system which is based on adult franchise. In comparison, the tribal leaders and chiefs could be chosen on the basis of blood, kinship or social ranking.

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2. Economic Aspect All human societies have economic systems. Within the economic system, goods and services are produced, distributed and consumed. Economic aspect deals partly with things- the tools used to produce goods, and the goods themselves. Every society makes different choices as they have different economic systems. These choices are made within the framework provided by their culture, values and institutions. For example: Western culture is dominated by capitalism. Here, a lot of value is placed on wealth and material prosperity. The market place is the primary institution through which this is regulated. Those people who can achieve high levels of wealth and consumption like actors and entrepreneurs are held as role models in this society. Monetary profit many a times is a huge motivating factor. On the other hand, Hadza, which is a hunting-gathering community in Tanzania, live in an area where there is abundance of animal and vegetable food. The men in this community spend much of their time gambling, and do not use much of their leisure time to increase their wealth. Whereas in western society, prestige is tied up with increased consumption and display of goods and service, and focus is on those who can achieve a lot and keep continuing to do so. Work is not only a source of money, but also a source of self-respect, challenge, growth and personal fulfillment. The Indian economy is based on both the industrial as well as agricultural sectors. Work is not only a source of money but also a means of gaining status and prestige in society.

3. Religious Aspect Religion is a human universal. Most anthropologists believe that it goes· back to the beginnings of the human species. Religion has many functions in society; it provides meaning and order in people's lives, reduces social anxiety and gives people

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a sense of control over their destinies. Religion works in a society to preserve social order and it can also be a catalyst for social change. Religion may either be polytheistic (having many Gods) or monotheistic (having only one God). In India, Hinduism is a major religion which is polytheistic in nature. The Hindus understand that in some way, these Gods are all aspects of one divine essence. Whereas, in Roman Catholicism, which is monotheistic, there is God the Father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit, yet all these are seen to be part of a single unitary system.

4. Social System Every culture has its own unique characteristic social system. It incorporates beliefs, values, traditions, customs and entire lifestyles of people. For example, within the Indian framework, the urban community is characterized by professional attitudes, a focus on material comforts and luxuries and a more liberal lifestyle; whereas in the rural communities, a person's life centers around traditions and customs.

(B) POPULAR/MAJOR CONSTRUCTIONS OF 'INDIAN CULTURE' Indian Culture has a distinct flavour due to its unique historical evolution. Throughout the ages, it has been greatly influenced by a variety of factors. These include the different kingdoms and rulers like Ashoka's empire, the Mauryan dynasty, the Mughal era and British colonialism; the emergence of the different religious perspectives like lainism and Buddhism have also had their own contributions to make to society. With these continuous influences, India has still managed to retain its distinct cultural identity and continues to do so and yet has assimilated certain modifications in its fold. There has been a fine balance between stability, continuity and change. It is static and dynamic at the same time.

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Indian culture can be viewed by looking at the following dimensions: 1. Religion Religion has been the core of India's tradition. It is not only a tradition of worship, but also controls the entire community life. Even, the tribes in India have their own regulating religion. Indian tribal religion has changed due to Hinduism. For Geertz, religion and its rituals are basically cultural. Whenever rituals are performed, they are done in the context of the surrounding culture. For example: when a Kashrniri Pandit worships Shiva, he offers raw meat and when a Gond offers worship to Shiva, he offers a coconut and leaves of billi tree. Rituals are always culture-specific. Indian culture has many religions that exist together. Hinduism is a major religion, along with it, there is Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Jainism and even the Parsi religion. Indian culture is influenced by all of these and all these religions in tum influence Indian culture.

2. Political Systems India follows a democratic form of government. It is a developing nation. It is a democratic and secular society. The present fornmt of administration of society has emerged through the ages, from being governed by the different rulers and kings to the present democratic setup. The Indian Constitution lays the basis of the political system. The Constitution of India has tried to incorporate the interests of all the different sections and communities. The political system is based on a government of the people, by the people and for the people. It is operated through universal adult franchise. However, there is a gap between the idealistic political system and reality.

3. Economic System The Indian economy has gone through tremendous changes. At the start, it was an agricultural economy as well as an

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economy based on the handicraft industry. During the British era, this economy started collapsing and later India took to industrialization in a big way for the sake of quick development. Today, it has opened up its market for foreign investment to a large extent. India is now a part of the rising global economy.

4. Social System The Indian social system is very dynamic in nature. Change and continuity operate simultaneously. Changes are there in quite a lot of areas of social life like material aspects of society, ways of behaviour, attitudes towards work, choices of occupations, technology etc. Some of the areas of social life that was previously open to change, like the norms governing marriage, family and kin have also loosened up. Certain elements like religion still have the element of continuity and change is hardly noticed. The Indian social system is in a state of flux presently, where there is a demand for both stability and change, as far as traditions and customs are concerned.

(C) MAINSTREAMING CULTURE THROUGH POLITICAL ACTION In India, culture and politics share a close relation. In the political scenario, culture has an important role to play. Political propaganda is based on culture. Political parties are based on religion, which is a dimension of culture. Choice of candidates aild elections are based and influenced greatly by individual cultural preferences. In a country like India, politics is influenced by the culture of its people. Cultural and religious symbols are very often used in political processes. In addition to religion, other elements of culture like ethnicity, language, gender, community and minority issues, also affect political processes. Hence, through this nexus between culture and politics, we can see how mainstrearning of culture takes place.

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r-------~: QUESTIONS

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1. Discuss the various aspects in the construction of culture. 2. Analyze the relationship between politics and culture in India. 3. With the help of examples, explain how 'mainstreaming' of culture takes place. 4. Write a note on religious and economic aspects of Indian culture with relevant examples. 5. Discuss the role of the social system within the Indian cultural framework.

AGENTS OF CULTURAL TRANSMISSION 1. MEDIA - AS AN AGENT OF CULTURAL TRANSMISSION Communication is a process of creating shared meaning. All communication is composed of the same elements, but technology changes the nature of those elements. Communication between a mass medium and its audience is mass communication, a primary contributor to the construction and maintenance of culture. As the learned behaviour of a given social group, culture is the world made meaningful. It resides all around us; it is usually constructed and is maintained through communication. Culture limits us, as well as liberates us; it differentiates us as well as unites us. It defines our realities and shapes the ways we think, feel and act. Although culture and communication are inter-related, the influence of mass communication has long been in dispute. Still debated are: (a) Micro- versus macro-level effects (b) Administrative versus critical research (c) Transmissional versus ritual perspective (63)

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(a) Micro versus Macro-level Effects Micro level effects are the effects at personal individual level. Does television cause violence? Do beer advertisements cause increased alcohol consumption? Does pornography cause rape? Although there is much scientific evidence that media cause many behaviours, there is also much evidence that they do not. ' Media have relatively few direct effects at the personal or micro level. The impact of media at the cultural level is macro level effect. Violence on television contributes to the cultural climate in which real-world violence becomes more acceptable.

Example: Are there parts of towns where you would rather not walk alone? Do you vote for the 'tough on crime' carididate versus 'education' candidate? The micro level view is that televised violence has little impact because most people are not directly affected. The macro level view is that televised violence has a great impact because it influences the cultural climate. Both these levels should be considered.

(b) Administrative versus Critical Research Administrative research asks questions about the immediate, observable influence of mass communication.

Example: Does a commercial campaign sell more cereal or does an expanded living section increase newspaper circulation. Administrative research concerns itself with direct causes and effects; critical research looks at larger, possibly more

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significant cultural questions Example: Asking larger questions about what kind of nation we are building, what kind of people are we becoming.

(c) Transmissional versus Ritual Perspective: The transmissional perspective looks at media as senders of information for the purpose of control, i.e., media either have effects on our behaviour or they do not. The ritual perspective views media not as a means of transmitting "messages in space" but as central to "the maintenance of society in time". Mass communication is "not an act of imparting information but the representation of shared beliefs". In other words, the ritual perspective is necessary to understand the cultural importance of mass communication. Consider an advertisement for Foster beer. What message is being transmitted? Buy Foster of course. So people buy or do not buy Foster. The message either controls or does not control people's beer buying behaviour. That is the transmissional perspective. But what is happening culturally in that ad? What reality about alcohol and socializing is shared? Can young people really have fun in social settings without alcohol? What constitutes a good looking man or woman? The ritual perspective illuminates these messages- the culturally important content of the ad.

2. WOMEN - AS AGENTS OF CULTURAL TRANSMISSION Women are very important agents of cultural transmission. When socialization as a process is taking place, it is the role of the mother which has utmost importance. The mother teaches the child how to cope with the basic necessities of life, helps in

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passing on language, teaches religion and passes on the cultural heritage. Women in many societies are generally regarded as pillars of virtue. They are also seen responsible for the moral order of the community. They have an important role to play for the well being of their families by following their ancestors' rules of purity and pollution. Women are also the observers of the society's standards of chastity. A lot of studies have examined the significance of the roles of women as mothers, sisters, wives and daughters. The working woman, with respect to all kinds of jobs that she ventures into, like teaching, nursing, social work and administrative jobs, makes contributions to the society at large, by carrying on the cultural transmission. The woman also as an agent of culture is contributing to her own family with her wages and also to the society at large, in cases when she is working for social causes, or when she is working for women's organizations likefor example: SEWASelf Employed Women's Association. With respect to social aspects in the community, the woman plays a very important role in the relationship between culture and society. She not only has an individual identity but also a social one. She knows how to deal with elders, as a part of culture and she truly is associated with almost all festivals, celebrations and 'worship practices'. Thus, helping to preserve the culture and also transmit it. There are women in thefield of literature, writing books, for the enlightenment of women like Mrinal Pande's "Girls", Ismat Chugtai's "Chauthi ka Joda" and Maha Shweta Devi's "Draupadi". Women are also contributing in terms of art to society. Reference can be made to the very famous 'Mona Lisa'

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painting by Leonardo Vinci and the various paintings on MadhUli Dixit by M.E Hussain. Women are depicted as goddesses in the sculptures, representing our culture, like the ones at Ajanta Ellora at Aurangabad, thus contributing to our culture. In the entertainment arena too, like in various flbns, women are playing a very important role, as today they are getting noticed and are receiving attention and are very much in the limelight. Women oriented subjects are getting awards. Today we can see a shift from mythology to current realities as the subject matter in films, like we see a shift from movies like "Santoshi Maa" to "Mrityudand". Other films with \'L~ry strong subjects are Damini, Astitva, Daman and Chandni bar, with female protagonists against unjust practices doing the rounds. In the political arena too, we find women venturing the field, we have women representation in public places like for example in the industry and politics. There are women activists fighting for their rights like taking up the reservation policy for women. There is a 'feminist ideology' gaining momentum, fighting for the upliftment of 'the weaker or subordinate sex' in society. There are also 'role models' playing a very important role in society, influencing the minds of many individuals and creating an awareness amongst them. Example: Late Indira Gandhi because of her political contributions, Writer Shobha De is considered as an 'ideal' for young girls, Kiran Bedi and Meera Borwankar in the Police Department are inspiring women, Social activist Medha Patkar working for environmental causes and Sonia Gandhi who was rated recently as the Number 3 in the list of influer.tial women in the world.

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3. EDUCATION - AS AN AGENT OF CULTURAL TRANSMISSION The early and primitive societies in the world did not have schools. The children of these societies learned whatever they needed to know by watching and taking part in whatever was going on around them. Education was handled by the family or clan. It was only when cultures started becoming complex, that this created, a need for having specialized knowledge and skills which could not be obtained simply through the#previous method of watch-help. It was due to this, that very gradually the formal system of education took place in many societies.

Education has many functions like (a) Education prepares people to take up occupational roles. (b) Education is very important as it preserves the culture and passes it on from one generation to the next.

(c) It teaches verbal skills and develops a person's ability to think rationally and independently. (d) It improves personal adjustment. (e) It builds character.

Education and Culture Education and Culture share a very important relationship. It is education which in recent modem and urban societies serves as a very important agent of cultural transmission. It passes on the cultural heritage from one generation to the next. In modern and urban societies, family and religion lose their hold and it is education which takes over, to a large extent, the transmission of culture to the next generation. It is also true that with education, cultural change also takes place, as education can broaden the outlook of people, it can make them more open to newer ideas of change, especially as far as technology,

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fashion, and architecture, etc. are concerned. Education also acts as a vehicle for social mobility in many cultures. In the 'open class' system of social stratification, only some people attain upper levels of economic and prestige standing and education is one vehicle for attaining it. In schools and colleges, extra-curricular and cultural activities are a part of education. This helps in making students more aware of their culture and hence helps in the transfer of culture. For example: the students participate in schools, and colleges, in cultural activities like traditional days and celebration of vmious festivals. Education helps to broaden the outlook of students leading to the assimilation of culture, as learning about other cultures helps in more awareness and responsibility as citizens of a particular nation. In fact today we are looking at a global economy, crossing all national boundaries. Example: Internet based learning facilitates the students in cultural assimilation and more information. In this modern age, education and qualification have become important stepping stones into job opportunities and careers and upliftment of the countries economic profile and employment demands. Example: The BMM course consists of papers like Introduction to Culture Studies- helping the students to gain an overview about culture and how it contributes to their understanding of society.

4. FAMILY AND KIN -AS AGENTS OF CULTURAL TRANSMISSION George Murdock (1945) conducted a comprehensive crosscultural study and he found that almost all societies recognize the family. Family is a social group of two or more people who are related by blood, marriage or adoption and who live or reside

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together for an extended period. They share common economic resources and care for their young. Family is a social unit which is there within a much wider group of relatives, or kin. Family is a universal aspect of social organization. Family performs certain basic functions which serve human needs. The primary function of family is to nurture children and their enculturation. Besides this, a family functions to regulate sexual activity of a society. Family serves to protect and support its members. For many cultures, family is very impOltant as it is one of the basic agents of enculturation. It is through the family that the cultural values and beliefs are passed on to the younger generation. Ideas and views, relating to religion, society, economic and political Ii fe, etc. are influenced by the family. In the family, the child leams more about the traditions, customs and festivals to be celebrated. The first contact that a child has with his/her society is through the family. It is the family that actually helps a child to be a part of the culture into which he/she is born. All societies in the world depend upon the family for the socialization of the children into adults, who can function successfully in that particular society. The family is the child's first primary group and it is in the family that the child' personality development begins. When the child is old enough to interact outside the family, the basic functions of personality have already been firmly laid. One of the ways of enculturation is by providing the child with 'models' to copy. For example: a boy learns to be a man, a husband and a father because he has lived in a family and seen these roles being performed around him by his father, who here acts as a model for him.

5. RELIGION - AS AN AGENT OF CULTURAL TRANSMISSION Religion has explanatory functions. For all ethnic groups it answers systematically the over-all "why" questions, these relating variously to-

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• Existence - the nature of the world and man. • Power - the dynamic forces in the universe. • Providence - the maintenance and welfare functions. • Mortality - the life and death of individuals. Secondly it has validating junctions. It supports with powetful sanctions all the basic institutions, values, goals, which a society considers important to personal conduct and to social order and continuity, as in such matters as sex, family, leadership, property and defense. Religion does not stand at one side of culture as a specialized compartment. It tends to interpenetrate all important and valued behaviour. Religion comes into especially sharp focus at points which are crucial in group and individual experience, especially where these involve anxiety, danger, and lack of knowledgeable control and a sense of the "supernatural".

Kluckhohn (1942) emphasizes an important facet of religion. Its basic function, he states, is that of providing a sense of security in a world which, "seen in naturalistic telms, appears to be full of the unpredictable". By giving "consistency and reality" to experience, the religious system carries man over areas of life "beyond control of ordinary techniques and the rational understanding which works well in ordinary affairs." Malinowski, in attempting to place religion in a system of needs, speaks of it as one of the "integrative" or "synthesizing" imperatives. In other words, it has integrating functions. Example: He looks at religion and says that it gives a functional interpretation of funeral and mourning practices. He says that religion - "counteracts the centrifugal forces of fear, dismay, demoralization, and provides the most powerful means of reintegration of the group's shaken solidarity and of the reestablishment of the morale."

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Radcliffe Brown, in functional discussions of Religion (1952), also stresses the contributions which belief and ritual make to social integration. He also states that cultural and personal disorganization tends to be greatest where religious beliefs break down or become inconsistent. Firth (1951) emphasizes not only the functions of religion but also its symbolic character. He summarizes an important analysis ill the following points: • It is a strong positive element in the maintenance and transmission of the social organization. • It provides authOlity for belief and action. • It provides message for social action in allowing pattern and order to be reinterpreted in terms of ultimate ends.

• It allows for expression of concepts of imagination and aesthetic creation. • It is a major force of personal adjustment. This, he says, is much more than just an emotional experience of awe or sense of the supernatural. Rather, religion embodies a "conception and projection of the most fundamental human needs and problems." Firth suggests that religion is "a form of human art". Notably it provides a frame for dealing with fundamental problems of social organization: rendering relationships coherent, reducing uncertainty and anxiety, justifying moral obligations. Without symbolic solutions beyond those provided by empirical knowledge, he concludes, it would be impossible for human society to exist.

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Agents of Cultural Transmission

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QUESTIONS

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:1---------,

1. Discuss the role of media at the macro and micro level, in transmitting culture.

2. Explain the transmissional versus ritual perspective. 3. Examine the role played by women as agents of cultural transmission. 4. Analyze ,the relationship between education and culture. 5. Family is a universal social organization. Comment. 6. With the help of examples, bring out the essence of religion in relation to culture. 7. Discuss in brief the agents of cultural transmission.

FACTORS OF CULTURAL CHANGE WITH REFERENCE TO MEDIA 1. TECHNOLOGY History: Some ideas developed in the latter half of the 19th century, as new media technologies were invented and popularized. Although some theorists were optimistic about new technology, most were extremely pessimistic. They blamed new industrial technology for disrupting peaceful , rural communication and forcing people to live in urban areas merely to serve as a convenient work force in larger factories, mines or bureaucracies. Theorists were fearful of cities because of their crime, cultural diversity, and unstable political systems. For many social thinkers, mass media symbolized everything that was wrong with 19th century urban life. Media were singled out for criticism and charged with pandering to lower class tastes, fOlmenting political unrest or violating important cultural norms. Most theorists were educated members of dominant . elites and felt that the old social order based on a landed aristocracy was cmmbling and so was its culture and politics. The dominant perspective that emerged dUling this peliod. is refelTed to as mass society theory .It began as a collection of contradictory notions, some quite radical others quite (74)

Factors of Cultural Change with Reference to Media

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reactionary. These notions were developed by monarchists who wanted to maintain the old political older and by reactionaries who wanted to impose radical changes. In general, mass society ideas held strong appeal for any social elites whose power was threatened by change. The essential argument of mass society theory is that media undermine the traditional social order. To cope with this disruption, steps must be taken to either restore the old order or institute a new one. At the end of 19th century and beginning of 20th century a fierce debate erupted over these issues. This conflict often pitted a landed aristocracy whose power was based on tradition against urban elites whose power was based on the industrial revolution. In time, the leaders of the industrial revolution gained enormous control over social change. They strongly favoured all forms of technological development, including mass media. In their view, technology was il1herently good since it facilitated control over the physical environment, expanded human productivity and generated new forms of material wealth. New technology would bring an end to social problems and lead to the development of an ideal social world. But in the short term, industrialization brought with it enormous problems exploitation of workers, pollution and social unrest.

Technology From bullock carts to Past Traditional Slow Local Agricultural and Disconnected

Cyber marts fast modern informational global connected

Communication is of 2 types:

• Interpers{Jlwl communication - message flow, mass media communication, radio, television, newspapers, films etc.

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• Interactive communication - participants have control over exchange. Example - debates, discussion, Television - Question hour on news, editorials - people are invited to write in newspapers. These technologies are converging today, to deliver data, voicemail and video. New communication technologies are leading to changes in society - changes due to NEP (New Economic Policy 1990), International Politics and Public Opinion. These social forces and their use in explaining social change is called Social Determinism. Social policies, values and religion may help change the nature of technologies. This social construction of technology is of great importance in bringing about cultural change. New techniques, new inventions, new models of production, new standards of living have changed the attitudes, beliefs, traditions of people in the information age.

Example: Computers enable 'working from home', automobiles facilitate reading newspapers for the owner in his! her vehicle. McDonaldization of Society What is success? = wealth determines social and cultural status Quantity rather than quality. According to George Ritzer, McDonaldization is a "process by which the principles of the fast food restaur.mts are coming to dominate more and more sectors of the American society as well as the rest of the world." Ritzer uses the 4 guiding principles of Mc. Donald's efficiency, calculability, uniformity and uniformity through

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automation to show that out society is becoming even more rationalized with time. Ritzer argues that society is moving towards highly stabilized and regulated model for getting things done. Many aspects of our daily lives,for example, now involve interactions with automated systems and computers instead of human beings. E-mail and voice mail are replacing letters and phone calls; e-commerce is threatening to over take trips to the shops, bank machines are outnumbering bank tellers and prepackaged foods provide a quicker option than cooking. Ritzer feels that the effects of urbanization and mechanization are harmful for the human spirit and Mc. Donald's is making social life more heterogeneous, more rigid and less personal. Technology through industrialization brings about a lot of social change in the form of social evils, juvenile delinquency, prostitution etc. The family which was a self sufficient unit catering to all the needs of the individual, now utilizes a lot of outside agencies for education, religion and entertainment.

Example: In education we have various institutes, religion is diversified and for entertainment we have clubs. Technology has led to unemployment and poverty. It has also led to inequalities in persuasion of knowledge. Value system has also changed as the caste barriers have worsened or sometimes have been eradicated. More of achievement orientation, intellectual understanding, hard work and scientific critical attitude is stressed upon and has led to progress. Internationally there is 'technology transfer' that is good but on the other hand our self- reliance has given way to being 'elitist' or the so called 'technocratic elite'. o

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2. URBANISM Cities have an important cultural role since pre-industrial societies. Urban migration has increased drastically in the contemporary world. According to The World Bank Report, between 1970 and 1997, the percentage of population living in cities in the high-income nations has increased by about 5 percent. In the low-income nations, it had increased by 47 percent. The expansion of cities came about as a result of population increase, plus the migration of outsiders from fanns, villages and small towns. This migration was often with people moving from peasant backgrounds into cities. Peasants and villagers migrated to the towns because of lack of opportunities in the rural areas, coupled with the apparent advantages and attractions of cities, where the streets were 'paved with gold'. The development of modern cities has had an enormous impact, not only on habits and modes of behaviour, but on patterns of thought and feeling. Wirth's thesis of urbanism as a way of life is concerned less with the internal differentiation of cities than with what urbanism is as a form of social existence. In cities, Wirth points out, large number of people live in close proximity to one another, without knowing most of the others personally. Most contacts between city-dwellers are fleeting and partial, and are means to other ends, rather than being satisfying relationships in themselves. Interactions with salespeople in shops, cashiers in banks, ticket collectors on trains are assign encounters, entered into not for their own sake but as means to other aims. Since those who live in urban areas tend to be highly mobile, there are relatively weak bonds between them. People are involved in many different activities and situations each day. the 'pace of life' is faster than in rural areas. Competition prevails over co-operation.

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Wirth's ideas retain some validity, but in the light of subsequent contributions it is clear that they are overgeneralized. Modem cities frequently involve impersonal, anonymous social relationships, but they are also sources of diversity and sometimes intimacy. Urban life can have a lot of difficulties. Many of the urban poor people are unemployed. They face problems like hunger, unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation facilities and substandard shelter. Disease and early death are also quite common. Of primary concern are the larger transformations which are taking place in family forms- the formation and dissolution of families and households, and the evolving expectations within individuals' personal relationships. The rise in divorce and lone parenting, the emergence of 'reconstituted families' and gay families, and the popularity of cohabitation are all subjects of concern. Yet these transformations cannot be understood apart from the larger changes occurring in our late modem age. Childcare and housework are shared between men and women. Families are becoming more egalitarian in the distribution of roles and responsibilities. The increase in divorce rates has been one of the most significant trends to affect family patterns in many industrial societies. Except for a very small proportion of wealthy people, marriage today no longer has much connection with the desire to perpetuate property and status from generation to generation. As women become more economically independent, marriage is less of a necessary economic partnership than it used to be. Greater overall prosperity means that it is easier to establish a separate household, if there is marital disaffection, than used to be the case. The fact that little stigma now attaches to divorce is in some parts the result of these developments, but also adds

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momentum to them. A further important factor is the growing tendency to evaluate marriage in terms of the levels of personal dissatisfaction it offers. Rising rates of divorce do not seem to indicate a deep dissatisfaction with marriage as such, but an increased determination to make it a rewarding and satisfying relationship.

Lone-parent households have become increasingly common. Most people do not wish to be lone parents, but there is a growing minority to choose to become so- who set to have a child or children without the support of a spouse or partner. 'Single mothers by choice' is an apt description of some lone parents, normally those who possess sufficient resources to manage satisfactorily as a single parent-household. The term 'reconstituted family' refers to a family in which at least one of the adults has children from previous marriage or relationship. Certain difficulties tend to arise. In the first place, there is usually a biological parent living elsewhere whose influence over the child or children is likely to remain powerful. Second, co-operative relations between divorced individuals are often strained when one or both remarries. Example: take the case of a woman with two children who marries a man who also has two, and alllive together. Third, reconstituted families merge children from different backgrounds, who may have varying expectations of appropriate behaviour within the family. Many homosexual men and women now live in stable relationships as couples. But because most countries still do not sanction marriage between homosexuals, relationships between gay men and between lesbians are gf9unded in personal commitment and mutual trust rather than law.

Cohabitation- when a couple live together in a sexual relationship without being married- has become increasingly

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widespread in most societies. If previously marriage was the defining basis of a union between two people, it can no longer be regarded as such. Today, it may be more appropriate to speak of coupling and uncoupling. A growing number of couples in committed long-term relationships choose not to marry, but reside together and raise children together.

3. GLOBALIZATION Globalization refers to the processes in intensifying worldwide social relations and inter-dependence.

Example: Supermarket- the quantity, size of products have increased and international barriers are lessening. Popular products from various countries and languages are available. Globalization should not be thought of simply as the development of worldwide networks - social and economic systems that are remote from our indi vidual concerns. It is a local phenomenon too, one that affects all of us in our daily lives. Patterns of global migration produce culturally diverse societies and new cultural tastes. Globalization is changing the way the world looks, and the way we look at the world. By adopting a global outlook, we become more aware of our connections to people in other societies. We also become more conscious of the many problems the world faces at the start of the 21 st century. The global perspective opens our eyes to the fact that our increasing ties with the rest of the world means that our actions have consequences for others and the worlds' problems have consequences for us. Globalization refers to

the fact that we all live in 'one world', so that illdividuals, groups alld nations become more illterdependent. Globalization is portrayed as an economic phenomenon, right from transnational corporations, upto electronic integration of global markets and capital flow.

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Globalization is the coming together of political, social, cultural and economic factors. Development of information and communication technologies intensify the speed and scope of interaction between people of the world. Example: World cup match watched all over the world. The explosion in global communities has been facilitated by some important advances in technology and the worlds' telecomm,!nications infrastructure. These forms of technology facilitate the 'compression' of time and space: 2 individuals located on opposite sides of the planet- in Tokyo and London for example not only can hold a conversation but can also send moments to each other with the help of satellite technology. The global economy is increasingly dominated by activity that is 'weightless' and intangible. This weightless economy is one in which products have their base in information, as in the case with computer software, media and entertainment products and internet-based services. This new economic context has been described as 'post illdustrial society', 'ill/ormatioll age'

alld more commollly as 'kllowledge ecollomy'. This shift to a global outlook has 2 significant dimensions: • As members of a global community, people increasingly perceive that social responsibility does not stop at national borders, but extends beyond them. • People are increasingly looking to sources other than the nation-state in formulating their own sense Df identity.

The impact of Globalization on our lives: • Globalization is not something that is simply 'out there', operating on a distant plane and not intersecting with individual affairs. Globalization is an 'in here' phenomenon that is affecting our intimate and personal lives in many diverse ways.

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• Globalization is fundamentally changing the nature of our everyday experiences. As the societies in which we live undergo profound transformations, the established institutions that used to underpin them have become out of place. This is forcing a redefinition of intimate and personal aspects of our lives, such as the family, gender roles, sexuality, personal identity, our interactions with others and our relationships at work. The way we think of ourselves and.of our connections with other people is being profoundly altered through globalization. • Under conditions of globalization, however, we are faced with a move towards a new individualism in which people have actively to constitute themselves and construct their own identities. Example: Today the son of a tailor could choose any number of paths in constructing his future. • Globalization is forcing people to live in a more, reflexive way. This means that we are constantly responding and adjusting to the changing environment around us; as individuals, we evolve with and within the larger context in which we live. • Popular culture images, ideas, goods and styles are now disseminated around the world more rapidly than ever before. • Cultural Imperialism, values, styles and outlook of the Western world are spreading over individual cultures. • Corporate globalization seems to be the latest corporate 'mantra'. • Corporate communication will have to choose the right media vehicles to the international community.

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Cultural Change

CULTURAL CHANGE

Technology, Urbanism and Globalization are three important processes which have immensely contributed throughout the world. All three have been important factors of cultural change. They can sometimes be inter-connected like changes and innovations in technology like industrialization that led to urban growth and development, and as a whole leading to globalization. Example: The contribution of technology like the introduction of the internet, especially in the urban centres, has led to the world as being seen as a 'melting pot' of cultures.

r---------11

QUESTIONS

11---------.

1. Discuss the Mass Society Theory.

2 Elaborate how McDonaldization of society occurs. 3. Discuss the evolution of technology in detail. 4. Elucidate Wirth's thesis "Urbanism as a way of Life". 5. Explain the concept of Globalization. 6. With the help of relevant examples, discuss the role played by globalization in our lives.

MEDIA AND

CULTURE

Media and Culture share a very close relationship. They both influence the other and get affected by the other in tum. Changes in culture can take place by the influence of media through changes in people's attitudes. (A) POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE RELATIONSHIP OF

MEDIA AND CULTURE Media and culture share a relationship which is both positive and negative. Certain elements of influence are positive, for example: media leading to a more positive change in education in society. It can also be negative, for example: many of the traditional customs in culture are fast disappearing due to influence of media. Certain negative impacts of the media on culture are the media's impact on violence, sexual promiscuity, racial stereotypes, economic exploitation and mindless consumption of commodities. The new media content is also said to have a lot of negative impact. For example, the content matter of new (85)

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Inlroduclioll 10 Cu/lure Sludies

media, like internet pornography, which has had a lot of negative impact, especially on the younger generations. Aside, from that, there is a lot of violence in the video games, having a negative bearing on the minds of the children. As far as high culture and popular culture are concerned,

Theodore Adomo had said that the mass-produced cultural goods of a low quality had replaced the high culture and the traditional folk culture. It also argued that if people start getting easily enteltained by pop music, they would hardly be interested in attending a classical opera. Another view is that the media can overwhelm the 'true' culture of people in order to perpetuate class hegemony. On the other hand, media and culture also have a positive relationship. Media has helped in providing education opportunities. It has also helped in making people across the world aware about the different and unique cultures, which exist in different places of the world. Aside from this, the media can also help in reinforcing the existing culture and. spreading it to other people as well. Media can also help in the removal of certain elements of a culture which may not be desirable, for instance media can help make people aware about the evil practices of dowry, child marriage, female infanticide etc. POSITIVE IMPACf

NEGATIVE IMPACf

RELATION BETWEEN MEDIA AND CULTURE

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Media As Culture Industries: The Commodification of Culture One of the most intriguing and challenging perspectives to emerge from critical cultural studies is the commodificatioll of culture, the study of what happens when culture is mass produced and distributed in direct competition with locally based cultures. According to this view-point, media are industries specializing in the production and distribution of cultural commodities. As with other modem industries, they have grown at the expense of small; local producers, and the consequences of this displacement have been and continue to be disruptive to people's lives. In earlier social orders such as medieval kingdoms, everyday life culture was created and controlled by geographically and socially isolated communities. Though kings and lords would dominate an overall social order and have their own culture, it was often totally separate from and had relatively little influence over the folk cultures structuring the everyday experience of average people. Only in modem social orders have elites begun to develop subversive forms of mass culture capable of intruding into and disrupting everyday life culture. These new forms can function as very subtle bllt effective ideologies, leading people to misinterpret their experiences and then act against their own self-interest. Elites are able to disrupt everyday cultures by using a rather insidious and ingenious strategy. They take bits and pieces of folk culture, weave them together to create attractive mass culture content, and then market it as a substitute for everyday forms of folk culture. Thus, not only are elites able to subvert legitimate local cultures but also they eam profits doing so. People actually subsidize the subversion of their evt-ryday culture.

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What are the consequences of lifting bits of everyday life culture oilt of their context, repackaging, and then marketing them back to the people? 1. When elements of everyday culture are selected for repackaging, only a very limited range are chosen and important elements are overlooked or consciously ignored. For example: Elements of culture important for structuring the experience of small minority groups are likely to be ignored while culture practiced by large segments of the population will be emphasized. 2. The repackaging process involves dramatization of those elements of culture that have been selected. Certain forms of action are highlighted, their importance is exaggerated, and others are ignored. Such dramatization makes the final commodity attractive to as large an audience as possible. Potentially boring, controversial, or offensive elements are removed. Features are added that are known to appeal to large audience segments. Thus attention-getting and emotionarousing actions,for example: sex and violence, are routinely featured in media. This is a major reason that car chases, gun fights, and verbal conflict dominate prime-time television and Hollywood movies, but casual conversations between friends are rare. 3. The marketing of cultural commodities is done in a way that maximizes the likelihood that they will intrude into and ultimately disrupt everyday life. The success of the media industries depends on marketing as much content as possible to as many people as possible with no consideration of how this content will actually be used or what its long-term consequences will be. Example: An analogy can be made to the issue of pollution of the physical environment caused by food packaging. The packaging adds nothing to the nutritional value of the food but is merely a marketing device - it moves

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the product off the shelf. Pollution results when we carelessly dispose of this packaging or when there is so much of it that there is no place to put it. Unlike trash, media commodities are less tangible and their packaging is completely integrated into the cultural content. There are no recycling bins for cultural packaging. When we consume the product, we consume the packaging. It intrudes and disrupts the cultural framework where it operates.

4. The elites who operate the cultural industries generally are ignorant of the consequences of thei~ work. This ignorance is based partly on their alienation flOm the people who consume their products. Ignorance is maintained partly through strategic avoidance or denial of evidence about consequences in much the same way that the tobacco industry has concealed and lied about research documenting the negative effects of smoking.

5. Disruption of everyday life takes many formssome are obviously linked to consumption of especially deleterious content, but other forms of disruption are very subtle and occur over long time periods. Disruption ranges from propagation of misconceptions about the social world- like those cultivat~~m analysis has exarnined- to disruption of social institutions. Consequences can be both microscopic and macroscopic and take many different forms. For example, Joshua Meyrowitz (1985) argued that media have deprived us of a sense of place. Neil Postman (1985) believes that media focus too much on entertainment, with serious long-term consequences.

(B) DISTORTIONS OF CULTURE To distort means to put something out of shap~ or to misrepresent facts. Media is supposed to accurately represent facts of culture. At times, we find that media does not do this.

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Cultures are shown differently from what they are. For instance, the African community is at times shown in a very negative manner, or a stereotypical manner, especially in the Western media. This further reinforces their negative image in society. Asians and Asian culture is depicted to be backward and different. Indian culture is also presented as being rigid, backward and at certain points of time as being strange. What media does is highlight only certain elements of a particular culture and show them from a negative point of view or these elements of a culture are not shown in their true context. Sometimes, the reasons behind the unique cultural practices are left unexplained and hence they get misunderstood very often. Though media is responsible for creating a new global culture and also promoting cultural tolerance throughout the world, yet it does distort culture at many times.

Advertising: The Ultimate Cultural Commodity Not surprisingly, critical cultural studies researchers have directed their most devastating criticism towards advertising. Advertising is viewed as the ultimate cultural commodity. Advertising packages promotional messages so that they will be attended to and acted on by people who often have little interest in and no real need for most of the advertised products or services. Consumption of specific products is routinely portrayed as the best way to construct a worthwhile personal identity, have fun, make friends and influence people or solve problems. Advertising is intended to encourage consumption that serves the interest of product manufacturers but may not be in the interest of individual consumers. Advertising is clearly designed to intrude into and disrupt routine buying habits and purchase decisions. It attempts to stimulate and reinforce consumption even if it might be detrimental to the long-term health of individuals. For some products, such as alcohol and

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cigarettes, successful advertising campaigns induce people to engage in self-destruction actions. In many cases, we are simply encouraged to consume things that serve little real purpose for us or serve only the purpose that advertising itself creates. One obvious example is when we buy specific brands of clothing just because their advertising has promoted them as status symbols. Clothing does provide basic protection for our bodies, but the same protection could be provided by used clothing from a thrift store.

(C) POPULAR CULTURE Social scientists debate the distinction between culture for the elites and culture for the masses. Some sociologists argue that social class determines cultural differences, while others argue that the media dissolve class-based distinctions between high and popular culture and create "media cultures" instead. Another point of debate among sociologists is the extent to which mass culture is detrimental to the public that consumes it and to society as a whole. Since the 1930's, most discussions of recorded culture have distinguished between culture for the elites, often termed "high" culture, and culture for the mass public called "popular" or "mass" culture. By and large, sociologists have contended that the characteristics of different social classes determine their cultural preferences. Things such as weaIth, education, and upbringing are associated with preference for high culture cultural products designed for, patronized by, and often controlled by a small number of society'S elite. Those who possess little or no education and wealth typically consume popular culture, culture created by the economic elite. American sociologists have asserted that high culture and popular culture express different values and represent different

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aesthetic standards. There is a distinct separation between high and popular culture, that the two are consumed by different classes, and that the prestige of each class is attached to its culture. Some conservative critics claim that mass culture is profane and dehumanizing and that it encroaches upon high cultural production. Such critics call for the re-establishment and protection of high culture for elite consumption. Some radical critics agree with the conservative assessment of mass culture as destructive and dehumanizing but they focus on mass culture's negative impact on those who consume it and upon society as a whole rather than on the high culture upon which it encroaches. Radical critics who share this orientation often call for "cultural mobility", raising the masses' tastes through education, opportunity and economic redistribution. Cultural mobility, it is argued, would free the public from the demagoguery of the economic elite and provide them the opportunity to appreciate high culture fare.

In the middle of the debate stand moderate or liberal critics who take the position that popular culture is harmful neither to the people who consume it nor to the society as a whole. They declare that all taste cultures are of equal worth if they meet the needs of the pUblic. These liberal sociologists therefore call for the reinvigoration of various taste cultures or subcultures.

In the late 1980's, many sociologists and communication scholars began challenging validity of the class-based distinction between high culture and popular culture. Viewing this classification as increasingly. rrbitrary, some critics claim that modern media, particularly television, create "media cultures" accessible to multiple taste publics. Many sociologists and communication scholars now argue th~t media culture, rather

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Media and Culture

than high culture, set the standards for culture and shapes popular taste.

.....-------f: QUESTIONS :1---------. 1. Discuss the relationship between media and culture. 2. Write a note on the Commodification of culture. 3. Explain distortions of culture with relevant examples. 4. Analyze the role of advertising in culture.

.

5. Elucidate the concept of popular culture with relation to media.

~IOGRA~ 1.

Keesing Roger and Strathern Andrew: Cultural Anthropology- A Contemporary Perspective~ Harcourt Brace, 1998.

2.

Stanley Baran: Introduction to Mass Communication - Media Literacy and Culture, Mayfield Publishing Company, 1999.

3.

Ed. During, Simon: The Cultural Studies Reader.

4.

Scupin Raymond: Cultural Anthrc,pology - A Global Perspective, Prentice - Hall, 2000.

5.

Nanda and Warms: Cultural Anthropology, Wadsworth, 2002.

6.

Straubhaar Joseph. LaRose Robert: Media NowUnderstanding Media, CultlP'~ and Technology, Thomson Wadsworth, 2004.

i.

S.L. Joshi and P.e. L;n: Social AnelropOIGgy, R~wat Publications, 2001.