Culture, Socialisation and Identity

• Norms


  Expected Patterns of behaviour that are based on the values of a culture
• Values


  A set of beliefs and ideas that a culture sees as important which are generally accepted by the majority of that culture
• Cultural Diversity


  Refers to a variety or difference within a society
• Subculture


  A culture within a culture- a group with a set of Norms and Values that may differ from wider society
• Cultural hybridity


  A merging of two or more cultures
• High culture


  A culture that has a very high status (fox hunting, Shakespeare, opera etc.)
• Popular Culture


  Activities that are practiced by the majority within society (watching TV, listening to pop music etc.)
• Consumer Culture


  A culture that is based upon the purchasing of goods
• Intracultural


  Diversity within cultures
• Intercultural


  Diversity between cultures
• Global Culture


  Cultural Products, Activities that have become universal
• Creolisation


  When a people are uprooted from one culture and placed in another. They are forced to abandon ancestral practices in favour of ones from the new culture
• What was Margaret Mead’s study called?

  Sex and Temperament in 3 primitive societies
• What did Margaret Mead find about gender?


  It is not biological but socially constructed
• What do postmodernists say about popular culture?


  Mass access to media allows individuals to choose their own identity. Their identity is also fluid
• What did Bourdieu say was the distinction between high and popular culture


  High culture is more easily accessible to the upper classes than popular culture so is not necessarily superior
• What is Bourdieu critical of?


  The idea that the pursuits and interests of the higher economic classes is of greater value than those of the majority
• What does Postman say we are doing?


  Amusing ourselves to death
• What does Bourdieu say popular culture is


  A form of brainwashing in order to dumb down the masses of people who consume it so they don’t question their position in society. “False consciousness“