UNIT 1 Culture Its Birth and Evolution

Culture and Civilization UCAM

Margarita Navarro Prez

UNIT 1. Understanding culture. Culture its birth and

evolution.

1.1. SOME DEFINITIONS GETTING THE FEELING FOR IT.

Culture: an understanding and definition of the term.

Warm up activity:

What does culture mean for you? Why? You can give an answer by writing a list, a

semantic map, clustering

Come together into pairs or small groups of 3-4 and compare your writings. What do

you agree about? What do you disagree about? Why do you think that you disagree

about these ideas?

Activity 1: To enlarge our understanding of culture

In pairs discuss the meaning of only one of the following:

Turkish culture, youth culture, European culture, American culture, African

culture, Italian culture, primitive culture Arab culture, Thai culture, Consumer

culture, internet culture, punk culture, urban culture, rural culture, island

culture, food culture, indie culture, feminist culture.

Each pair makes a list of at least 5 things, ideas, words that they associate with their

category. Pairs then split, and two large groups are formed; these people then present

their culture and its associations to their larger group. The other members must add at

least 3 more ideas/words to the list.

How, now, has your understanding of culture changed, compared to when you first

thought of it? What does culture include that you didnt think of before? Why?

In reality, cultural studies is a little bit like that. Lets see. If we start at the beginning



http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cu

lture

culture [kuhl-cher] noun, verb,

cultured, culturing.

noun 1. the quality in a person or society that

arises from a concern for what is regarded

as excellent in arts, letters, manners,

scholarly pursuits, etc.

2. that which is excellent in the arts,

manners, etc.

3. a particular form or stage of

civilization, as that of a certain nation or

period: Greek culture.

4. development or improvement of the

mind by education or training.

5. the behaviors and beliefs characteristic

of a particular social, ethnic, or age

group: the youth culture; the drug

culture.

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/culture

culture - definition

NOUN /klt(r)/

1[UNCOUNTABLE] activities involving music, literature, and other arts

If you're looking for culture, then Paris is the place for you.

Britain's literary culture

2 [COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE] a set of ideas, beliefs, and ways of behaving of a particular

organization or group of people

The two firms have very different corporate cultures.

Some organizations encourage a culture of secrecy.

[COUNTABLE] a society that has its own set of ideas, beliefs, and ways of behaving

people from different cultures

ancient cultures

[COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE] a set of ideas, beliefs, and ways of behaving of a particular

society

societies that share the same language and culture

exposure to Western culture through films and music

See also canteen culture, youth culture 3 [COUNTABLE] BIOLOGY a group of bacteria or other cells that have been grown in a scientific

experiment

a collection of animal cell cultures

a. [UNCOUNTABLE] BIOLOGY the process by which a group of bacteria or other cells is

grown in a scientific experiment

tissue culture

4 [UNCOUNTABLE] in agriculture, the process of growing crops or breeding animals

the culture of genetically modified crops

singular culture

plural cultures

Related dictionary

definitions

culture VERB

culture shock NOUN

youth culture NOUN

canteen culture NOUN

culture medium NOUN

culture vulture NOUN

popular culture NOUN

enterprise culture

NOUN

compensation culture

NOUN



Learning objectives:

- To understand the birth of culture within a specific socio-historical moment, its

role in society and its evolution.

- To understand the meaning of culture and what cultural studies do nowadays,

from the perspective of cultural studies as developed in the UK.

- To develop critical thinking and to express personal opinions.

Rip it up1

http://www.youtube.com/w

atch?v=tpeLSMKNFO4

Have you seen this film?

What happens here?

The teacher believes poetry cannot be measured according to a metric system, he

believes poetry must be felt; we should judge it according to what it makes us feel.

Well, what I want to do in this unit is to do something similar with your idea of culture,

if you have a traditional idea of culture that is.

CULTURE IN A FEW WORDS:

The idea of Culture appeared in the 19th century as a reaction towards to socio-historic-

economic situation in Britain. The industrialization of society brought about many

positive changes: the spread of the written word and with it more people became

literate, the improvement of transport, economic boom, etc. However, the working

classes saw their life impoverish, they died soon and had no time for anything other

than working.

Arnold reacted to this situation and saw Culture as a means by which to change

peoples life, to help them improve, to be able to judge better... Although he didnt

necessarily think it was the role of the higher classes to maintain culture alive.

The Leavises followed Arnolds idea and wrote the guides on how to judge what a good

example of culture is, this way people could learn to discriminate what to read and

what not to read. T.S. Eliot also believed in the role of the elite classes as the ones in



charge of preserving culture. Popular or mass culture was seen as a force which

nullified people and made them passive consumers of whatever they were fed. Therefore

the role of high culture was to resist this overwhelming force.

The new generations of critics understood culture as a whole way of life, everything is a

possible object of study. For them popular culture appears as a reaction to a social

situation in which certain cultures appear as a rebellion against the dominant culture.

The material that follows is the presentation and contextualization of this evolution.

The meaning of the term culture has changed over time, especially in the period of the

transition from traditional social formations to modernity.

The first and earliest meaning of culture can be found in writing in the fifteenth

century when the word was used to refer to the tending of crops (cultivation) or looking

after animals. This meaning is retained in modern English in words such as agriculture

and horticulture.

By the eighteenth century, culture had acquired distinct class overtones. Only the

wealthy classes of Europe could aspire to such a high level of refinement. The modern

meaning of culture, which associates it with the arts, is also closely related to this

definition

Lets start at the beginning.

1.2. WRESTLING AGAINST MASS CULTURE, OR CULTURE WITH A

CAPITAL C.

The industrial revolution took place in the 19th

century. Which effects did the industrial

revolution have on society? think mainly about the workers...

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION:

The towns offered a better chance of work and higher wages than the

countryside, where many families were trapped in dire poverty and

seasonal employment. On the other hand, the countryside was

healthier. A baby born in a large town with a population of more than

100,000 in the 1820s might expect to live to 35 - in the 1830s, life

expectancy was down to a miserable 29. In 1851, a boy born in inner

Liverpool had a life expectancy of only 26 years, compared with a boy

born in the small market town of Okehampton, who could expect to

live to 57.

In 1854, the commissioners appointed to enquire into the cholera

outbreak in Newcastle-upon-Tyne found that about 50 per cent of

families had only a single room. Most houses did not have an

independent water supply or privy, and what was shared was often

the responsibility of no one. The low life-expectancy of babies born

into such conditions is easily explained.



Now we have a setting and an idea of what was going on in society.

1.2.1. Matthew Arnold

(1822-1888) British poet and cultural critic.

- Culture is a study of perfection. It moves by the force [] of the moral and

social passion for doing good (Arnold in Walton 2008:15)

So. What does this mean? Culture has an important ethical purpose and thus

it is meant to bring about positive change.

- Culture selects the best of everything and helps in its preservation. It helps us to

be able to judge better, to discover ourselves through observing, reading and

thinking. It helps us to better ourselves by bringing us closer to perfection.

Which effects do you think it had on this argument? The industrial revolution

dehumanized people and thats why Arnold was so concerned about the nurturing of the

soul/intellect. He believed this was very much needed in a society obsessed with

materialism, unrestricted competition, making a lot of money, a time with huge dissent

in religion and politics. Culture is needed in order to educate people, not only the upper

classes but the working classes too.

Arnold didnt believe it was in the hand of the upper classes to bring about culture, for

him this was classless and it could only come from a disinterested search and pursuit of

knowledge. This was a necessary condition to make the best that has been thought and

known in the world current everywhere (Arnold in Walton 2008:20)

1.2.2. The Leavises.

We are in Cambridge in the 1930s now and our protagonists are the Leavisites: F.R. and

Queenie Leavis.

They saw culture as divided into two main categories. On the one hand there were the

intellectual and creative works, or what we might call high literary culture, and on

the other, the pursuits and habits of what they referred to as the ordinary or common

people (Walton 2008: 31) the latter is also subdivided within two further categories:

those which are the products of organic folk communities and the ones which were the

unfortunate consequence of urban, mass industrial society these were considered to be

the most undesirable ones. (Walton 2008: 32)



The Leavises portrayed a very specific image of British history, talking about

Shakespeares times as better, more pure and fuller, where the Industrial Revolution had

not yet spoiled and shattered the unity of a healthy organic, common culture.

ACTIVITY 1. The Globe Theatre and Elizabethan

times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgnInT4x8kA

&feature=related

PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITY:

Link the expressions with their definition:

a) To frown upon

b) To bait

c) Bawdy

d) Outlawed

e) In the clink

f) Slang

g) Rowdy

h) To make a profit

i) Cobbled street

j) Brewery

k) Backstage

1. A company that makes beer.

2. To look disapprovingly upon.

3. Road covered with round stones.

4. Noisy and causing trouble.

5. To put food in a trap to attract animals/ to deliberately try to make someone angry.

6. Something that is illegal.

7. To be in prison.

8. When you earn money from selling something.

9. Referring to sex in a humorous way.

10. Words or expressions that are very informal and are not considered suitable for

more formal situations.

11. The area behind the stage in a theatre, including the rooms where the actors get

dressed.

AFTER LISTENING.



1. What happened to the Globe in 1611?

2. What did the Puritans do?

3. What happened in the late twentieth century?

4. What happened in 1666?

5. Why is the Globe so special in London nowadays?

6. What are the different parts of the globe called?

7. Why did the bishop make a profit of the Winchester palace in Southwark?

Lets go back to the Leavises.

LEAVISES. Question 1. After having watched this video, what kind of society do

they portray? In your opinion, is it a high society which looks better than

industrial times, as the Leavises argued? Bear in mind that Elizabeth ruled from 1558

to 1603.

The Leavisite approach to culture:

Vs.

!!

"#

!

$%&''()

%#*+*

!!,

-).'()

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!*


/ Margarita Navarro Prez

LEAVISES. Question 2. Considering Arnolds and the Leavises point of view on

culture, how do you think it relates to social class? What kind of implications do

you think it entails?

LEAVISES. Question 3. How would the following character Vicky Pollard fit

into this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxif

myYcOws&list=LP_xtfJcRSnP8&index

=1&feature=plcp

This is inspired in a real TV programme

called The Trisha Show, it is a chat

show where people go and talk about

their personal life. Can you think of an

equivalent in Spanish?

LEAVISES. Question 4. Which impression do you get after watching this video?

Do you recognise her as part of your society?

LEAVISES. Question 5. Which social class do you indentify her in?

LEAVISES. Question 6. How do you feel about her? Do you feel sorry for her or

do you just laugh at her? Reflect on your answer and on the implications of your

feelings

According to the Leavises, in order to avoid barbarism from taking over society, it was

necessary:

1st To learn how to discriminate which cultural objects are worthy of study. Who

do you think, would according to the Leavises be the right people to do so?

Yes, you are correct, the educated few.

2nd

For this to happen, we need to establish a cannon, in order to be able to

discern the good from the bad. It is necessary to train peoples critical awareness. Which

they obviously did in The Great Tradition (1948), Culture and Environment (1933)2 and

Revaluation (1936)

The Leavises also talk about the danger of the Americanization of society. LEAVISES.

Question 7. What do you think about it? Do you see it as a threat or as something

positive?

2 This book was written by F.R. Leavis and Denys Thomson.


0 Margarita Navarro Prez

This defence of high society against the barbaric forces of industrialization carries with

it the idea of RESISTANCE.

Cultured minorities The masses

They cultivate minds through high arts

and provide ways of discriminating

between great and inferior forms of

culture.

Enjoy mass culture in a passive or

uncritical way with no sense of taste.

They are involved in consciousness-

raising projects.

They engage in unthinking consumption.

They provide training to counterbalance

the worst effects of industrial machine

culture and set up resistance against the

devaluation of emotions and the quality of

life.

They are lost in the cheap sentimental

appeals of popular novels, press, TV and

films, etc. and are subjected to the

dehumanizing forces of industry and

commerce.

(Walton 2008: 37)

Thomson and Leavis saw mass culture as a means by which to manipulate. LEAVISES.

Question 8. What do you think? Do you agree? Can you give examples of real life

where you think this happens?

Therefore the study of culture requires interpretation, but with a specific end, to make

people aware of the invisible forces around them in order to improve society.

1.2.3. T. S. ELIOT.

He continued with the idea of cultured elites whose main role was to uphold

civilization.

He emphasized the importance and relation of culture as a way of life. This

culture can be visible in the social system, the arts, customs, habits and religion.

He asserted that cultures affect each other.

(For further information on this stance also see Theodor Adorno and the Frankfurt

School)


1 Margarita Navarro Prez

THE ORIGINS OF CULTURE. Question 9. After considering Arnolds, the

Leavises and T.S. Eliots views on culture, how can we explain and understand

culture as inexorably related to power? (see scanned material pg 44)

1.3. The new generation.

1.3.1. Richard Hoggart.

Richard Hoggart was the founding director of the Birmingham Centre

for Contemporary Cultural Studies (1964). His most renowned book is

The Uses of Literacy (1957)

Main contributions:

He offered close readings of popular culture without being negative, he didnt

necessarily condemn them. He came from the working classes.

He showed how different aspects of life were interconnected, in a way that pubs,

an interest in sports and magazines could be understood as contributing to a way

of life, and were thus worthy of study.

1.3.2. Raymond Williams.

He could be said to be the hero of contemporary cultural critics. He

stressed the idea of culture as a whole way of life.

Main works:

Culture and Society (1958). He understands culture as our reaction towards

changes around us, in our everyday life. RAYMOND WILLIAMS. Question

10. So, what implications does this have as far as the study of culture is

concerned?

The Long Revolution (1961). Culture is not a fixed category; it changes

according to the socio-historical context, given that peoples reactions to the

moment theyre living change too. For him, political institutions and

conventions, whether they are in the field of artistic institutions or mass

entertainment, are of the same order. Thus, when studying a societys culture we

need to look at every single aspect of life. Mass produced popular newspapers

are not something to be dismissed as impoverishing, but they are seen as the

product of complex cultural processes.



Culture is...

a particular way of life, which expresses certain meanings and values not only

in art and learning but also in institutions and ordinary behaviour. The analysis

of culture, from such a definition, is the clarification of the meaning and values

implicit in a particular way of life, a particular culture... the characteristic forms

through which members of the society communicate (Williams 2001:57)

John Storey describes how for Williams culture is a realised signifying system Storey

(2010: 4). What do you think he means? For example, look at this:

Storey explains that culture is a system by which meanings are created and shared.

While a Japanese person may be paying you complements, he/she actually means the

opposite. If you were to be a little honest... you would most definitely offend them.

This is a further example of how different cultures create meaning.

Raymond Williams explains that culture is ordinary What do you think he means by

this?



What he means is that culture is not specific to a social group, but it is in fact

everyones. Meaning-making is not something that belongs to a privileged few but to

everybody. However, we are not all involved in the process of making meaning to the

same degree, and that is when Gramscis theory will come into play.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b

S1ePEZZCDY

RAYMOND WILLIAMS. Question 11. According to Williams definition and

understanding of culture, we can now analyse this video without anybody sniggering at

us. So, how could you use this in you English lesson? Which aspects of English

culture would you explore here? Which language aspects would you relate this

video to?

So far we have spoken about society and changes in society.... there is something very

important in society which has a very important role in our life and we have not

discussed yet, in fact it has to do with the medium I have created this material with, and

I am using to present this to you... Yes, thats right, new technologies.

New Technologies and their effect in our society and on culture.

What do you think?

Raymond Williams: The medium by which culture is transmitted is important, but it

does not supersede the object, that is, technologies have undeniably changed the way we

communicate but they do not modify what we say. For example, text messages on the

mobile phone modified the way we started to write, twitter has helped us economise

words... technologies have changed the way we may communicate, perhaps even the

amount of exchanges we have with others, but they have not changed our reactions to

the world around us.

However....

McLuhan claims that Print technology created the public and that in turn electric

technology created the mass (McLuhan in Walton 2008:129) RAYMOND



WILLIAMS. Question 12. What do you think about this? Who do you agree or

disagree with? Justify your answer.

Television has been around for a long time. RAYMOND WILLIAMS. Question 13.

How do you think the internet has changed the way television programmes are

produced? Which factors do you think have had an influence on this?

1.3.3. Stuart Hall.

He became the director of the Centre of Contemporary Cultural

Studies at Birmingham University in 1969.

The Popular Arts (1964). Hall wrote this book in collaboration

with Paddy Whannel. Popular culture is to be studied with as much

enthusiasm and rigour as samples of high culture. It is necessary to

look at cultural products from a critical standpoint. This will not be a

judgemental criticism in which we describe something as negative of

useless. We will choose a topic which is of our concern and analyse every single

aspect of it, i.e.: when was it created? Which is the historical and social moment

where it appeared? What was it created for? (as in: is it a rebellion against

something, or a conformist view of society?)

Finally another meaning of the word culture has emerged, which has had a considerable

impact on all the social sciences. It differs in emphasis from the other definitions,

however, by concentrating more on the symbolic dimension, and on what culture does

rather than on what culture is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxif

myYcOws&list=LP_xtfJcRSnP8&index

=1&feature=plcp

Lets have another look at Vicky

Pollard... now, from a cultural studies

stance...

STUART HALL. Question 14. Which

implications would you identify in this

video now? How would you deal with

this video in your classroom if you were to use it?



1.4. Antonio Gramsci and the role of hegemony within cultural studies. Only

scratching the surface

Before going on any further it is important to clarify the term hegemony. What is

hegemony?

According to The Free Dicitonary hegemony is defined

as the dominance or leadership of one social group or

nation over others

You may wonder what this has to do with culture. Well, it has a lot to do with it. Do you

remember what we said in relation to Raymond Williams and the understanding of

culture as a realised signifying system? If you remember, we said that although every

single one of us is involved in the processes of the creation and sharing of meaning we

said that not all of us play the same role. According to Gramsci, the making of meaning,

like any other social activity, is inexorably involved with relations of power.

Specific forms of popular culture appear at specific moments in time and within a

specific social situation. Certain groups have appeared as a rebellion against the

dominant culture at the time... as a revolution. However, sometimes this rebellion has

become part of the dominant culture after a while. Can you think of an example?



For example Reggae appeared as a rebellious movement against the dominant culture but... do

you think that nowadays it has the same protest objective as it did before? Do you listen to

Reggae music?

Popular or mass culture was described by the Leavises as something negative that numbed its

consumers, whereas nowadays popular culture is described as that which is widely favoured or

well liked by many people (Storey, 1993:7)

Now have a look at the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbr7

SWWgenU

But hold on, before you watch this video

there is some vocabulary we need to

make sure we understand.

Try to link these words with their meanings; you will need to understand them in order to better

understand this video.

a. Review

b. This works!

c. Clunky

d. Blend

e. Faux

f. Vaudeville

g. Revue

h. Tap-dance

i. Drill

j. Swinging

k. Reviled

l. Sweetheart

m. To label

n. To get rid of something

o. Speak out

1. A type of popular entertainment of the late 19th and early 20

th century, a kind of light

entertainment, where there could be a mixture of different types of art.

2 To state your opinion firmly and publicly about something.

3 To use a word or a phrase to describe someone or something.

4 A method of military training that involves practising things such as marching or holding

weapons.

5 Hated and criticized very much.

6 Large, solid, and heavy in a way that is not attractive.

7 Used for talking to someone who you love.

8 It functions properly.

9 Artificial.



10 A combination of different tastes, styles, qualities etc.

11 The process of studying or examining a situation, policy, or idea in order to decide

whether it is suitable or satisfactory.

12 A type of performance with songs, dances and humour.

13 A type of dancing in which you move your feet very quickly and make sounds with the

special shoes you wear.

14 Exciting and fashionable.

15 To throw away, give away or make something disappear.

This video was put up on the web in 2008, so it is not that far away in time. As you can see it is

an American creation. Actually, the fact that it is American is more important than you may

think. In the USA the terms high and low culture are still being used, whereas in the UK

experts in the field of cultural studies talk about dominant and popular culture.

In this course we will be looking at both dominant and popular culture, but always from the

perspective of cultural studies as they have developed in the UK.



Further reading: Walton, D (2008) How to Dominate the Masses without Resorting to the

Inquisition: Antonio Gramsci and Hegemony Theory in Introducing Cultural Studies. Learning

through practice. London: Sage.

Bibliography:

Storey, J. (1993) An Introductory Guide to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture. Hemel

Hempstead: Harvester Weatsheaf.

____. (2010) Culture and Power in Cultural studies. The politics if Signification. Edinburgh:

Edinburgh University Press.

Walton, D. (2008) Introducing Cultural Studies. Learning through practice. London: Sage.

Williams, R. (2001) The Long Revolution. Hertfordshire: Encore Editions.

http://dictionary.reference.com/

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/

Documents

UNIT 1 Culture Its Birth and Evolution