The definition of what constitutes ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture has been a point of contention for many years, not just among cultural theorists but among individuals. When one attempts to define these terms, they’re met with a range of difficulties; things like context and cultural hegemony need to be considered. With public and illegal art practices as reference points, the concepts of ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture and whether they’re culturally constructed will be explored. Context plays a very large part in determining whether something is considered ‘high’ or ‘low’ culture. In a study based in the Papua New Guinean village of Gapun, it was discovered, through the villagers’ interpretation of a Rambo film, that no text has a one universal meaning (Kulick & Willson, 1994). This concept is relevant beyond juxtaposed cultures; it applies to texts within the same overarching cultural context. There are many variables that help form the cultural meaning of something, meaning that seemingly everyone in certain contexts seem to…
People in low-context cultures such as America tend to be more confrontational and direct attitude toward conflicts; people in high-context cultures such as China tend to be more non-confrontational and indirect attitude toward conflicts (Ting-Toomey, 2012). Therefore, they believe that certain degree of disagreement will help them solve the problems and provide the needs for other people. Ting-Toomey (2006) examined why Americans tend to be more confrontational and direct attitude when dealing…
Low rider culture In the video “A rolling Canvas”, shows many people sharing their Low Rider life and how cars aren’t just for driving, but show how cars made a family. When we think of Low rider, we think about how the mass media scares people thinking that they are “thugs”, gangster” and other propaganda words. Media makes their tattoo, cars and fast speeds as a negative sanctions, but people only use ethnocentric lens due to the media and don’t see with an open mind. In “A rolling…
revealed that the main effect of self-esteem was not significant, F (1, 86) = 0.21, p = 0.65. This suggests that participants with low (M = 4.29) and high (M = 4.41) self-esteem did not significantly differ in their self-reported mood after completing the anagram task. However, there was a significant relationship between the task difficulty and mood of the participants, F (1, 86) = 21.65, p < 0.001. This suggests that participants reported their mood to be more positive if they were assigned…
personal decisions. Transferring the same traits in other cultures can cause communication crisis and cultural conflict. This paper discusses how in the case, "Shame and Making Truth," the move was taken by Cameron Hay to expose and accuse a family member of stealing from her resulted in conflicts between individualism versus collectivism, high and low context culture, and indulgence versus restraint cultures. The paper also discusses various ways the author could have employed to successfully…
Today’s society is filled with unrealistic representations of what it means to be successful. People often emulate the culture represented through advertisements and social media. As a result, people lack finding their individuality, due to conforming to advertisements’ norms and popular culture. This is shown throughout James B. Twitchell’s “What We Are to Advertisers.” Twitchell explains that following advertisements, consumption communities are often formed, eventually leading to stereotypes…
sceptical friend that popular culture was a valid object for academic study? Apprehension around studying popular culture can be attributed to an understanding of popular culture as meaning ‘low culture’, and therefore having little worthiness of study. However, the conceptual division between high and low culture, is now understood to be of no relevance to aesthetic worth, but more to political and social distinctions. Remove the word popular from the question, and the consideration of…
morals of how you use any of these words depend upon what your trying relate. For instance, “I have faith in God” is much more powerful than just saying, “I have confidence in God.” Thus, the stronger your faith is in God the word you use to describe those feelings will be much more powerful. The etymology of the word belief is written in the Oxford English Dictionary: “Probably an alteration (with prefix substitution: see BE- prefix and compare slightly earlier BELIEVE v.) of YLEVE n.…
Introduction There are various groups of individuals who are stigmatized by culture. These groups can be stigmatized by disease, religion, or race to name a few. Understanding these groups better helps maximize the care they receive in the hospitals and how they are treated as human beings. One of the more popular stigmas present in the healthcare field is impaired vision. This is a problem that affects millions of people in the U.S each year. It might not seem as extreme as the some of the…
To study popular culture is to challenge the assumption that high culture carries worth, and low culture is the binary opposite therefore lacking in value. Popular culture, is the everyday ordinariness of life (Williams 1958: 93) and saturates everyday life. Popular culture is so widespread that its presence cannot be ignored within an academic study of humanities. The dilemmas surrounding popular culture originate from definition: in defining it with recognition to its historical subjugation to…