Why & how should we study CS?

• Cultural Studies is an emerging area of research and teaching that brings in new perspectives to the study of culture and society.

• Cultural Studies in is not interested in studying forms and practices that have been commonly associated with culture (as in ‘classical’ dance, music, or literature).

• It is interested in analysing those activities that shape the everyday of the majority of the people around us: films, everyday ‘politics’, communities, media, law and education.

Activity

• Write down a list of words (not less than 10) that mean ‘culture’ to you.

Activity

• In your group, classify these words to illustrate different meanings of culture.

1 2 3 4

Activity

• Finally, write a succinct definition of culturebased on your classification of the words that you’ve written.

Culture is

Iceberg Model of Culture

Surface Culture(What can be easily seen)

Deep Culture(Difficult to see)

Doing

Ways of life, dress,laws, customs, behaviour,rituals, festivals,language, literature, arts

Thinking

Beliefs, philosophy,ideologies, norms,family roles, biases

FeelingValues, ethics, tastes,attitudes, desires,assumptions, expectations, myths

Characteristics of Culture

• Culture is Learned.

– the first essential characteristics of culture

– can be learned indirectly• through observation and imitation

• through experience

• through watching (documentaries) and reading books

– taught by parents / family / friends (generation to generation)

– A person feels like an outsider until they’ve learned the ways of the culture

Characteristics of Culture

• Culture is shared by group of people.– People of the same community share

• values, beliefs, and traditions

• literature and history

• language and mannerisms, and the way they communicate

• certain personality traits

• their roles in the family and society

• their occupations and lifestyles

Characteristics of Culture

• Culture is cumulative.

– Knowledge is stored and passed on from one generation to the next

– New knowledge is being added to what is existing.

– Culture elements are added up as the needs arise.

Characteristics of Culture

• Culture changes.

– All cultural knowledge does not eternally increase.

– While new cultural traits are added, some old ones are lost because they are no longer useful.

– Certain traditions or rituals are eliminated.

– Language and mannerisms of people change.

– Migration and globalization lead to a mixing of cultures.

– Gender roles change.

Characteristics of Culture

• Culture is ideational.

– It is an ideal pattern of behaviour which the members are expected to follow.

– It gives us a range of permissible behaviour patterns.

– It tells us how different activities should be conducted in different roles: husband, wife, parents, child, etc.

Characteristics of Culture

• Culture is diverse.

– The sum total of human culture consists of a great many separate cultures, each of them different.

– E.g.: The choice of a marriage partner involves many different parts of culture as religion, economic class, education, etc.

For more materials, visit

https://sites.google.com/site/sjcculturalstudies/