Dominant culture

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A dominant culture is a cultural practice that is dominant within a particular political, social or economic entity, in which multiple cultures co-exist. It may refer to a language, religion or ritual practices, social value and/or social custom. These features are often a norm for an entire society. An individual achieves dominance by being perceived as belonging to that majority culture which has a significant presence in institutions relating to communication, education, artistic expression, law, government and business. [1] The concept of "dominant culture" is generally used in academic discourse in fields such as communication, sociology, anthropology and cultural studies. [2]

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In a society, culture is established and directed by the individuals with most power (hegemony). [3] In a culture, a group of people that have the ability to hold power over social institutions and influence the rest of the society's beliefs and actions is considered dominant. A dominant culture, is established in a society by a group of individuals that direct the ruling ideas, values, and beliefs that become the dominant worldview of a society. Individuals from the dominant culture spread their dominant ideologies through institutions such as education, religion, and politics. A dominant culture makes use of media and laws to spread their ideologies as well. [4] Furthermore, a dominant culture can be promoted deliberately and by the suppression of minority cultures or subcultures. [1]

The culture that is dominant within a particular geopolitical entity can change over time in response to internal or external factors, but one is usually very resilient. Antonio Gramsci has written that the masses are in the grip of a monolithic ruling class.[ citation needed ] However, the overall picture that Gramsci provides is not a static, closed system of ruling-class domination. Rather, he states that a society is in constant process, where the creation of counter-hegemonies remains a live option. [1]

The concept of a dominant culture, or the concept of hegemony, originated in Ancient Greece. Although Vladimir Lenin, a politician and a political theorist, defined the concept as “Domination,” Gramsci redefined it as “An intellectual and moral leadership directed by contradictory political and, cultural agents and organizations.”[ This quote needs a citation ] He called these organizations “organic and traditional intellectuals” which represented the interest of the working class. [5]

Examples of dominant cultures

United States

In the United States, for example, a distinction is often made between the indigenous culture of Native Americans, and a dominant culture that may be described as "WASP", "Anglo", "white", "middle class", and so on. Some Native Americans are seen as being part of the culture of their own tribe, community, or family, while simultaneously participating in the dominant culture of America as a whole. [6] Also, ethnic groups are said to exist in the United States in relation to a dominant culture, generally seen as English-speaking, of European ancestry, and Protestant Christian faith. Asian Americans, [7] Jews, [8] [9] African Americans, [10] Latinos, [11] and Deaf people, [12] [13] among others, are seen as facing a choice to oppose, be opposed by, assimilate into, acculturate (i.e. exist alongside), or otherwise react to the dominant culture.

Interactions between dominant culture and co-culture

Co-culture consists of minority groups, or groups whose beliefs and values differ from the dominant culture. [14] Minority groups such as LGBTQ+, women, and black people or African American members, for example, can experience negative effects resulting from their interaction with the dominant culture. [15] [16] Minority groups can be victims of stress produced by the dominant culture. Minority stress can be described as the product that results from the differences between the minority and dominant values. Furthermore, minority stress is the outcome of the conflict that minority group members experience with their social environment. [17]

LGBTQ+ Community

Members from the LGBTQ+ community, that live in a heterosexist society, are susceptible and inclined to suffer from chronic stress due to their stigmatization. Minority stressors include internalized homophobia, stigma and experiences of violence and discrimination. [15] Internalized homophobia can be described as an LGBTQ+ member's disposition to societal negative attitudes towards the self while stigma refers to an LGBTQ+ member's expectation of discrimination and rejection. [17]

Women

Women, as many other co-culture groups, are greatly affected by the dominant culture that surround them. The dominant culture tend to perceive women as less worthy of economic and educational opportunities. [18] Also, In many cultures, women are expected to behave in a certain way and be responsible for tasks that men are not as they are also subject to double standards. [19] These interactions can lead to unfavorable and negative effects on women. For example, women can feel restricted from expressing freely, fighting for their aspirations, and trying new activities. [20]

Black and African American community

Globally,[ where? ] black or African American communities have been affected by the dominant cultures. In different countries, in order for black people to incorporate into the cultural hegemony, they were frequently isolated from their own cultural group, or an attempt was made to eradicate their culture completely. Many examples of cultural alienation and annihilation can be found across black and African American communities. [21] [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonio Gramsci</span> Italian Marxist philosopher, writer, and politician (1891–1937)

Antonio Francesco Gramsci was an Italian Marxist philosopher, linguist, journalist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, political theory, sociology, history, and linguistics. He was a founding member and one-time leader of the Italian Communist Party. A vocal critic of Benito Mussolini and fascism, he was imprisoned in 1926, where he remained until his death in 1937.

Acculturation is a process of social, psychological, and cultural change that stems from the balancing of two cultures while adapting to the prevailing culture of the society. Acculturation is a process in which an individual adopts, acquires and adjusts to a new cultural environment as a result of being placed into a new culture, or when another culture is brought to someone. Individuals of a differing culture try to incorporate themselves into the new more prevalent culture by participating in aspects of the more prevalent culture, such as their traditions, but still hold onto their original cultural values and traditions. The effects of acculturation can be seen at multiple levels in both the devotee of the prevailing culture and those who are assimilating into the culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political sociology</span> Branch of sociology

Political sociology is an interdisciplinary field of study concerned with exploring how governance and society interact and influence one another at the micro to macro levels of analysis. Interested in the social causes and consequences of how power is distributed and changes throughout and amongst societies, political sociology's focus ranges across individual families to the state as sites of social and political conflict and power contestation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural hegemony</span> Marxist theory of cultural dominance

In Marxist philosophy, cultural hegemony is the dominance of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class who shape the culture of that society—the beliefs and explanations, perceptions, values, and mores—so that the worldview of the ruling class becomes the accepted cultural norm. As the universal dominant ideology, the ruling-class worldview misrepresents the social, political, and economic status quo as natural, inevitable, and perpetual social conditions that benefit every social class, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class.

The term "minority group" has different usages, depending on the context. According to its common usage, the term minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number of individuals, or less than half, is a "minority". Usually a minority group is disempowered relative to the majority, and that characteristic lends itself to different applications of the term minority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deaf culture</span> Culture of deaf persons

Deaf culture is the set of social beliefs, behaviors, art, literary traditions, history, values, and shared institutions of communities that are influenced by deafness and which use sign languages as the main means of communication. When used as a cultural label, especially within the culture, the word deaf is often written with a capital D and referred to as "big D Deaf" in speech and sign. When used as a label for the audiological condition, it is written with a lower case d. Carl G. Croneberg was among the first to discuss analogies between Deaf and hearing cultures in his appendices C and D of the 1965 Dictionary of American Sign Language.

Collective consciousness, collective conscience, or collective conscious is the set of shared beliefs, ideas, and moral attitudes which operate as a unifying force within society. In general, it does not refer to the specifically moral conscience, but to a shared understanding of social norms.

Cultural pluralism is a term used when smaller groups within a larger society maintain their unique cultural identities, whereby their values and practices are accepted by the dominant culture, provided such are consistent with the laws and values of the wider society. As a sociological term, the definition and description of cultural pluralism has evolved. It has been described as not only a fact but a societal goal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sociology of culture</span> Branch of the discipline of sociology

The sociology of culture, and the related cultural sociology, concerns the systematic analysis of culture, usually understood as the ensemble of symbolic codes used by a member of a society, as it is manifested in the society. For Georg Simmel, culture referred to "the cultivation of individuals through the agency of external forms which have been objectified in the course of history". Culture in the sociological field is analyzed as the ways of thinking and describing, acting, and the material objects that together shape a group of people's way of life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural reproduction</span> Cultural concept

Cultural reproduction, a concept first developed by French sociologist and cultural theorist Pierre Bourdieu, is the mechanisms by which existing cultural forms, values, practices, and shared understandings are transmitted from generation to generation, thereby sustaining the continuity of cultural experience across time. In other words, reproduction, as it is applied to culture, is the process by which aspects of culture are passed on from person to person or from society to society.

In gender studies, hegemonic masculinity is part of R. W. Connell's gender order theory, which recognizes multiple masculinities that vary across time, society, culture, and the individual. Hegemonic masculinity is defined as a practice that legitimizes men's dominant position in society and justifies the subordination of the common male population and women, and other marginalized ways of being a man. Conceptually, hegemonic masculinity proposes to explain how and why men maintain dominant social roles over women, and other gender identities, which are perceived as "feminine" in a given society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Counterhegemony</span> Confrontation and/or opposition to existing status quo and its legitimacy in politics

Counter-hegemony is an attempt to critique or dismantle hegemonic power. In other words, it is a confrontation or opposition to existing status quo and its legitimacy in politics, but can also be observed in various other spheres of life, such as history, media, music, etc. Neo-Gramscian theorist Nicola Pratt (2004) has described counter-hegemony as "a creation of an alternative hegemony on the terrain of civil society in preparation for political change".

Integrative communication theory is a theory of cross-cultural adaptation proposed by Young Yun Kim. The first widely published version of Kim's theory is found in the last three chapters of a textbook authored by William Gudykunst with Young Yun Kim as second author. See acculturation and assimilation.

Christian privilege is a social advantage bestowed upon Christians in any historically Christian society. This arises out of the presumption that Christian belief is a social norm, that leads to the marginalization of the nonreligious and members of other religions through institutional religious discrimination or religious persecution. Christian privilege can also lead to the neglect of outsiders' cultural heritage and religious practices.

<i>Prison Notebooks</i> Series of essays by Antonio Gramsci

The Prison Notebooks are a series of essays written by the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci. Gramsci was imprisoned by the Italian Fascist regime in 1926. The notebooks were written between 1929 and 1935, when Gramsci was released from prison to a medical center on grounds of ill-health. His friend, Piero Sraffa, had supplied the writing implements and notebooks. Gramsci died in April 1937.

Minority stress describes high levels of stress faced by members of stigmatized minority groups. It may be caused by a number of factors, including poor social support and low socioeconomic status; well understood causes of minority stress are interpersonal prejudice and discrimination. Indeed, numerous scientific studies have shown that when minority individuals experience a high degree of prejudice, this can cause stress responses that accrue over time, eventually leading to poor mental and physical health. Minority stress theory summarizes these scientific studies to explain how difficult social situations lead to chronic stress and poor health among minority individuals.

Cultural studies is a politically engaged postdisciplinary academic field that explores the dynamics of especially contemporary culture and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers generally investigate how cultural practices relate to wider systems of power associated with, or operating through, social phenomena. These include ideology, class structures, national formations, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, and generation. Employing cultural analysis, cultural studies views cultures not as fixed, bounded, stable, and discrete entities, but rather as constantly interacting and changing sets of practices and processes. The field of cultural studies encompasses a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives and practices. Although distinct from the discipline of cultural anthropology and the interdisciplinary field of ethnic studies, cultural studies draws upon and has contributed to each of these fields.

Homophobia in ethnic minority communities is any negative prejudice or form of discrimination in ethnic minority communities worldwide towards people who identify as–or are perceived as being–lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT), known as homophobia. This may be expressed as antipathy, contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, irrational fear, and is sometimes related to religious beliefs. A 2006 study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in the UK found that while religion can have a positive function in many LGB Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities, it can also play a role in supporting homophobia.

Media hegemony is a perceived process by which certain values and ways of thought promulgated through the mass media become dominant in society. It is seen in particular as reinforcing the capitalist system. Media hegemony has been presented as influencing the way in which reporters in the media – themselves subject to prevailing values and norms – select news stories and put them across.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marxist cultural analysis</span> Anti-capitalist cultural critique

Marxist cultural analysis is a form of cultural analysis and anti-capitalist cultural critique, which assumes the theory of cultural hegemony and from this specifically targets those aspects of culture that are profit driven and mass-produced under capitalism.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lears, T. J. Jackson (1985). "The Concept of Cultural Hegemony: Problems and Possibilities". The American Historical Review. 90 (3): 567–593. doi:10.2307/1860957. JSTOR   1860957.
  2. ↑ Gordon Marshall (1998). A Dictionary of Sociology. Oxford University Press.
  3. ↑ Johnson, Richard; Chambers, Deborah; Raghuram, Parvati; Tincknell, Estella (2004-04-14). The Practice of Cultural Studies. SAGE. ISBN   978-1-84860-514-5.
  4. ↑ "Cultural Hegemony – What exactly has construct us?" . Retrieved 2021-07-13.
  5. ↑ Kurtz, Donald V. (2001). "Hegemony: Anthropological Aspects". International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. pp. 747–749. doi:10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.12084-7. ISBN   978-0-08-097087-5.
  6. ↑ Maria Falkenhagen and Inga K. Kelly (May 1974). "The Native American in Juvenile Fiction: Teacher Perception of Stereotypes". Journal of American Indian Education. 13 (2). Archived from the original on 2015-01-20.
  7. ↑ Lisa Lowe (1996). Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics. Duke University Press. ISBN   978-0-8223-1864-4.
  8. ↑ Lisa Lowe (review of book by Rabbi Meir Kahane) (2004-02-10). "Why Be Jewish? Intermarriage, Assimilation, and Alienation". The Jewish Eye. Archived from the original on 2019-03-26. Retrieved 2009-01-29.
  9. ↑ Shlomo Sharan (April 2004). "Assimilation, Normalcy and Jewish Self-Hatred". NATIV Online. Archived from the original on 2008-12-03.
  10. ↑ Patricia S. Parker (August 2001). "African American Women Executives' Leadership Communication within Dominant-Culture Organizations: (Re)Conceptualizing Notions of Collaboration and Instrumentality". Management Communication Quarterly. 15 (1).
  11. ↑ Penelope Bass (2009-01-29). "Culture and Controversy:The 'Otra Voz' exhibit aims to create conversation". Archived from the original on 2011-07-11.
  12. ↑ Joan B. Stone (1998). Ila Parasnis (ed.). Cultural and Language Diversity and the Deaf Experience. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-64565-2.
  13. ↑ Carla A. Halpern (1995). "Listening In on Deaf Culture". Diversity and Distinction. Harvard University. Archived from the original on 2013-10-06. Retrieved 2009-01-29.
  14. ↑ Hebdige, Dick (2013-10-08). Subculture. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-136-49473-4.
  15. 1 2 "Health Disparities and Stress" (PDF). www.apa.org. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  16. ↑ Kaholokula, Joseph Keawe‘aimoku; Iwane, Marcus K; Nacapoy, Andrea H (May 2010). "Effects of Perceived Racism and Acculturation on Hypertension in Native Hawaiians". Hawaii Medical Journal. 69 (5 suppl 2): 11–15. PMC   3158444 . PMID   20544603.
  17. 1 2 Meyer, Ilan H. (1995). "Minority Stress and Mental Health in Gay Men". Journal of Health and Social Behavior. 36 (1): 38–56. doi:10.2307/2137286. JSTOR   2137286. PMID   7738327.
  18. ↑ "Women as a Minority | Boundless Sociology". courses.lumenlearning.com. Retrieved 2021-07-31.
  19. ↑ "Gender and Socialization | Introduction to Sociology". courses.lumenlearning.com. Retrieved 2021-07-31.
  20. ↑ Andrews, Dr Shawn. "Council Post: How Culture Impacts Our Value Of Women". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-07-31.
  21. ↑ Ng, J.; Nagayama Hall, G.C. (2011). "Cultural Influences on Adolescent Development". Encyclopedia of Adolescence. pp. 44–51. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-373951-3.00047-8. ISBN   978-0-12-373951-3.
  22. ↑ "Bringing them home" (PDF). Australian Human Rights Commission. May 26, 1997. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2013-06-23. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
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