How Do Elementary and Contemporary Cultural Theories Overlap - Essay Example

Elementary and contemporary cultural theories Name: Student Number: Course Code: Word Count: Date of Submission: Introduction The existence of humanity and nature is a complex topic composed of other well-enriched aspects of life, one of them being culture. Culture is a critical topic that, in most cases, includes and easily intermarries with sociology. When a discussion launches on these two themes, the idea of diversity is inevitable. The fact that humanity is not of a common origin alone is a guarantee that opinion and idea differences on joining matters has to come into play. Therefore, a number of writings, reports, articles and books, among other materials are on publication with the authors having the aim of addressing these issues in details. Subsequently, this paper seeks to make a substantial contribution on the relationship between elementary and contemporary cultural theories in terms of their points of convergence as well as their differences. Culture generally varies in meaning depending on the speaker or the perspective from which the view is established. That perspective could be human origin; professional position like it is with anthropologists or artistic professionalism. However, all that does not change the crucial agreement that culture enriches people intellectually and that conformity to a culture is with basis on one’s origin. This essay, therefore, commences by explaining culture by outlining the theoretical and conceptual themes around it. This is followed by a detailed discussion on the subject matter after which a conclusion is drawn. It lays out the revelations of the paper on the points of discussion. Culture and cultural analysis Considering a contribution by Albert (2009), in the realm of sociology, culture addresses social factors of a society and a specific definition to it is not obvious except the key attributes are definite. The necessity of defining culture can not be over emphasised. For the purposes of sociology, culture can be defined as the trend of shared patterns, beliefs, social values, behaviours or customs that the members of a society use as a tool for interaction with one another. Complementarily, elementary as used herein refers to the simplest, basic and fundamental building units of culture. These are the features that really make up and define culture, without them, culture is inexistent. On the other hand, the term contemporary refers to items or events that occur at the same or current time due to coincidence, without implying any relationships. This is culture with capable of transformation and resultant of human operations. Culture has existed in the past yet when the term contemporary is used to with respect to past occurrences, mostly the idea lacks clarity. Elementary cultural theories and contemporary cultural theories The elementary theories discuss culture in its naturalistic state as related to history. The idea is to ensure perception of its reality in the exact way it is. In the book ‘The Idea of Culture’, Eagleton (2000) tries to theorise the complexity and significance in the relationship between nature and culture of a society. This author writes with criticism on postmodern culture. It, therefore, sets up the contemporary ideologies relating to it. However, culture is more appreciable when perceived in its most original concept. Therefore, the foundations of contemporary cultural theory establish that a society is basically defined by its culture. Additionally, culture is for the consumption of the society for its benefits, the rate of that consumption determines the production of what is consumed (Bourdieu 1993). The ambivalence in the elementary and contemporary cultural theories is of much relevance in better understanding what culture is. However, that would be incomplete if their points of similarities and agreements are not established. The peak aim of cultural theory is to assert a sustainable development of approaches to a subject at hand. According to the case study work of Vygotsky on Socio-cultural approaches to learning and development, emphasis is that, for a proper construction of knowledge, that process requires the interdependence between an entity and the social sector and the same is necessary for elementary and contemporary theories of culture. While elementary theories talk of the simplest and basic elements of culture, the contemporary concept analyses the simultaneous existence of different cultural thoughts, ideas or aspects. With a point of reference to history, especially the origin of culture, the idea of fashioning the register or language of moral and political communication would be unimaginable. The thought is that, it distorts all that culture stands for; this is in the elementary context. Contemporarily, Williams (2005) discusses culture and materialism extensively as a postmodern factor. The culture acquired in the governance, law and political arena of a government influence the modes of materialism of its people or the system itself. Priorities of a member entity define the rates of development and this brings in the idea of rights. The culture of industrial action by activists against the political fraternity depends on society that recognises the same. A clear cut difference between elementary and contemporary culture can be professionally achieved by considering the essential domains of human life. Such domains are inclusive of religious background, interpersonal relations like marriage, work with regards to ethics and social values, in addition. A structuralism’s analysis would study culture as a variable of behaviours and an object of the society. However, behind that is a theory that views culture as a language system that makes meanings systematized around the relationship aspects. The relationships could be of combination or opposition, this takes focus back to the interrelation of elementary and contemporary or, in other contexts, authority and subjects, and this is according to the Saussurian theory. The whole of this is insight is obtained by discourse analysis, which plays an important role in developing both historical and dynamic modes of inquiry into culture. In order to understand the contemporary points of culture, things have to make sociological sense, and in addition to that understanding, one gets to link cultural issues to social forces. A contemporary approach introduces one to the post-cultural, postmodern and postcolonial accounts. It could seem to be in a different and almost like redefining culture, but that is just the contemporary nature. A symbol of post colonialism is the recognition of labour as the presence of humanity at the work place, be it professional or not. This ensures a reward for that presence. The presence of humans is not of the abstract nature, like homoelectrus in engineering or homoeconomicus in the business word, but an assembly of interactions between persons (During, 2005). Conversely, in the historical and theoretical sense, the presence of humans was not for labour but a position of responsibility in the society. The association of culture to a group of people prompts the thought of a dialect used by them for interaction. When the dialect approach is considered as a theory, one acknowledges the influence that nature has on humanity. To some extent, nature is even considered as the opposite force to culture. But then, humanity has impacts on nature too and, therefore, resultantly conditions are created. Consequently, the process of education, as a contemporary culture, is a process of mind construction that changes both humans and elements of nature. In the modern context, to have a culture refers to the prowess of noting an intellectual insight or being more equipped with literature in a learning scenario. A society member has to be consistent with their belief and morals since that defines what culture they relate to hence cultural consistency. Case study by American Journal of Scientific Research In its simplest divinely definition, contemporary may refer to the continuity in change on an item within the lifetime of given subject. The change is mostly supposed to be a continuous development. Elementary, on the other hand may refer to the former nature of an item that is subject to change, depending on the preference of the holder of the item. This case study comparatively studies the culture in education with regards to the contemporary and former systems of management of the education sector. In as much as the passage of information might have been poor with the basic units of culture, it is an obligation to whoever has the knowledge to pass it on when necessary. Change in education culture comes with more civilised and adequate modes of the process and so, almost every time, the information sounds firsthand. According to Stoke (2003) the art remains the same, only more efficient in the contemporary sense. The choice of criteria and mode defines the effectives of education and the consistency of its culture. Areas of overlap between elementary and contemporary theories of culture The elementary and contemporary aspects of culture as postulated by the different theories differ in various concepts and contexts. Nevertheless, the dynamic features like sports, music and modes of analysis are all productions of culture, and that fact creates a commonality, this is the overlap. This may be because the arts of music and sports are very conscious socially (Steinert 2003). The culture industry is just as sophisticated with information, opinions and variance as culture itself is. The relationship between culture and modern society makes it almost impossible to identify a particular method for celebrating the diversity in culture. The results of a chosen method justify the nature of the link between productions and consumption of culture. For the purposes of cultural identity, sport is an aspect of great importance in promotion and enhancement of common understanding. The art is best appreciated when celebrated amongst people of different origins. When immigrants move to a new region, they come along with their culture. Sport is a universal component of the universal society. The same sport when performed by different communities, it reveals the features of the corresponding culture yet the sport achieves a common goal. This goal is the ease of socially mixing with other cultures. Evidently, be it elementary or contemporary, it achieves acceptance, respect and even advancements in the economy and politics of society members (Bergin 2002). The other production of culture is music, which in its uttermost essence, it informs and educates in an entertaining way. As Monaghan (2006) suggests, music makes culture both elementary and contemporary theories of culture more tangible by embodying the item. Music incorporates a number of things into a single whole piece and in that manner, its intended effect if politely but efficiently felt. The kind of things incorporated in music for information enhancement include dances, short speeches in the middle of the song and short acts among others. Therefore, the body can be used as an object in the art of music to mediate communication. In cultural studies, the theory of interaction appreciates this concept. Conclusion In appreciation of culture and humanity, the paper achieved the objective of outlining the relationship between elementary and contemporary cultural theories. With proper insight into the realm of culture as it relates to sociology, the discussion reveals that the theories may differ in concept and context but the essence of culture is consistent. The point and areas that are common in the industry of culture have been established and are productions by the arts of culture for consumption by the society members. These members share a culture amongst themselves in terms of their beliefs and morals. Conclusively, both the contemporary and basic and simple parts of a culture are essential for the development of a community. Reference list Albert, B 2009, ‘A new definition of culture’ American Anthropologist, Vol. 42, no. 4, pp 571-573 Bergin, P 2002, ‘Maori sport and cultural identity in Australia’, The Australian Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 13 no. 3 pp 257-269 Bourdieu, P 1993, The production of Belief: Contribution to an Economy of Symbolic Goods in The Field of Cultural Production, Polity: Cambridge During, S 2005, Genres and Genealogies in Cultural Studies: A critical introduction, Routledge: Milton Park. Eagleton, T 2000, Towards a Common Culture: The Idea of Culture, Blackwell: Oxford. Monaghan, L 2006, Corporeal Indeterminacy: the value of embodied, interpretive sociology, Ashgate: Aldershot. Steinert, H. 2003 On Method in Culture Industry, Polity Press: Cambridge. Stokes, J 2003, How to do Media and Cultural Studies, Sage: London, 1000 Oaks: New Delhi Williams, R 2005, Culture and Materialism, Verso: London Read More