How and why are distinctions between high and popular cultures made? What role do hierarchies have in contemporary society?

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How and why are distinctions between high and popular cultures made? What role do hierarchies have in contemporary society?

Culture, in sociology, is the beliefs, behaviour, language, and entire way of life of a particular group of people at a particular time. Culture includes traditions, ceremonies, and works of art, inventions, technology, and habits.

Culture distinguishes human beings from other animals, in that humans are able to make patterns of behaviour for themselves, and are able to transmit these from person to person and through generations.

Sociologists are interested in how cultures emerge and develop, looking into the social conditions behind different cultures, and in doing so they examine the way standards and values operate as guides to behaviour. Additionally, they have distinguished between 'high' and low' cultures, and identified, for example, mass culture as a significant form where behaviour is standardised within a population, and goods and services are similarly the same.  Throughout this essay I will be examining both ‘high’ and ‘popular’ culture, and making relevant distinctions between them.

It is believed that a degree of intelligence is needed to understand the arts involved in high culture, so therefore can only reach a small part of the population, whilst trying to get rid of the accusation of elitism. High culture encourages reflection and emphasizes knowledge and wisdom. It includes ballet; the forms of operas, operettas and symphonies; types of film; certain novels; theatre and plays.

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 Mass or popular culture is derived from high culture, so for every item in high culture, there is a corresponding item of lesser importance in popular culture. Popular culture gives us what we want and tells us what we already know. Forms of popular culture include television, comics and magazines, pop music and the cinema.  

Due to the technological developments in transportation and telecommunications, popular culture is, to an extent, a function of the commercialisation of modernity. The modern producer of popular culture is able to target a market place much smaller than a producer prior to the ...

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