Domination to Reciprocity: The Evolution of Popular Culture

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The historical study of popular culture is distinct in that it diverges from the elitist perspective that governs much of our reflection on past events. Although, certain groups may face subordination in a given society, that does not imply a deficiency in their cultural achievements. From the Native people of the new world to the uneducated peasants of later years, their inferior social status in society often led their unique cultural practices into relative obscurity; dominant groups were the societal dictators of culture and the practices that future generations would deem as applicable to that time period. However, neglecting outranked cultural practices of past societies deprives historians of a more complete and accurate depiction of past societal realities. Contemporary accounts of early modern popular culture such as works by Ginzburg, Yassif and Bakhtin allow the reader to witness a shift in the earlier Romantic emphasis on the fascination and domination of the subordinate cultures [Herder] to a notion of cultural reciprocity between the elite and popular strata of society.

The imposition of European culture on Natives during the colonization of the New World entailed not only the desire to dominate/convert supposedly inferior Natives but also an accompanying fascination with their contradictory way of life. Europeans saw Native culture as uncivilized and comparable to a primitive state of European existence. Despite this view, Herder’s account in Reflections on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind reflects a Romantic European fascination with the natural and simplistic facets of Native culture. According to Herder, nature has favored Natives by providing them with “no idle fast of pleasing poisons, [nature] has p...

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...nsible for most the educated material and studies done in the early modern period, interest for these studies was most likely conceived at a popular/subordinate level then given importance at a larger, societal level. Acknowledging the reciprocity in popular and dominant culture is a good first step from Herder’s romanticism of fascination and pure domination, but there could be more work done to expound upon the popular underlying interests behind dominant work of the period.

Works Cited

Bakhtin, Mikhail. Rabelais and His World. London: Verso, 2002.

Ginzburg, Carlo. The Cheese and the Worms. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980.

von Herder, Johann Gottfried. Reflections on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1784.

Yassif, Eli. The Hebrew Folktale. Indiana: The Indiana University Press, 1999.

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