An anthropological perspective on popular culture

Abstract

English: In contrast with the view of culture as an autonomous, integrated unit, culture is presented in this paper as a fluid, complex and frequently fragmented process located in social interaction between individuals, acts, thoughts and objects which convey meaning. This concept of culture accommodates a description of popular culture as those cultural practices in which social actors interpret, negotiate, articulate and transform meaning. However, in addition to being a set of subjects belonging to a certain field of study, popular culture is also an arena which practitioners of the interdisciplinary movement of cultural studies view as extremely suitable for the hegemonic struggle between social actors over meaning. The viewpoint is taken that anthropologists have naturally and successfully entered this relatively unexplored field and, specifically with regard to media studies, contributed fine-grained ethnographies which have also taken cognisance of the broader historical and cultural universe.

Afrikaans: In teenstelling met die siening van kultuur as ’n outonome, geïntegreerde geheel, word kultuur in hierdie bydrae voorgehou as ’n vloeibare, komplekse en dikwels gefragmenteerde proses wat gesetel is in betekenisdraende handelinge, denke, objekte en sosiale interaksies tussen individue. Hierdie begrip van kultuur akkommodeer die beskrywing van populêre kultuur as daardie kulturele praktyke waarbinne sosiale akteurs betekenis interpreteer, onderhandel, artikuleer en transformeer. Populêre kultuur is egter ook, benewens ’n stel onderwerpe behorende tot ’n bepaalde spesialisasieveld, ’n arena wat deur praktiseerders van die interdissiplinêre kultuurstudiebeweging beskou word as besonder geskik vir die hegemoniese stryd om betekenis tussen sosiale akteurs. Antropoloë het gemaklik en met vrug hierdie relatief onverkende terrein betree, en spesifiek met betrekking tot mediastudies, ’n bydrae gelewer met fyn genuanseerde etnografieë waarin ook die groter historiese en kulturele geheel verreken word.