Historically relegated, popular culture has recently become a sociological phenomenon worthy of being studied and analyzed. With unique components, often disruptive of order and with dynamic and ever-changing proposals or structures, the expressions that fall within the concept that we will define here continue to transform day by day.
Is there more than one form of culture?
Throughout history , the analysis of culture and art from different parts of the world was customarily constructed from the expressions of the most powerful classes, and this was so for two main reasons. On the one hand, from a deliberate point of view, the powerful classes always sought to create or consolidate their hegemony establishing their expressions and cultural forms as the only ones, the preeminent ones. On the other hand, the culture of the elites was always the only one to be registered for practical reasons since it was the only one that had the instruments to do so.
However, in recent centuries both the West and the East have shown significant progress in taking popular culture into account as one more form of human creation. In this sense, the culture of the working sectors, of the migrants, of the declassed, of the minorities has begun to constitute itself as one more form of culture and has begun to be respected as such.
What elements characterize this form of culture?
When we talk about this type of culture, we refer to an endless number of expressions that are outside the elite, academic or official culture. Thus, as a first element we must mention phenomena that escape officiality and that are recreated in very diverse and dynamic ways, in almost permanent change.
For example, if the official religion of a country is Catholicism, popular culture builds that form of religion through the worship of saints, emblematic figures, myths and legends that may or may not add to Catholicism and become something unique. In the same way it happens with the painting (that usually escapes to the galleries and museums to be shown in the streets), the music (that does not follow the official canons and even has a much greater arrival in the town), the traditions , the celebrations, celebrations and all kinds of expressive questions.
Why is it important to recognize these cultural forms?
Recognizing and giving value to the forms of popular culture that are born and develop in a society is essential to understand the forms of mentality that can characterize the popular sectors. In this sense, we cannot really understand the idiosyncrasy of a society without taking into account popular culture, respecting it and allowing it to develop in the same way as official or elitist forms.
In general, the culture of the popular sectors encompasses many more people and symbolizes unimaginable emotions or expressions.
