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culture final exam review sheet

Sociology of Culture
Prof. Gabe Ignatow

Review sheet for final exam at 8am Saturday May 4 in our classroom

The final exam will cover the following course readings on the syllabus:

  • Lamont et al. "Cultural and Moral Boundaries in the United States"
  • Richard Peterson and Roger Kern, "Changing Highbrow Taste: From Snob to Omnivore" (bottom of page)
  • Bethany Bryson, Anything But Heavy Metal
  • Sam Friedman, Cultural Omnivores or Culturally Homeless?
  • Peterson and Anand, The Production of Culture Perspective
  • Richard Peterson, Why 1955? Explaining the Advent of Rock Music (get from JSTOR)
  • Wendy Griswold, American Character and the American Novel

You should be able to define and discuss all of the following terms (this list is not exhaustive):


Highbrows
Snobs
Omnivores

Musical dislikes
High-status exclusiveness
Educated tolerance
Symbolic racism
Patterned tolerance
Multicultural capital
tolerance line

dominant classes
petite bourdeoisie
dominated
difficult and obscure music
popularized “legitimate” music
simple, repetitive structures
passive, absent participation
hierarchies of legitimacy within genres

humor and social class
humor omnivorousness and divided habitus
dissonance and uneasiness
dryness and subtlety
“class racism”
pathologizing

Production of culture
Culture industries
Gatekeepers
Sponsors
Copyright law
Supply-side explanations
Demand-side explanations
Legal changes
U.S. Copyright Law
Technological changes
45 rpm record

reflection theory
American character
International Copyright Act of 1891

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