Challenges to popular culture and the cause of decline Flashcards
(7 cards)
What were religious challenges to popular culture during this time ?
Reformation and CR led to a change in attitudes
Prot reformers attacked aspects of popular culture and emphasies a godly state of modesty encouring withdrawal from festivities with fear of punishment
Reformers attacked rowdiness , drunks and promiscuity
Lutherian church kept pre reformation acts
Calvanists were less tolerant using psalms to replace singing and folk songs
Give examples of religious challenges to popular culture
Scotland 1570 - attacks on the celebration of Xmas and midsummer
Oliver Cromwell - misrule and may games banned
Popular festivals like misrule and feast of fools were abandoned since they mocked religious practices
What were political challenges to popular culture during this time ?
State centralisation E.G france were keen to crack down on festivals that inverted social order
GOVT’s allied with the church to impose culture of elites and politicised popular culture to inform people about state affairs
Most people accepted the political order even during / after rebellions and unrest
What was economic and social change during this time of decline of popular culture ?
1500 - 1700 population of europe 80 million from 1500 in towns more than doubled
Towns and trade grew , everything improved , growth of towns offered new opportunities
What was the withdrawal of the elite like during this period ?
Start of 1500-1800 pop culture involved in all social groups but by 1800 the elite had abandoned it
Separated from the lower class and appealed more complete in britain and france however carnival survived in the Mediterranean shows culture there
Clergy more educated and had less in common with the poor
Nobility no longer ate in big halls / had more complex behaviour , influencing the middle class who copied nobility - more educated adopted a more rational attitude to WC
How did printing influence the challenge to popular culture ?
Print became a source of entertainment and spread new ideas imposing traditions + preserve them
