What makes a counterculture

And polygamy is when a person is married to more than one spouse. So I wanna emphasize spouse. So having more than one wife is actually called polygyny, and it breaks the law in Utah where many Mormons live. And they still hold on to this practice and this belief. So when a conflict with the larger culture becomes serious, and the laws of the dominant society are violated, a different type of culture actually emerges, and this is called a counterculture.

And a counterculture is a group with expectations and values that strongly disagree with the main values of a particular society. So one type of counterculture that is represented, is actually called the Old Order Amish of Pennsylvania and Ohio.

And the Amish drive horse drawn wagons, and they rarely use electricity or modern technology. So they reject mainstream ideas, and they have their own values. So the Amish rejecting mainstream or dominant culture like technology or consumerism, and replacing it with their religious principles which call for a simpler lifestyle, this makes them a counterculture, because their values, they differ greatly with those of the larger society.

Overview of culture. Up Next. After the nightmare of WWII, everyone was exhausted, and just wanted everything to go back to normal for a while. But none of the problems of meaningness from the first half of the century had gone away. Beneath the veneer of normality, the cracks in the systems were still widening. Both countercultures were motivated by disgust at the hypocrisy of the mainstream.

In fact, mainstream society, culture, and self now failed to provide meaning. They had been rotted from within by nihilism , leaving a brittle shell of eternalistic forms that concealed fundamental corruption. Shell-shocked, these systems were going through the motions with a business-as-usual attitude, but without authentic commitment. Both countercultures perceived a pervasive moral breakdown in the mainstream, caused by loss of meaning , although they disagreed about specific values.

The countercultures considered tinkering around the edges inadequate. They proposed wholesale replacement of mainstream society, culture, and self with alternative systems. They defined themselves point-by-point in contrast with the mainstream; that opposition was the counter in counterculture. According to some, young people in the United States were forming a culture of their own, opposed to the culture of Middle America. See hippies and Woodstock. New Word List Word List. Save This Word!

Skip to main content. Search for:. Culture Worlds. Subcultures A subculture is a culture shared and actively participated in by a minority of people within a broader culture. Key Takeaways Key Points Subcultures incorporate large parts of the broader cultures of which they are part; in specifics they may differ radically.

Sociologists also study the ways in which these same symbols are interpreted by members of the dominant culture. Key Terms subculture : A portion of a culture distinguished from the larger society around it by its customs or other features.

Countercultures Counterculture is a term describing the values and norms of a cultural group that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day.