Popular and elite culture interlacing in the middle ages

Abstract

Norbert Elias’ defines the process of acculturation as an increase in the mastery of primitive physiological functions such as aggression, intake of food, excretion, sexuality and the like. Higher degrees of task specialization also result in a refinement of social structure. Greater differentiation in the assignment of tasks is accompanied by the lower social class’ acquisition and adaptation of the cultural achievements of the higher social class it emulates. Folklorists refer to this phenomenon as ‘sunken cultural heritage’ (John Meier), thereby denoting a cultural element which was originally characteristic of higher social classes and hence charged with prestige, but which descended to and was acquired by lower social classes. The lower class’ tendency to adopt the higher class’ culture and civilization is considered to be an invariable, and this assumption is justifiable in most cases. Only a few examples, which we can all understand from personal experience, are sufficient to illustrate this notion. First of all, social classes in Western democracies are primarily defined economically. Not only the capitalist, but also the proletarian wishes to consume caviar and champagne. Going to the opera, formerly reserved exclusively for the upper crust, has, since the 18th century, increasingly become a form of entertainment also accessible to the middle classes. In fact, it is interesting to note that the middle class is far more knowledgable about the quality of a performance than the social elite, which even today still occupies the expensive seats. When a cultural asset becomes available to lower social classes, it is often altered. Caviar tends to be substituted by an imitation of the original product so that it is also affordable for larger groupsthereby creating a new distinction in status based on ‘genuine’ vs ‘imitation’. One might ask of what significance it is if the elite whose cultural achievements are passed on is an open or a closed social class per se. An example of an open society is the Church, a member of which one becomes by being baptized and in which its members-at least its male members-theoretically (!) have access to any function. It is interesting to note the absence of any tendency, in general, to usurp specifically clerical cultural assets even in those cases-such as in the