ABSTRACT
POPULAR CULTURE The term “popular culture” is used variously to designate culture that belongs to the people; culture that is “low” and inauthentic; culture that is widespread and well-liked; culture that is disseminated by mass media (mass culture or massmediated culture); culture that is produced monopolistically by a few for the many (in the sense of a “culture industry”); and culture that is made by people for their own use. The associated meanings of folklore and popular culture are long and complex. The root terms for “folk,” folc (Saxon), and “popular,” popularis (Latin), both referring to “people,” have often been equated. Such was the case in 1846 when, in the spirit of an Anglo-Saxon revival of the time, William Thoms advocated the use of the term “folk-lore” (a Saxon compound, folclar, existed previously but had passed out of usage) to replace, rather than redefine, the phrase “popular antiquities.” A
positive meaning conveyed by the latter usage of “popular,” alluding to cultural forms sustained by people for their own purposes, has often been maintained in understandings of “folk.”
