-Define the terms “culture” and “popular” and trace their origins.
-Explain why the cultures of everyday life are worthy of study.
-Identify the cultural features of many aspects of everyday life and document them in your learning journal entries.
-Describe and understand the ways in which the home is a culturally saturated environment.
-Explore how differences in such things as gender, ethnicity, class, age, and sexual orientation relate to culture in the domestic sphere.
-Outline what the four themes given in Unit 1 mean to you.
2-Ordinary Embodiments: As Eagleton points out, one of our earliest understandings of the term “culture” derives from the need to contrast the processes and products of human activity from events and objects spontaneously occurring in the natural world
3-Locating the Ordinary: It seems to be stating the obvious to point out that the affairs of our daily lives are not conducted in a vacuum, yet how often do we really think about how spaces and places inform the various activities that take place within them?
4-Why Understanding Everyday Cultures is Important: It has become a truism to observe that we are “born into” culture, but nonetheless we are. In our family lives, our workplaces, and our communities, we are constantly subjected to cultural influences many of which are quite powerful, that work to shape our identities and so determine who we are.
