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Making Up People Analysis

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The Making and Unmaking of People Imagine that you have only seen deer, elk, caribou, and moose in your life. One day a horse comes along. What would you call this thing? It kind of looks like an elk or moose, but not exactly because of the lack of antlers. Without having a defined category to put the horse in, it makes it hard for you to understand it. You would understand that it physically exists when you saw it, but you might just call it a really weird antlerless elk. This is the concept Ian Hacking explains in his article, “Making Up People”. He tackles the question of how did things get categorized the way they are today, and what were things like before they got put in this categorical order. This theory can be applied to many subjects …show more content…

The specific subculture I want to use as an example is from the reading “In Our Angelhood: Rave as Counterculture and Spiritual Revolution” by Simon Reynolds. Reynolds talks about the roots of the rave culture that started in the UK underground clubs in the 1990’s. Although they still had to run and try to outsmart the police, it actually gave the rowdy teenagers who were causing trouble something to do besides causing havoc at other public events like soccer matches. (Reynolds). But what once started out at as a football alternative and unification of the working class in the UK has now changed. Instead of being a subculture, rave culture is beginning to spill into mainstream and blur the lines between popular culture and rave culture. One example I can think of is right here at the University of Oregon. Nearly every student/young adult I know in Eugene has been to some type of concert/event that would classify as a rave. I think this trend is partially due to the drug culture that surrounds raves and raving. It is no secret that many young adults in college towns use alcohol and drugs, usually at whatever party or get together that are going to that weekend. This makes raves, a place full of music, dancing, and drugs/alcohol, an appealing idea. What really pushes this into the popular culture is the commercial side of it. Instead of having secret warehouse raves, many venues and bars are promoting the idea of a live DJs or a rave type settings because that’s what brings the people in (and the people bring in the revenue). The more money that can be made off something, the more public and mainstream it goes. So while it doesn’t surprise me that raving is becoming more mainstream, it is interesting to see new contrasting opinions on raves. Another example of a changing subculture is from the reading “Elements of Vogue” by Marcos Becquer

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