''Predecessor culture'' is a sociological phrase originating in
Alasdair MacIntyre's book, ''
After Virtue'', in which he considers society before the
Enlightenment's project of rationalizing all things as having an internal consistency and meaning which has been lost to us. It can be considered as having to do with the set of heroes and stories that were re-iterated in former cultures; these are called ''
commonplaces'' in English literature.
Another use of the phrase is to refer to society before the 1960s. Not only is this considered in opposition to the
sexual revolution
The sexual revolution, also known as the sexual liberation, was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the United States and the developed world from the 1 ...
, and various political movements and the manner in which power is expressed, such as the ways in which society is intended to accommodate
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
, but with the philosophical changes such as
structuralism
In sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy, and linguistics, structuralism is a general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader ...
and
post-structuralism
Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critique ...
.
Sociological terminology
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