Noun

subculture (plural subcultures)

1. A portion of a culture distinguished by its customs or other features.

   The goth subculture has its own mode of dress, and it has a characteristic musical style.

   • 1974, Charles Gaines & George Butler, Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding, page 7.

     Like those activities, bodybuilding is an obsession, a living (for a few), and a way of life for the people involved in it—a subculture, in a word, with its own values, aesthetics and vocabulary.

2. (biology) A culture made by transferring microorganisms from a previous culture to a fresh growth medium

Verb

to subculture (third-person singular simple present subcultures, present participle subculturing, simple past and past participle subcultured)

1. (biology) To transfer (microorganisms) to a fresh growth medium in order to start a new culture
   • 1990 Heidi F. Kaeppler et al., Silicon carbide fiber-mediated DNA delivery into plant cells:

     Cultures were subcultured by 20-fold dilution into fresh MS2D medium approximately every 7 d.

In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture (whether distinct or hidden) which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong, for example, if a particular subculture is characterized by a systematic opposition to the dominant culture, it may be described as a counterculture.

A subculture is a set of people with a distinct set of behavior and beliefs that differentiate them from a larger culture as a whole of which they are a part of.

Sourced

• Like Duchamp's 'ready mades' - manufactured objects which qualified as art because he chose to call them such, the most unremarkable and inappropriate items - a pin, a plastic clothes peg, a television component, a razor blade, a tampon - could be brought within the province of punk (un)fashion...Objects borrowed from the most sordid of contexts found a place in punks' ensembles; lavatory chains were draped in graceful arcs across chests encased in plastic bin liners. Safety pins were taken out of their domestic 'utility' context and worn as gruesome ornaments through the cheek, ear or lip...fragments of school uniform (white bri-nylon shirts, school ties) were symbolically defiled (the shirts covered in graffiti, or fake blood; the ties left undone) and juxtaposed against leather drains or shocking pink mohair tops." (p.106-12)
  • Dick Hebidge (1979). Subculture: The Meaning of Style (Routledge, March 10, 1981; softcover ISBN 0415039495).

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