UNIT 3 LESSON BASICS OF CULTURE

STUDENT WILL BE ABLE TO…  Create a definition of culture and understand that there are different ways of viewing culture depending on the scale.

WHAT WE’VE LEARNED SO FAR…  Population size and behaviors are influenced by culture.  Culture: “a group of belief systems, norms, and values practiced by a people” (Fouberg et al. 112)  Transmitted by “imitation, instruction, and example” (Getis 210).  NOT BIOLOGICAL!!!  People can call themselves a culture or people can label them.

BUILDING BLOCKS OF CULTURE (THINK SCALE FROM SMALL TO LARGE)  Culture Traits: “units of learned behavior ranging from the language spoke to the tools used or the games played” (Getis 211). Action  Example: Dance steps, fiddling, and banjo (by themselves and apart from one another)  Culture Complex: “individual culture traits that are functionally interrelated” (Getis 211).  Example: It’s a bundle of cultural traits that have something related; dancing, fiddling, and banjo all go into Appalachian folk culture. Think about how they knew everyone’s names…it creates importance.  Culture System: “larger spatial reality and generalization...” groups may “share enough joint characteristics to be recognizably distinctive culture entities to themselves” (Getis 211)  Example: The dancers are actually dancing different dances and are from different regions of Appalachia, but are ultimately part of Appalachian folk culture.

UH, JUST FOR REFERENCE  Cultural Region Physical Region 

STILL…BIGGER… (THINK SCALE FROM SMALL TO LARGE)  Culture region: “a portion of the earth’s surface by people sharing recognizable and distinctive cultural characteristics.”  Example: Appalachia is one region, but so is the U.S.  Culture realm: “set of culture regions showing related culture complexes and landscapes”  Example: North America, Latin America, Europe, etc.

WHAT IS CONSTRUCTED AND NOT  Material Culture: “includes the things they [humans/people] construct” (Fouberg 112)  Example: Everything that is physical.  Nonmaterial culture: “Includes beliefs, practices, aesthetics, and values of a group of people.”  Example: Everything that’s an idea.  What people construct (material culture) reflects the nonmaterial culture.  Example: I’m thinking about the victory of Russia, so I make a giant statue of a woman with a sword statue that is a physical representation of my idea.

THINK ABOUT MIGRATION…  When people migrate, they take their culture with them (internal)  Accents  Birth rates  When people migrate, they often attempt to build material culture (external)  Mosques, Temples, and Synagogues in Texas  Housing styles  Why settlement patterns matter  gives insight into the culture of that region

DIFFERENT TYPES OF CULTURE  Folk Culture: “typically rural, and is cohesive in cultural traits” (Fouberg 112). “Nonfaddish”, “Resistant to outside Influences”, and “largely self-sufficient group” (Getis 227). Slow to change.  Creates a small group identity  Includes food, clothing, housing, shared themes  anonymous origins, diffuses slowly through migration. Develops over time.  Clustered distributions: isolation/lack of interaction breed uniqueness and ties to physical environment.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF CULTURE…CONT.  Popular (Pop) Culture: “Large, incorporates heterogeneous population, is typically urban, and experiences quickly changing cultural traits” (Fouberg 112). “General Mass”, “Adopting”, “Conforming”, “Fads”, and “Ever-Changing” (Getis 227).  Creates uniformity, identity is eroded.  Carried by media, large audience, includes food, clothes  Example: The last time I showed this Power Point…it was Miley Cyrus as the example…which is so yesterday. Now Adele is back on top. (Really, Justin Bieber is number two right now?)

POP (CHANGES FROM TIME TO TIME)VS. FOLK (CHANGES FROM PLACE TO PLACE)  Large groups of people  Heterogeneous groups  Changes quickly  Dispersed – Global scale  Ex. Wearing jeans, eating fast food, attending sporting events like football (American football, it’s the only real football anyway).  Small, isolated groups  Homogeneous groups  Slow to change  Clustered – local scale  Little interaction w/ others  Ex. Driving a horse and buggy, learning how to flatfoot.