LOCAL CULTURE, POPULAR CULTURE, AND CULTURAL LANDSCAPES Chapter 4

a group of belief systems, norms and values practiced by a people Culture a group of belief systems, norms and values practiced by a people

Folk vs Popular Culture small homogeneous rural cohesive stagnant Popular large heterogeneous urban expansive fluid

What Are Local and Popular Cultures? Local culture: A group in a particular place that sees itself as a community, shares experiences, customs, and traits, and works to preserve those traits and customs to distinguish the group from others Popular culture: A large, heterogeneous population, typically urban, with rapidly changing culture

Local Cultures Acceptance vs. rejection of popular culture traits Impact on the landscape Nonmaterial culture: Beliefs, practices, aesthetics, values Material culture: Constructed items, frequently expressing nonmaterial culture Establishment of neighborhoods, construction of places of worship and community centers

Popular Cultures Practiced by large, heterogeneous group Rapid spread of new traits, often by hierarchical diffusion from a hearth, through transportation, communication, and marketing networks Interaction between local and popular cultures Patronage by local cultures of popular culture services Adoption by popular culture of local culture traits

How Are Local Cultures Sustained? Assimilation policies: To force people of indigenous cultures to adopt dominant cultures Preservation of customs: Practices that people routinely follow Preserving boundaries to keep other cultures out Avoiding cultural appropriation to keep control over their own culture Importance of place

Rural Local Cultures Isolation Common economic activity among members Anabaptists Mennonites Amish Hutterites Makah Indians, Neah Bay, Washington Little Sweden, U.S.A.—Lindsborg, Kansas

Urban Local Cultures Ethnic neighborhoods within cities Creates a space to practice customs Can cluster businesses, houses of worship, schools to support local culture Migration into ethnic neighborhoods can quickly change an ethnic neighborhood

Commodification Process of making something that was not previously bought and sold a commodity in the marketplace Material culture objects for sale to outsiders Tourist value of culture as a whole Question of authenticity of places Mystical images Creation of identity from cultural traits

Irish Pub Company Pubs Irish Pub Company and Guinness Brewing Company created 5 models of pubs and export them around the world.

How Is Popular Culture Diffused? Distance-decay: More interaction between closer places than between more distant places Time-space compression: Interaction dependent on connectedness among places

Hearths of Popular Culture Traits Typically begin with an idea or good and contagious diffusion Creation or manufacture of popular culture by Companies (for example, MTV) Individuals (for example, Dave Matthews)

Stemming the Tide of Popular Culture Rapid diffusion of popular culture from major hearths United States Europe Japan Resistance Government subsidies: Media in local languages Dominant cultures of wealthy countries: Fundamentalism Minorities in wealthy countries: Cultural preservation Political elites in poorer countries: Nationalist ideologies Social and ethnic minorities in poorer countries: Greater autonomy

How Can Local and Popular Cultures Be Seen in the Cultural Landscape? Visible human imprint on the land Placelessness: Similarity of places of popular cultures everywhere

Convergence of Cultural Landscapes Diffusion of skyscrapers as a mark of a city

Convergence of Cultural Landscapes The widespread distribution of businesses and products

Convergence of Cultural Landscapes Borrowing of idealized landscape images

Cultural Landscapes of Local Cultures Persistence of local cultural landscapes Presence along “back roads” of countries