Warm Up Question Which statement about culture is TRUE? A. Culture is the traditions and beliefs of a group of people. B. Culture is learned behavior that is passed from one generation to the next. C. Cultures are dynamic and always changing. D. Cultural traits are a reflection of a group’s values. E. All of the above.

Chapters 4 & 5 Culture and Identity

What is Home? How do we construct our own Identity? Ask me where I am a Local

Local Culture, Popular Culture, and Cultural Landscapes Chapter 4

What are Local and Popular Cultures? Key Question: What are Local and Popular Cultures?

Folk Culture Typically a small, rural, homogeneous population. It is more for how the people define themselves

Local Culture: A group of people in a particular place who see themselves as a collective or a community, who share experiences, customs, and traits, and who work to preserve those traits and customs in order to claim uniqueness and to distinguish themselves from others.

Popular Culture: A wide-ranging group of heterogeneous people, who stretch across identities and across the world, and who embrace cultural traits such as music, dance, clothing, and food preference that change frequently and are ubiquitous on the cultural landscape.

How do cultural traits diffuse? Hearth: the point of origin of a cultural trait. Contagious diffusion Hierarchical diffusion

How are Local Cultures Sustained? Key Question: How are Local Cultures Sustained?

Local cultures are sustained by maintaining customs. Custom: a practice that a group of people routinely follows.

Material and Nonmaterial Culture Material Culture The things a group of people construct, such as art, houses, clothing, sports, dance, and food. Nonmaterial Culture The beliefs, practices, aesthetics, and values of a group of people.

Material Culture

Non Material Culture

Local Cultures often have two goals: 1. keeping other cultures out. (create a boundary around itself) 2. keeping their own culture in. (avoid cultural appropriation)

Assimilation and Cultural Appropriation Local cultures try to avoid being assimilated and culturally appropriated. Assimilation- example: making American Indians into “Americans” rather than “Indians”. When the less dominant culture adopts the traits of a more dominant culture so completely that the two culture become indistinguishable, this is referred to as cultural assimilation. Cultural appropriation- process by which other cultures will adopt customs and knowledge and use them for their own benefit. (most often for wealth or prestige)

Acculturation Sometimes, an immigrant wants to become part of the dominant culture, so they will selectively adopt certain customs of the dominant society. Perhaps for the purposes of advancing socioeconomically. They will still retain much of their native customs, practices, and beliefs.

Rural Local Cultures Migration into rural areas is less frequent. Can better separate their culture from others and from popular culture. Can define their own space. Daily life may be defined by a shared economic activity. The Kidnapped Bride

Little Sweden, USA (Lindsborg, KS) Why did the residents of Lindsborg define it as a Swedish place?

Little Sweden, USA (Lindsborg, KS) Why did the residents of Lindsborg define it as a Swedish place? neolocalism: seeking out the regional culture and reinvigorating it in response to the uncertainty of the modern world.

Urban Local Cultures Can create 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. For example: Williamsburg, NY, North End (Boston), MA

Runners of the NYC Marathon run through Williamsburg, (Brooklyn), NY

Commodification How are aspects of local culture (material, non- material, place) commodified? what is commodified? who commodifies it?

Authenticity Claims of authenticity abound – how do consumers determine what experience/place is “authentic” and what is not?

How is Popular Culture Diffused? Key Question: How is Popular Culture Diffused?

How are hearths of popular culture traits established? Typically begins with an idea/good and contagious diffusion. Companies can create/manufacture popular culture. (ie. MTV) Individuals can create/manufacture popular culture. (ie. Tony Hawk, Beyonce)

With Distance Decay, the likelihood of diffusion decreases as time and distance from the hearth increases. With Time-Space Compression, the likelihood of diffusion depends upon the connectedness among places. Which applies more to popular culture?

How can Local and Popular Cultures be seen in the Cultural Landscape? Key Question: How can Local and Popular Cultures be seen in the Cultural Landscape?

Cultural Landscape The idea that cultures will modify the natural landscape to fit their needs. The visible human imprint on the landscape.

Cultural Pluralism A society in which two or more population groups coexist while maintaining their unique culture

Glocalization People in a local place can mediate and alter regional, national, and global processes, in a process called glocalization. Example: McDonalds has diffused to European countries and changed their menu some to add in a little bit of local cuisine. In France- adding some French cuisine India- Veggie burgers

Placelessness: the loss of uniqueness in a cultural landscape – one place looks like the next. E. Relph: the term that best captures the quality of the American landscape, which is associated with the spread of popular culture

Convergence of Cultural Landscapes: Diffusion of architectural forms and planning ideas around the world.

The widespread distribution of businesses and products creates distinctive landscape stamps around the world.

Borrowing of idealized landscape images blurs place distinctiveness.

Diffusion of Traditional American House Types Kniffen’s traditional American house types: New England Mid-Atlantic Southern Tidewater * Does not track the eastward diffusion of the Ranch Style homes in the south

Warm Up Question Which of the following is an example of relocation diffusion? A. The spread of baseball to Japan. B. The spread of English to the British Colonies. C. The spread of AIDS to the United States. D. The spread of Roman Catholicism to Latin America. E. All of the above.

Identity: Race, Ethnicity, Gender Chapter 5

What is Identity and How are Identities Constructed?

Identity Identity – “how we make sense of ourselves” – Rose How do we establish identities? - we construct our identities through experiences, emotions connections, and rejections. An identity is a snapshot of who we are at a point in time Identities are fluid, constantly changing, shifting, becoming. Identities vary across scales, and affect each other across scales. Identities are also constructed by identifying against (defining the other and then defining ourselves as “not that.”)

Sex Biologically based Male or Female

Gender a culture’s assumptions about the differences between men and women: their ‘characters,’ the roles they play in society, and what they represent. Global Gender Gap

Race – a categorization of humans based on skin color and other physical characteristics. Racial categories are social and political constructions because they are based on ideas that some biological differences are more important than others.

Ethnicity Ethnicity – a constructed identity that is tied to a place … it is often considered “natural” because it implies ancient relations among people over time. Example: a group of people from Switzerland, living in the United States may define their ethnicity as Swiss American.

Population in the U. S. by Race, 2000 In 2000, the U. S Population in the U.S. by Race, 2000 In 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau allowed Americans to categorize themselves as one race or more than one race.

Residential Segregation The degree to which two or more groups live separately from one another, in different parts of the urban environment.

Ethnocentrism The idea that one’s own culture and/or ethnicity is superior to other cultures and/or ethnicities. Example: During the Holocaust, the Germans were attempting to exterminate the Jewish population.

Ethnic Conflict Happens between two or more ethnicities Sometimes it is hard to establish the conflict because ethnicities can be comprised of many different races. Example: the Rwandan Genocide was conflict between two Rwandan groups, the Hutu’s and the Tutsi’s. Their race is Black but they thought there were huge differences between the two ethnic groups.

Ethnic Groups in Los Angeles - barrioization – when the population of a neighborhood changes over largely to Hispanics. - cultural landscapes change to reflect changing populations. - strife is usually tied to economic change.

Reterritorialization When people within a place start to produce an aspect of pop culture and make it their own. The aspect of pop culture will take on new forms when it encounters a new locality and the people and local culture in that place.

How do Power Relationships Subjugate Certain Groups of People?

Power Relationships Power Relationships – assumptions and structures about who is in control, who has power over others. Can enable society to enforce ideas about the ways people should behave or where people should be welcomed or turned away. Historic example: Jim Crow laws in the U.S. that separated “black” spaces from “white” spaces.

Conflict in Northern Ireland: Catholics and Protestants have defined certain neighborhoods as excluding the “other”. In this area of Belfast, Ballymurphy, there is a mural in support of the Irish Republican Army. The mural has pictures of women who have lost their lives in the conflict. Belfast, Northern Ireland

How do Power Relationships factor into How People are Counted? The U.S. Census undercounts: - minority populations- the “other” box - the homeless The Gross National Income (GNI) does not count: - unpaid work of women and men in the household - work done by rural women in poorer countries

Informal Economy – private, often home-based activities such as tailoring, food preparation, or vegetable gardening.

Women in Subsaharan Africa - populate much of the rural areas, as men migrate to cities for work. - produce 70% of the region’s food. - only a small percentage of women have legal title to their land.

Dowry Deaths in India - murders of brides (often by burning) when a dispute arises over a dowry. Difficult to “legislate away” the power relationships that lead to dowry deaths female infanticide is also tied to the disempowerment of women

Warm Up Question This is the process by which a less dominant culture adopts the traits of a more dominant culture so completely that the two cultures become indistinguishable. Cultural assimilation Acculturation Syncretism Migrant diffusion Transculturation

Warm Up Question What is the term for a group of people who identify with their cultural and biological history? A. Race B. Ethnicity C. Nationality D. Nation E. All of the above