Folk vs. Pop Culture

Folk Culture Cultural traits such as dress modes, dwellings, traditions, and institutions of usually small, traditional communities Examples? Amish, Mennonites, Hutterites Select areas of LDCs

aka Local Culture Local culture – group of people in a particular place who see themselves as a collective or 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 Cultural traits such as dress, diet, and music that identify and are part of today’s changeable, urban-based, media-influenced western societies. Examples? Blue jeans Hip Hop

How did you become a “knower” of your favorite kind of music? Where is its hearth? How did it reach you? What type of diffusion?

Assimilation – the minority population reduces or loses completely its identifying cultural characteristics and blends into the host society Acculturation - cultural modification or change that results when one culture group adopts traits of a dominant society; cultural development or change through “borrowing In The Kite Runner, how well did the Afghans adapt to America?

Neolocalism – seeking out regional culture and reinvigorating it (ex Neolocalism – seeking out regional culture and reinvigorating it (ex. Little Sweden in Kansas) Commodification of a culture can compromise authenticity becoming a stereotype –examples? Cherokee Branson, Mo Guinness and the Irish Pub Co.

Rural Local Cultures Hutterites Branch of Anabaptists absolute pacifism Live in rural, self-sufficient “colonies” Forbid use tv, radio Usually only 1 telephone for the community Avoid pictures

Urban Local Cultures Ethnic Neighborhoods – Hasidic Jews Pious Distinctive clothes Speak Yiddish Do not watch tv, but will listen to radio Other Urban Local Culture examples Italian neighborhoods, Chinatowns, Mexican, Russian, Polish

Makah American Indians Early culture included whale hunting However, whale hunting in the 17th – 19th century became increasingly commercial and detrimental to the whale population 1946 – International Whaling Commission instituted regulations 1990’s – Makah American Indians, Washington reinstated whale hunting facing much protest 1999 – whale killed but not in traditional way with canoes and harpoons, but according to IWC regulations a .50 caliber rifle

Material folk culture regions Each region possesses many distinctive items of material culture Quebec French folk region-grist windmills with stone towers, and a bowling game played with small metal balls Mormon folk culture — distinctive hay derricks and gridiron farm villages Western plains ranching folk culture — the “beef wheel,” a windlass used during butchering

Quebec Petanque, a bowling game played with metal balls, diffused to Canada with French immigrants in the 16th century. It has persisted as one aspect of Quebec French folk region.

FOLK LIFE Material Culture - Artifacts Physical, Visible Things Musical Instruments, Furniture, Tools, Buildings The Built Environment – the landscape created The Contents of Houses & Shops

Nonmaterial Culture Mentifacts & Sociofacts Oral Traditions, Folk Songs, Stories, Philosophies Includes beliefs, practices, aesthetics, and values of a group of people Mentifacts represent the ideas and beliefs of a culture, for example religion, language or law Sociofacts represent the social structures of a culture, such as tribes or families. artifact is a human-made object which gives information about the culture of its creator and users

Music American folk music began as transplants of Old World songs Northern song Featured unaccompanied solo signing in clear hard tones Featured Fiddle or fife-and-drum Southern, Backwoods, and Appalachian song Featured unaccompanied high pitch and nasal solo singing Marked by moral and emotional conflict Roots of country music Western song Factual, narrative songs Themes of natural beauty, personal valor, and feminine purity Some songs reworked as lumberjack ballads

Country and Western music Impact of migration of Upland Southern folk on bluegrass music Migrated to Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma plus the Depression era movement of “Okies” and “Arkies” to the Central Valley of California Provided natural areas for bluegrass expansion in the mid-twentieth century

Food and drink Local cuisine based on what is available Also is based on local customs Ex. Geophagy – eating dirt, common in Africa & southern United States, may counteract digestive issues, common among pregnant women

Folk food regions Mexico—abundant use of chili peppers in cooking and maize for tortillas Caribbean areas — combined rice-bean dishes and various rum drinks Amazonian region — monkey and caiman Brazil — cuscuz (cooked grain) and sugarcane brandy Pampas style — carne asada (roasted beef), wine and yerba mate (herbal tea) Pacific-coastal Creole — manjar blanco (a pudding)

Folk food regions Latin American foods derive from Amerindians, Africans, Spaniards, and Portuguese Pattern of Latin American is not simple and culinary regions are not as homogeneous as the map we saw suggests

Folklore regions Displays regional contrasts in much the same way as material folk culture Folk geographers consider diverse nonmaterial phenomena as folktales, dance, music, myths, legends, and proverbs Most thoroughly studied in Europe First research appeared early in the nineteenth century We know more about vanished folk cultures than surviving ones Example of Switzerland

Local Culture