Folk and Popular Culture Chapter 4

Folk and Popular Culture Key Issues: Where do Folk and Popular Cultures Originate and Diffuse? Why is Folk Culture Clustered? Why is Popular Culture Widely Distributed? Why Does Globalization of Popular Culture Cause Problems?

Where do Folk and Popular Cultures Originate and Diffuse? What do we mean by ‘culture’? The Origin of Folk and Popular Cultures Origin of folk music Origin of popular music Diffusion of Folk and Popular Cultures Diffusion of Amish Folk Culture Diffusion of Popular Culture Through Sports

What is Culture? Culture The body of material traits, customary beliefs, and social forms that together constitute the distinct tradition of a group of people Each cultural activity has a distinctive spatial distribution. Geographers study the relations between material culture and the physical environment.

What is Culture? Daily necessities and leisure Material culture deriving from the necessities of daily life Culture involving leisure activities Habit: A repetitive act that a particular individual performs Custom: A repetitive act of a group Material culture: A collection of social customs Folk culture: Varies from place to place at a given time Popular culture: Varies from time to time at a given place

Characteristics of folk culture Anonymous hearth(s) Anonymous sources (originators) Unknown dates Diffuses slowly and on a small scale Chiefly through migration Little change

Characteristics of popular culture Found in large heterogeneous societies Large territory as compared to folk culture Usually product of developed countries Rapid diffusion facilitated by technology Changes rapidly and frequently

Folk Music Composed anonymously and transmitted orally Contents derived from daily life Travels via relocation diffusion

Popular Music Composed by specific individuals Commercial purposes Originated ~1800 Tin Pan Alley Rise of recorded music

Differences between popular and folk culture Popular culture Consists of large masses of people who conform to and prescribe to ever-changing norms Large heterogeneous groups Often highly individualistic and groups are constantly changing Pronounced division of labor leading to establishment of specialized professions

Differences between popular and folk culture Popular culture Money based economy prevails Replacing folk culture in industrialized countries and many developing nations Folk-made objects give way to their popular equivalent Item is more quickly or cheaply produced Easier or time-saving to use Lends prestige to owner

Differences between popular and folk culture Made up of people who maintain the traditional Describes people who live in an old-fashioned way-simpler life-style Rural, cohesive, conservative, largely self-sufficient group, homogeneous in custom Strong family or clan structure and highly developed rituals Tradition is paramount — change comes infrequently and slowly

Differences between popular and folk culture Little specialization in labor though duties may vary between genders Subsistence economy prevails Individualism and social classes are weakly developed In parts of the less-developed world, folk cultures remain common Industrialized countries no longer have unaltered folk cultures

Differences between popular and folk culture Folk culture: The Amish in the United States Perhaps the nearest modem equivalent in Anglo-America German-American farming sect Largely renounces products and labor-saving devices of the industrial age Horse-drawn buggies still used, and faithful own no autos or appliances Central religion concept of demut, ”humility,” reflects weakness of individualism and social class Rarely marry outside their sect

FOLK CULTURE : DISTRIBUTION OF THE AMISH

Differences between popular and folk culture Typically, bearers of folk culture combine folk and nonfolk elements in their lives Includes both material and nonmaterial elements Material culture includes all objects or “things” made and used by members of a cultural group—material elements are visible Nomnaterial culture, including folklore, can be defined as oral, including the wide range of tales, songs, lore, beliefs, superstitions, and customs Other aspects of nonmaterial culture include dialects, religions, and worldviews Folk geography—defined as the study of the spatial patterns and ecology of folklife

Soccer’s folk culture origins Eleventh-century England Denmark ~1018–1042 “Kick the Dane’s Head” Football Association, 1863

Soccer as popular culture Late 1800s diffused to continental Europe Holland, 1870s Spain, 1893 Diffused via British imperial expansion Russia, 1887

Surviving folk sports Cricket Ice hockey Wushu Baseball Football Lacrosse