1. Cultural Landscapes

2. Local vs. Popular Culture
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.

3. Material and Nonmaterial 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.

4. Material vs. Nonmaterial Culture

5. Folk Cultural Survival Regions

7. Folk (Local) Architecture
Building Materials
Natural environment
Economic and Social Organization
Sedentary vs. nomadic
Floor Plans/Site Plans

8. Ecology of Folk Architecture

9. U.S. Folk House Forms
Three major hearths of folk house forms in the US:
NE-saltbox, two-chimney, cape cod, front gable and wing
Mid-Atlantic: “I” house
Lower Chesapeake-one story with steep roof and two chimneys
Style of housing not as distinctive anymore due to rapid communication and transportation systems.
Majority of people do not build the houses they live in today.

11. Saltbox

12. Cape Cod

13. Colonial Cape Cod

14. Front Wing and Gable

15. More

16. I-House

17. I-House in Aiken, SC

18. Tidewater House in Virginia Beach

20. Folk (Local) housing in the South
Dogtrot house: two log rooms separated by an open roofed breezeway
Shotgun house: African-American, one room wide, but two to four rooms in depth
Creole cottage: half-timbered with a central chimney and built-in porch, found in Acadiana, a French-derived folk region in Louisiana

23. Shotgun House (Southern Tradition)

24. U.S. House Types,
Fig. 4-11: Several variations of the “modern style” were dominant from the 1940s into the 1970s. Since then, “neo-eclectic” styles have become the dominant type of house construction in the U.S.

27. Kitsch Architecture: Lacrosse, Wisconsin
Kitsch – trivial, showy, designed for mass consumption – it is increasingly common in placeless landscapes.
Much kitsch in North American and Australia is characterized by gigantism
This is purported to be the world’s largest six-pack.

28. Kitsch Architecture: Lacrosse, Wisconsin
Gottlieb Heileman, a German immigrant, founded his brewery in 1870 and this region has one of the highest per capita beer consumption figures in the nation.

29. Cotton Gin Inn Clarksdale, MS Cotton Gin Inn
Cotton Gin Inn
Clarksdale, MS

30. Shack Up Inn Clarksdale, MS
Shack Up Inn
Clarksdale, MS

31. Gatorland Kissimmiee, FL
Kissimmiee, FL – Gatorland (Prior to being torn down)
Gatorland
Kissimmiee, FL

32. Wigwam Village Cave City, KY Wigwam Village – Dixie Hwy, Cave City, KY
Wigwam Village
Cave City, KY

33. Mammy’s Cupboard Natchez, MS Natchez, MS – open since 1940

34. Impacts of the Globalization of Popular Culture
Threats to folk culture
Loss of traditional values
Foreign media dominance
Environmental impacts of popular culture
Modifying nature
Uniform landscapes
Negative environmental impact

38. Placelessness
Superficially, popular culture appears to vary less areally than folk culture
Canadian geographer Edward Relph’s placelessness
Popular culture produces a profound placelessness
A spatial standardization that diminishes cultural variety
Demeans the human spirit
James Kunstler’s “geography of nowhere”
One place become much like another, robbed of its geographical essence
Pervasive influence of a continental or worldwide popular culture

39. Where is this Place? Toronto!
Skyscrapers in Toronto—From the picture, it is hard to “place” these.

40. Placelessness: Anywhere USA
Without signage, how do we know what type of place this is?
Is there a sense of distinctiveness?
Nothing sets these structures apart as being in a particular place; this is placelessness.

41. Placelessness: Anywhere USA
This is suburban Columbus, Ohio
“Test Market USA.”
Columbus -- representative cross section of American society; place to try out new products.
Most fast food menus are tested here.

42. McDonald’s in Tokyo

43. Wendy’s in Idaho

44. Pampas Grill in Finland

45. Commodification
Authenticity
Reterritorialization