1. FOLK CULTURE & POPULAR CULTURE
TWO POLES OF A CONTINUUM

3. FOLK CULTURE POPULAR CULTURE Transmitted interpersonally
Stable, conservative, traditionalist
Based on idea of community (shared experience and mutual obligations)
Clear-cut social roles, M/F division of labor
Adapted to a particular environment
POPULAR CULTURE
Transmitted by media such as books & TV
Constantly changing and innovating
Based on idea of society (specialized roles and interdependence, impersonal coordination)
Flexible and vague social roles
Not adapted to any particular environment

4. Persistent elements of folk culture (slowly disappearing)
Architecture
Vernacular regions
Traditional medicine
Music
Vanishing elements of folk culture (quickly disappearing)
Fences
Barns
Agricultural techniques
Dance

5. “I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.”
Michel de Montaigne

6. remnants of surviving folk culture in the U.S.

7. A vernacular region is a shared, traditional way of ordering experience, therefore, it is part of folk culture…
…an especially interesting part for geographers.

8. Folk Culture includes traditional medicine
Folk Culture includes traditional medicine. What are some ways folk culture medicine gets incorporated into popular culture?
pharmaceutical companies “discover” and patent a compound
a substance becomes popular for “recreational” use
A technique like acupuncture or Chinese herbal medicine gains mainstream acceptance

9. Diffusion of the Rodeo Who started it?
Receptivity of : Mexicans, Canadians, Mormons?

10. Diffusion of agricultural fairs
What types of diffusion are operating here?

11. How is this vernacular architecture (folk architecture) suited to its environment? (house from Orchid Island, near Taiwan)
readily available materials
form responds to climate and weather patterns

12. What might be the reason for the “forebay” on Pennsylvania barns?

14. the “dogtrot”

15. What kinds of environmental adaptation can you identify?
How else could you build a house to do the same thing?

17. What elements of the Quebec farmhouse respond to climate?
Do any elements seem to respond more to social factors?

19. Why is the Buriat Mongolian yurt so similar to the Navajo hogan?

20. Pueblo Architecture Northern New Mexico Pre-Columbian “condo”
Suited to dry climate with cold, sunny winters
strong diurnal temp swings
“horno” bread oven

22. An “adobe” drive-through bank

23. Can folk culture be imposed by law?

24. Popular Culture Landscape: McDonalds in Moscow & Tokyo

25. Popular Culture

26. POPULAR CULTURE Transmitted by media such as books & TV
Constantly changing and innovating
Based on idea of society (specialized roles and interdependence, impersonal coordination)
Flexible and vague social roles
Not adapted to any particular environment

27. Not a popular culture landscape

28. Popular culture is “culture of consumption”

29. The Strip (example of placelessness)

31. when you get to Finland will it look even more familiar than this?

32. You are what you consume!
Aside from income and the need/desire to be “fashionable,” what else differs between the light and dark regions on this map?

35. Stars & Fans
Fans from US and Japan hold a candlelight vigil outside Neverland Ranch, Thursday, April 29, 2004, in Los Olivos, Calif. the night before Michael Jackson is scheduled to appear at the Santa Maria court for arraignment on child molestation charges

36. the most popular show on earth
seen in 140 countries
32 languages
part of $60 bill. export market
understood as representative of Americans and American culture
popular with teens

37. changing attitudes about women’s bodies…
…also suggest changing attitudes about men’s self-control…
… and about desire itself!

38. What’s wrong with this picture?
“We have allowed this thing which will mark the country with sin for a long time…”
(Phra Thep Dilok, Head of National Center for Buddhism Promotion in Thailand)

39. Morality in Thailand
There are approximately 130,000 prostitutes in Thailand
about 12,000 are children
prostitution is legal
prostitution in Thailand is described as early as the 16th century
prostitution is part of the local culture (many brothels cater specifically to locals and Asians)

40. Religious Desecration
What was the problem with the beauty pageant?
The Buddhist Temple of Dawn is in the background
Photographing of Miss Universe contestants in front of this sacred place was seen as a desecration of the site and a sign of disrespect to Buddhism

41. Don’t forget sports!
which seems closer to folk culture: participatory or spectator sports?

42. Does the culture of consumption inevitably lead to this…

43. this …

44. … and this?

45. Popular or folk culture?
it’s always a matter of degree
a point on the continuum
popular culture challenges folk culture
popular culture undermines folk culture
popular culture appropriates elements of folk culture
popular culture markets elements of folk culture