1. Folk Culture, Popular Culture, and Cultural Landscapes Chapter 4

2. What are Folk and Popular Cultures? Key Question:

3. Combination of three things  Values  Material artifacts  Political institutions

4. Important Terms  Custom – frequent repetition of an act until it becomes characteristic of a group of people..  Taboo – a restriction on behavior imposed by social custom.  Habit – repetitive act performed by an individual.

5. Material Culture  clothing  buildings  farming patterns  technology

6. Nonmaterial Culture  Language  Religion  Political organization  Customs or traditions

7. Two basic categories  Folk culture  Traditionally practiced by small, isolated, homogenous groups in rural areas  Popular culture  Characterized by large, heterogeneous groups of people who share common habits despite differences in other personal characteristics  Where are cultures located in space?  How cultures interact with the environment?

8. Where do cultures originate and diffuse?  Origin of folk and popular cultures  Folk culture = hearth area: originators are usually unknown  Popular culture = hearth area comes from more developed countries (MDCs)  People in MDCs have disposable income and leisure time that allow for these innovation

9. Where do cultures originate and diffuse?  Origin of folk and popular music  Folk music : tells a story or recounts important life events or activities  Popular music : written by individuals for the purpose of selling to a large audience

10. How do cultural traits diffuse?  Hearth: the point of origin of a cultural trait.  Relocation diffusion The idea is physically carried to new areas by migrating individuals  Contagious diffusion affects nearly uniformly all individuals and areas outward from the source region  Hierarchical diffusion: involves processes of transferring ideas first between larger places or prominent people, and later to smaller or less important points or people

11. Hutterite Colonies in North America Are the Hutterites an example of a Folk culture?

12. Why are Hutterite colonies located where they are?

13. How do cultural traits from local cultures become part of popular culture? Madonna wearing a red string Kabbalah bracelet.

14. Employing the concept of hierarchical diffusion, describe how you first became a “knower” of your favorite kind of music – where is its hearth, and how did it reach you?

15. How are Local Cultures Sustained? Key Question:

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

17. 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.

18. LittleSweden, USA (Lindsborg, Kansas): Is the Swedish Dala horse part of material or nonmaterial culture?

19. In an age of globalization, where popular culture diffuses quickly, what do local cultures do to maintain their customs?

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

21. What role does place play in maintaining customs? By defining a place (a town or a neighborhood) or a space for a short amount of time (an annual festival) as representing a culture and its values, members of a local culture can maintain (or reestablish) its customs and reinforce its beliefs.

22. 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 my be defined by a shared economic activity.

23. 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

24. What is the last place you went to or the last product you purchased that claimed to be “authentic?” What are the challenges of defending the authenticity of this place or product while refuting the authenticity of other similar places or products?

25. People and Environment Human Geography 11e  Environments as Controls  Environmental Determinism  The belief that the physical environment exclusively shapes humans, their actions, and thoughts  Possibilism  A reaction against environmental determinism; people are dynamic forces of development (the environment is not as dynamic like human beings)  Human Impacts  Cultural Landscape-the built environment.

26. Cultural Landscapes can also reflect the nonmaterial aspects of culture. The height, centrality and durability of a European cathedral is a good example.

27.  Every cultural landscape is an accumulation of human artifacts.  It contains valuable evidence about the origin, spread and development of cultures.  Cultures use, alter and manipulate landscapes to reflect their identity.

28.  Each culture creates a distinctive cultural landscape.

29. FOLK ARCHITECTURE Effects on Landscape: usually of limited scale and scope. Agricultural: fields, terraces, grain storage Dwellings: historically created from local materials: wood, brick, stone, skins; often uniquely and traditionally arranged; always functionally tied to physical environment.

30. FOLK ARCHITECTURE

32. How does this shopper compare with the lady from Texas in the previous slide?

33. Food Taboos: Jews – can’t eat animals that chew cud, that have cloven feet; can’t mix meat and milk, or eat fish lacking fins or scales; Muslims – no pork; Hindus – no cows (used for oxen during monsoon) Washing Cow in Ganges

34. Hog Production and Food Cultures Fig. 4-6: Annual hog production is influenced by religious taboos against pork consumption in Islam and other religions. The highest production is in China, which is largely Buddhist.

35. How is Popular Culture Diffused? Key Question:

36. 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)

37. The hearth of Phish concerts is in the northeastern United States, near where the band began in Vermont.

38. 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?

39. Why are popular culture traits usually diffused hierarchically? How is fashion in popular culture an example of hierarchical diffusion?

40. Think about your local community (your college campus, your neighborhood, your town). Determine how your local community takes one aspect of popular culture and makes it your own.

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

42. Cultural Landscape The visible human imprint on the landscape. - How have people changed the landscape? - What buildings, statues, and so forth have they erected? - How do landscapes reflect the values of a culture?

43. Placelessness: the loss of uniqueness in a cultural landscape – one place looks like the next.

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

45. Convergence of Cultural Landscapes:  The widespread distribution of businesses and products creates distinctive landscape stamps around the world.

46. Convergence of Cultural Landscapes:  Borrowing of idealized landscape images blurs place distinctiveness.

47. House Types  Kniffen’s traditional American house types: New England Mid-Atlantic Southern Tidewater

49. Focus on the cultural landscape of your college campus. Thing about the concept of placelessness. Determine whether your campus is a “placeless place” or if the cultural landscape of your college reflects the unique identity of the place. Imagine you are hired to build a new student union on your campus. How could you design the building to reflect the uniqueness of your college?