Chapter 4 Folk and Popular Culture Unit 3

Chapter 4: Folk and Popular Culture Unit 3

Culture • The combination of three things: 1. Values 2. Material artifacts 3. Political institutions • This chapter focuses on: • Daily necessities: food, clothing, shelter • Leisure activities: arts, recreation • Habit: • Custom:

Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure Activities Distributed? • Two basic categories: folk and popular culture • Folk culture • Traditionally practiced by small, isolated, homogeneous groups in rural areas • Popular culture • Characterized by large, heterogeneous groups of people who share common habits despite differences in other personal characteristics • Geographers are interested in two aspects of culture: • Where cultures are located in space • How cultures interact with the environment

Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure Activities Distributed? • 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 innovations

Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure Activities Distributed? • Diffusion of folk and popular culture • Folk culture diffuses slowly, primarily through migration, and at a small scale • Relocation diffusion • Example: Diffusion of Amish culture (p. 138) • Popular culture diffuses rapidly and over a large scale • Hierarchical diffusion • Example: Sports, music

Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure Activities Distributed? • Distribution of folk and popular culture • Popular culture: distributed widely with little regard for physical factors • Obstacle: lack of income to purchase the material • Folk culture: distributed typically in one area, folk cultures typically isolated

Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure Activities Distributed? • Origin and distribution of folk and popular music • Folk music characteristics • Tells a story or recounts important life events or activities • Is personal in nature • Popular music characteristics • Written by individuals for the purpose of selling to a large audience • Highly technical • Origin and distribution of folk and popular sports • Soccer: • Surviving folk sports

Where Are Folk and Popular Material Culture Distributed? • Conflicting Folk and Popular Cultural Values • Elements of Material Culture: Influence of the physical environment • Folk culture = close connection to the environment • Most folk cultures are rural and agricultural • Clothing is often tied to environmental conditions • Clothing in popular culture typically reflects what?

Where Are Folk and Popular Material Culture Distributed? • Folk food preferences and the environment • Food preferences are adapted to the environment • Example: In Asia, rice is grown in milder, wetter environments whereas wheat is grown in colder, drier environments • Example: eating animals that signify strength and avoiding those that signify cowardice • Food taboos may be especially strong • People avoid certain foods because of negative associations with that food • Examples? • Terroir = the sum effects of the local environment on a particular food item • Soil, climate, etc.

Where Are Folk and Popular Material Culture Distributed? • Popular Food Preferences • Influenced more by cultural values than by environmental features. • Popular culture varies more in time than place • Food customs: consumption of large quantities of snack foods and alcohol

Where Are Folk and Popular Material Culture Distributed? • Folk housing and the environment • Housing = a reflection of cultural heritage, current fashion, function, and the physical environment • Two most common building materials = wood and brick • Minor differences in the environment can produce very different house styles • Popular housing: • Reflects fashion trends since the 1940 s in the United States

Why is Access to Folk and Popular Culture Unequal? • Diffusion of TV and Internet • Watching television • The most popular leisure activity in MDCs • Diffusion from the United States to the rest of the world = 50 years • The Internet • Diffusion from the United States to the rest of the world = 10 years • Diffusion of Social Media • Facebook: Est. in 2004 • 2009: 55 million users in the U. S. • 2014: 152 million users in the U. S. • Percentage of users in the U. S. has declined, other countries’ percentages have increased • Twitter: mainly dominated by Americans, but numbers are growing in LDCs • Why do some countries use other forms of social media?

Why is Access to Folk and Popular Culture Unequal? • Challenges in Accessing Electronic Media • Banned Technology • Blocked Content • Violated User Rights

Why Do Folk and Popular Culture Face Sustainability Challenges? • Sustainability challenges for folk culture • Assimilation • Acculturation • Syncretism • Challenging cultural values in folk culture • Equality of women to men

Why Do Folk and Popular Culture Face Sustainability Challenges? • Sustainability challenges for popular culture • Landscape pollution • Depletion of natural resources