FOLK and POPULAR CULTURE Folk Culture AP HG

FOLK and POPULAR CULTURE Folk Culture AP HG Mr. Hensley SRMHS

Monday March 27 • Welcome back! I hope you had a good break! • THIS WEEK: finish culture unit (folk and popular culture) • WARM UP: Look at the graph on the left… • Give a cultural reason that explains it • Make predictions for the future

Material and Nonmaterial • Physical, visible things make up material culture • Ex: tools, house styles • Collectively, material culture makes up the built environment – the landscape as created by human beings • Nonmaterial culture is intangible – songs, stories, outlooks, beliefs, speech patterns

Review: Cultural Hearths • Recall that cultural hearths are centers of innovation and invention from which cultural traits diffuse into surrounding regions • Multilinearism – similar climates produce similar cultures (parallel development) • Diffusionism – cultural similarities spread through regions via trade contact

American Cultural Hearths • Northern hearths: French influence in Canada, Dutch in New York • Southern hearths: Tidewater (slave-based economy) and Appalachia (Scots-Irish) • Western hearths: influenced by both the Spanish and Natives (New Mexico, Texas)

Diversity or Assimilation? • Early American cultural hearths began via relocation diffusion from the ethnic group, culture and country of origin • Once in place, expansion diffusion carried culture into the interior of the continent • There has always been pressure for minority groups to assimilate into dominant cultural complex

Syncretism • Cultures can meet and blend together – this usually happens where immigrant groups intermix • It is called syncretism • Example: voodoo – West African spiritualism combines with French Catholicism • Example: Our Lady of Guadalupe – again, Catholicism meets Native traditions

Folk Culture Definition • Folk culture is the collective heritage of institutions, customs, skills and dress of a small, stable community • Folk culture is predominantly rural (homemade, handmade) • Folk culture is conservative and resistant to assimilation • Ex: traditional Japanese culture

American Folk Culture: Houses • Houses are an important component of any material culture • Vernacular houses are built without formal plans according to (folk) cultural traditions • Pictured on left: the “shotgun shack” – its inexpensive design helps with heat and humidity

House Styles: New England • Pictured is a Georgian house, with up to ten rooms, a lobby entrance and paired chimneys • The Georgian house style was brought to New England from Great Britain (relocation diffusion) • This style is still prevalent in many upscale neighborhoods

House Styles: Spanish • Influenced by the houses of the Pueblo natives, Spanish adobe houses are popular in the West • Walls are typically thick and roofs are flat (Mission style has red clay shingles) • The Spanish assimilated the Pueblo folk culture – and this vernacular house style has now diffused throughout the USA

Non-Material Folk Culture • Cuisine or cooking styles are one of the largest components of nonmaterial folk culture • Folk foods are tied to the original environment of the hearth (expansion) – ethnic foods are brought to a new environment (relocation) • Ex: grits are a folk food not an ethnic one

American Folk Foods • North: seafood chowder, lobster and baked beans • South: cornpone, grits, hush puppies (notice: all corn based) • South (Delta): gumbo and crawfish • Spanish: tortillas and tamales (corn based)

Folk Music • Southern backwoods: (bluegrass music) moral, emotional conflicts and melancholy plus religion • Western: factual, narrative songs that deal with feminine purity and personal valor • Black: emphasis on rhythm and songs that deal with “the blues”

Folk Drinks • Rum is made from sugar cane, grown in the South – folk drink • Whisky was an import from Scotland – ethnic drink • “Moonshine” or (wait for it) corn liquor is the folk drink of the Appalachians • Long history of liquor taxes • Where are the stills?

Group Work • What is this dish of meat? • What animal are we getting ready to eat? • Where are we in the world? • The answer may SURPRISE and HORRIFY you – or it may not…