Unit 3 Ch 4 Folk and Popular Culture

Unit 3: Ch. 4 Folk and Popular Culture

Culture ■ Culture is all of a group’s learned behaviors, actions, beliefs, and objects. It is visible force seen in a group’s actions, possessions, and influence on the lands space: ■ Passed down by imitation, informal instruction, and formal instruction. ■ ➤ cultural traits Trait is the smallest unit of a culture, they are individual elements of culture, The parts of a watch are traits and all the parts when organized together function as a whole in the watch. and include things like shaking of hands, driving to the right ■ Values, Material artifacts and political institutions; ■ ➤ food preferences ■ ➤ architecture ■ ➤ land use patterns ■ ➤ music

Cultural Complex : interrelated traits Political parties, a football game

Non-Material Culture ■ This type of culture consist of abstract concepts of values, beliefs, and behaviors. ■ Values: culturally defined standards that guide the way people assess goodness and beauty and serve as guidelines for moral living ■ Beliefs: specific statements that people hold to be true ■ Behaviors actions that people take ■ Language ■ Religion ■ Ethnicity ■ Symbols ■ Gestures ■ Personal space ■ Touching ■ Eye contact

Defining Material Culture ■ material culture is distinct from habit and custom ■ ➤ habit: repetitive act performed by an individual, nail biting, wearing same jeans ■ ➤ custom: repetitive acts of a group ■ ➤ a collection of social customs produces a group’s material culture ■ Taboo: Behaviors heavily discouraged by a culture. Examples from American History (marriage of close relatives, getting married when pregnant, marriage between different races, use of illegal drugs, same sex marriage, child marriage)

Material Culture ■ This type of culture includes concrete human creations called artifacts. ■ Artifacts reflect values, beliefs, and behaviors. ■ There are two overarching facets of material culture ■ ➤ Survival Activities ■ ➤ Leisure Activities, the arts, recreation ■ Material culture is reflected in a variety of ways, from the way homes are constructed to what equipment is used for construction and arrangement of roadways ■ Examples; clothing, tools, books, homes, jewelry, pictures, homes

Comparing the two Non-material culture Material Culture ■ Abstract concepts ■ Concrete human creations ■ Consists of – Values – Beliefs – Behaviors – Norms: the rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members ■ Consists of artifacts such as – Houses – Churches – Roadways – The arrangement of buildings on the cultural landscape

Folk Culture transmitted from one location to another relatively slowly and on a small scale, primarily through relocation diffusion (migration). and often has anonymous hearths, origination from anonymous sources at unknown dates

Popular Culture ■ Popular Culture: When cultural traits such as clothing, music, movies, types of businesses, and the built landscape spreads quickly over a large area and are adopted by various groups, ■ Elements of popular culture often begin in urban areas, and diffuse quickly through the media, particularly the internet ■ They can quickly be adopted globally. ■ Examples: European soccer world wide, Indian Bollywood movies, Japanese animation (anime), wearing similar clothes, listening to similar music, eating similar food, Hollywood movies,

Diffusion of Popular Culture: ■ Television ■ Facebook ■ Instagram ■ Twitter ■ News organizations ■ Magazines ■ Internet

Scale of Culture ■ Geographers study the scale of cultures ■ ➤ thescale of territory covered by a folk culture is typically much smaller than that covered by popular culture ■ ➤ folk culture has a much narrower distribution than pop culture ■ Popular Culture typically spreads through a process of hierarchical diffusion, diffusion rapidly and extensively from hearths or nodes of innovation with the help of modern communications

Folk or 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. ■ Folk culture is typically rural-cohesive ■ Cossacks in Ukraine wear traditional military uniforms

Rural Local Cultures ■ Migration into rural areas is less frequent. ■ Can better separate their culture from others and from popular culture. (Amish, Mennonites, Hutterites & Mormons have done this ■ Can define their own space. ■ Daily life my be defined by a shared economic activity.

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. ie: Williamsburg, NY, North End

Folk Clothing ■ Worn for agricultural practices and environmental conditions: wooden shoes of the Dutch ■ Fur line boots of the artic ■ No shoes in warm climates ■ Can be controversial in a pop culture

Rapid diffusion of popular clothing styles Individual clothing habits reveal how popular culture can be distributed across the landscape with little regard for distinctive physical features. Instead they reflect ■ Occupation: a lawyer or business executive tends to wear a dark suit, light shirt or blouse, and necktie or scarf. Whereas a factor worker wears jeans and a work shirt ■ Income: Women’s clothes, change in fashion from one year to the next. . The color, shape and design of dresses change to imitate pieces created by clothing designers. For social purposes, people with sufficient income may update their wardrobe frequently with the latest fashions ■ Improved communications have permitted the rapid diffusion of clothing styles from one region of earth to another.

Hierarchal Diffusion of fashion devil wears Prada: https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=p 5 WWy_0 VLS 4

Local Cultures often have two goals: 1. keeping other cultures out to avoid assimilation. (ie. create a boundary around itself) 2. keeping their own culture in. (ie. avoid cultural appropriationthe adoption of customs by other cultures)

Many sports start out as folk before they become popular

Sports in America

Comparing Folk and Popular Culture Trait Folk Culture Popular Culture Rural and isolated location Homogeneous and indigenous population Most people speak in indigenous or ethnic local language Urban and connected location Diverse and multiethnic population Many people speak a global language such as English or Arabic Emphasis on community and conformity Families live close to each other Well-defined gender roles Emphasis on individualism and making choices Dispersed families Weakly defined gender roles Relatively slow and limited Primarily through relocation Oral traditions Relatively rapid and extensive Often hierarchical Social media and mass media Materials produced locally, such as stone or grass Built by community or owner Similar style for community Different between cultures Materials produced in distant factories such as steel or glass Built by a business Variety of architectural styles Similar between cities Food Locally produced Choices limited by tradition Prepared by the family or community Often imported Wide range of choice Purchased in restaurants Spatial Focus Local and regional National Global Society Social Structure Diffusion Building and Housing

The boundaries of a region reflect the human imprint on the environment. This is called the cultural landscape or the visual reflection of a culture or the built environment

Diffusion of American Music ■ The diffusion of American popular music began during WWII when the American military radio networks broadcast music from home to American soldiers ■ Armed Forces Network ■ But anyone in those places (Europe, Japan, the Caribbean, Pacific Islands) with a radio could hear American music.

Pop Music

Counterculture ■ Sometimes popular culture can give voice to counter cultures ■ ➤ counter cultures groups that rejects the values, norms, and practices of the larger society and replaces them with a new set of culture patterns ■ ➤ counter cultures can be engines of social change ■ ➤ ex: New Wave music brought LBGT counter

Some times a genre or subgenre of music can develop into a distinct subculture. ➤ Subculture: an ethnic, regional, economic, or social group with traits/behaviors that distinguish it from the larger society in which it exists ➤ Similar subcultures exist within metal music, pu etc.

Cultural differences in food ■ Why these specific types of foods. A lot of times it is affected by what’s available in an area ■ Examples: ■ The Abipone In in Paraguay eat jaguars, stags and bulls to make them strong and brave and swift. But chickens and tortoises will make them cowardly ■ Ainu of Japan avoid otters because they are forgetful ■ Mbum Kpau in Chad women don’t eat chicken or goat during pregnancy with belief that it reduces labor pains and they avoid meat from antelopes with twisted horns, which could cause them to bear offspring with deformities ■ Istanbul have diet full of vegetables because the city has many small gardens ■ Folk Taboos (restrictions on behaviors imposed by social customs ■ Hebrews are restricted from eating animals that do not chew their cud or have cloven feet and fish lacking fins or scales ■ Muslims don[t eat pork because it regarded as impure, unhealthy and harmful for humans due to the fats, toxins and bacteria it contains and the way the pig spends its life rolling around in mud and its own excrement. ■ Hindus don’t eat cows based on scared tradition of reincarnation

Convergence of Cultural Landscapes: ■ The widespread distribution of businesses and products creates distinctive landscape stamps around the world. ■ What are some other examples of businesses that can be found around the world?

Effects of Pop Culture ■ Due to globalization (TV & internet), popular culture diffuses more rapidly ■ ➤ this can pressure governments of some societies to allow elements seen in pop culture to be allowed in their country ■ ➤ But it can also threaten the survival of unique folk cultures because they tend to change when they encounter popular culture ■ Can threaten or change cultural roles of women ■ Many LDC rely on MDC media and they effect their cultures ■ ➤ Sometimes there is resistance

Acculturation ■ Acculturation occurs when two cultures come into contact with one another and the “weaker” (politically or with less mainstream acceptance) of the two adopts traits from the more dominant culture. ■ ➤ Sometimes acculturation leads to assimilation, when the original traits of the weaker culture are completely replaced by the traits of the more dominant

Cultural Imperialism ■ The diffusion of popular culture can also contribute to cultural conflict, when part of a culture group may protest the arrival of a type of popular culture in its region. Cultural imperialism is the invasion of a culture into another with the intent of dominating the invaded culture politically, economically, and/or socially. ■ Cultural nationalism is the resistance by a group of people against cultural imperialism and cultural convergence.

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?

Cultural Convergence and Divergence ■ When cultures collide, they change. ■ ➤ cultural convergence occurs when two cultures adopt each other’s traits and become more alike (examples? ) ■ ➤ cultural divergence occurs when two cultures become increasingly different, often when one group moves away from the territory of one culture group EX: when India unified and the migration of Hindu and Muslims

Do Folk Cultures Matter? ■ the disappearance of local folk customs reduces local diversity ■ results in a significant reduction of intellectual stimulation that arises from people encountering different backgrounds, viewpoints, and world-views ■ the dominance of pop culture also threatens the quality of life in the environment ■ IE: imagine if there wasn’t multiple cultural representations of food

Environmental impact of Pop Culture ■ Can significantly modify or control the environment. It may be imposed on the environment rather than spring forth from it. (Ex – golf courses) ■ ➤ Tends to produce more uniform landscapes, in fact, promoters of popular culture want uniform appearances to generate “product recognition. ” ■ ➤ Uniform landscapes result in “Placelessness”- loss of their unique attributes ■ ➤ Diffusion of some popular customs increases demand for raw materials and certain animals. ■ ➤ Generates a high volume of waste – solids, liquids, and gases – that must be absorbed into the environment.

CAUTIONS REGARDING CULTURE AND ATTITUDE ■ Culture Shock – disorientation felt when encountering a culture that is radically different from one’s own

CAUTIONS REGARDING CULTURE AND ATTITUDE ■ Ethnocentrism – using own culture as a yardstick for judging ways of others; our culture superior to others (cultural cruise control)

CAUTIONS REGARDING CULTURE AND ATTITUDE ■ Xenophobia – fear or hatred of foreigners

CAUTIONS REGARDING CULTURE AND ATTITUDE ■ Cultural Relativism – the idea that cultural norms vary from one social group to another and ethical and moral standards are relative to them ■ Cultural relativism is the principle of regarding the beliefs, values, and practices of a culture from the viewpoint of that culture itself.