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 1940s 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