Folk and Popular Culture

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Folk and Popular Culture
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Definition of Culture

• A group of belief systems, norms and values
  practiced by a people
• Recognized in 1 of 2 ways
• People call themselves a culture
• Others can label a certain group of people as a
  culture

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Folk Culture

• Small
• Incorporates homogeneous population
• Typically rural
• Cohesive in cultural traits
• Work to preserve those traits in order to claim
  uniqueness

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Folk Culture cont.

• Material culture what a group of people make
• Nonmaterial culture beliefs, practices,
  aesthetics and values of a group of people

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Popular Culture

• Large
• Incorporates heterogeneous populations
• Typically urban
• Experiences quickly changing cultural traits
• Practiced by people across identities and across
  the world
• Also encompasses material and nonmaterial culture

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How is popular culture diffused?

• Hierarchical diffusion
• Uses an urban hierarchy (distance decay)
• David Harvey time-space compression
• Refers to social and psychological effects of
  living in a time-space convergence (Donald
  Janelle)
• Since technology links some places more closely
  than others, culture diffuses more quickly rather
  than at a constant rate

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Hearths of Popular Culture

• How do things become a part of popular culture?
• Often begins with contagious diffusion
• Ex. Dave Matthews Band

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Manufacturing a Hearth

• Clayton Rosati
• Studied infrastructure of MTV its role in the
  production of popular culture and geographies of
  popular culture
• MTV produces popular culture by opening
  globalized spaces to local culture thereby
  globalizing local culture

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• Popular culture does not take over the existing
  popular culture, rather a process called
  reterritorialization of popular culture occurs
• When people w/in a place start to produce an
  aspect of popular culture themselves in the
  context of their own culture ands making it their
  own

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How are local cultures sustained?

• Assimilation of certain groups destroyed local
  culture
• Local culture sustained through customs
• Simon Harrison
• 2 goals of local cultures keep other cultures
  out keep their culture in
• Local cultures work to avoid cultural
  appropriation
• Recognized that through cultural appropriation,
  places become increasingly important
• neolocalism

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Influence of the Physical Environment

• Customs are influenced by climate, soil and
  vegetation
• Particularly responsive to environment b/c low
  level of technology and agricultural economy
• 2 necessities of life food and shelter
• Shows the influence of cultural values and the
  environment on the development of unique folk
  culture

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Distinctive Food Preferences

• Derived from the environment
• Adapt food preferences to environmental
  conditions
• Role of terrior (effects of the environment on a
  particular food item)

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Food attractions and Taboos

• Everything in nature has a signature or distinct
  characteristic
• Therefore people eat and dont eat certain things
  based on a response as to whether it is socially
  acceptable or not
• The nutritional value is one of the determining
  factors in whether someone eats something or not
• Some things are eaten b/c they enhance some
  characteristic the culture deems important

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Food attractions and Taboo

• Taboo to eat things that are thought to embody
  negativity
• May establish food taboos to protect the
  environment
• Religion and social values also play a role in
  food taboos

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Folk Housing

• House among the essential facts of human
  geography
• A. Distinctive Building Materials
• -influenced by location, resources
  available and social factors
• B. Distinctive House Form and Orientation
• -forms result from customary beliefs or
  environmental factors

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Folk Housing cont.

• C. Housing and Environment
• -homes are constructed based on the
  environment

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U.S. Folk House Forms

• Fred Kniffen-3 major hearths of folk house forms
  in the US
• NE-saltbox, two-chimney, cape cod, front gable
  and wing
• Mid-Atlantic I house
• Lower Cheasapeake-one story w/steep roof and two
  chimneys
• Style of housing not as distinctive anymore due
  to rapid communication and transportation systems
• Majority of people dont build the houses they
  live in

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Diffusion of folk housing forms
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Local Popular Culture Seen in the Cultural
Landscape

• Reflects norms, values and aesthetics of a
  culture
• Placelessness (Edward Relph)
• Cultural landscapes are so similar because
• Architecture forms planning ideas have diffused
  around the world.
• Individual businesses products are so
  widespread they impact all places
• The borrowing of idealized landscae images
  promotes a blurring of place distinctiveness

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Why is popular culture widely distributed?

• Popular Housing Styles
• Modern house styles (1945-1960) minimal
  traditional, ranch, split level, contemporary
  shed style houses
• Neo-eclectic (1960-) mansard, neo-Tudor,
  Neo-French, neo-colonial
• have great rooms rather than separate living
  family rooms

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Diffusion of Popular Culture cont.

• Rapid Diffusion of Clothes
• Characterized by income and job characteristics
• Improved communication
• Exposure to folk dress due to increased travel
  television
• Jeans-know why how jeans became a part of
  popular culture

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Diffusion of Popular Culture cont.

• Snack foods and beverages
• preference based on what is made, grown or
  imported locally
• also affected by background
• dependent on income and advertising

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Role of TV in diffusing Popular Culture

• Significant custom because
• Most popular leisure activity
• Most important means by which culture is diffused

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Why Does Globalization of Popular Culture Cause
Problems?

• Threat to Folk Culture
• Rising income increases demand for items valued
  in popular culture
• Can lead to domination of folk culture
• Loss of traditional values (clothing)
• Change in traditional role of women-How?
• Can also cause problems in less developed
  nations-increase in prostitution

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Globalization of Popular Culture cont.

• Threat of Foreign Media Imperialism
• Threatens LDCs independence
• Seen as a new type of economic cultural
  imperialism
• Allow governments of LDC to censor shows and/or
  only program shows appropriate to traditional
  values

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Environmental Impact of Popular Culture

• Modifies nature
• Uniform landscapes-seen to generate product
  recognition greater consumption

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Negative Environmental Impacts

• Increased demand for natural resources
• Depletion of resources and/or extinction of
  species
• Inefficient use of resources
• Pollution
• Popular culture produces a lot of waste
• Folk culture can also negatively impact the
  environment by ignoring natural processes