Folk and Popular Culture

World Geography

Cultural Landscape

Carl Sauer was a geographer who changed the way geography is studied. He looked at the effects of people on the landscape and the landscape on people. In other words, the cultural landscape is the way the land looks after people have lived on it (aka: built environment). The landscape still influences what humans do to it because the resources they use come from the local environment and influence the buildings, roads and other structures that humans create.

Influence of the Physical World

climate clothing vegetation

Influence

food landscape sports

Theories of Influence on Environment

Environmental Possibilism Cultural Determinism Determinism

The local environment WILL determine local culture The local environment MIGHT influence local culture Humans WILL overcome the restrictions of the local environment through the use of technology . People in warm climates are friendlier than people who live in cold climates The absence of Mountains and snow make it unlikely that skiing will become popular in Southern Arizona Irrigation systems and hybrid grasses allow golf courses in St. George, Ut. and Arizona

More Key Terms

Cultural Trait : a single attribute of culture (bowing or shaking hands) Culture Complex : the combination of all cultural traits. (All things from samurai, to sumo to sushi make up Japan’s cultural complex) Culture System : Incorporate variations in cultural traits (southern accent vs. northeast accent) while recognizing similarities. Think of perceptual/vernacular regions.

9 Nations of North America

World Geographic Realms

All culture starts on a local scale and spreads. Folk Culture is local, specific and unique

Folk Culture

In Latin and German the word “folk” means people. As in the customs, music and dress of the common people. The lives of common people were, and many times still are, tied to the land. For example, it was common for people who lived in the desert to wear turbans and robes to keep sand out of their hair and away their skin.

Folk Music and Dance

Folk music uses instruments that come from the unique materials that are found within an environment (biosphere). They are, therefore, usually acoustic. The lyrics in folk songs address themes and reinforce values that are important to the the people of the local culture. There is often an element of story, that will teach the young what is important in a way that is easy to remember. Folk dances were created to go along with the rhythm and beat that these instruments produced

Food

If people were limited to eat what grows in the local environment, then it stands to reason that food and beverage is closely associated with culture. baklava curry octopus, shrimp and clams

Food and Physical Features

Terroir is a French term that explains how the distinct physical features of a place give it’s food a unique flavor. Conniseurs of alcoholic beverages are especially aware of terroir. Grapes=wine Barley & hopps=beer rice=sake molasses=rum Blue agave=tequilla Potatoes=vodka corn=whiskey

Food Attractions & Taboos

Attractions Eat jaguar, become a fierce warrior Eat mandrake, become a great lover Taboos Jews and Muslims don’t eat pork because the pig is sedentary whereas Hebrews were nomadic. Pigs also compete with humans for resources but can’t pull a plow.

Hindus have a particular aversion for beef . Oxen (castrated male cows) are used to plow fields and pull carts. The monsoon rains in India require that all fields are plowed at a certain time of year.

India has lots of people, requiring lots of fields, therefore, requiring a large supply of cattle.

Housing

Housing often reflect the nature of the local environment.

Hearths

A hearth is a place where important cultural traits began.

Notable Cultural Contributions

Wei Huang (China)- accupuncture, daoism, gunpowder, porcelain Mesopotamia- Judaism, Christianity, Islam, arabic numbers, farming, reading and writing, chemistry, astronomy Mesoamerica (Mexico/Cenrtal America)- zero, Mayan calendar Indus/Ganges (India)-yoga, Buddhism, Hinduism, karma, textiles Nile (Egypt)-astronomy, architecture, make-up Andean America- (S. America)- Llama/Alpaca, West Africa-yams, grains, gold

Relocation Diffusion

Cultural Traits are adopted when people move from one part of the world to another. Places that have a lot of migration will be influenced by the people that move there.

Folk culture spreads mainly through location

Migrant Diffusion

Migrant diffusion Is a type of relocation diffusion where the innovation spreads and lasts only a brief time in the newly adopting place. It then moves to another place where the phenomena peaks.

The flu The excitement surrounding a concert or carnival.

Hierachical Diffusion

Ideas/things are incorporated into the fabric of society because they are mandated by a government or other authority.

Cultural Convergence

Cultural convergence is when cultures or aspects of culture are adopted by a group of people who live away from it’s hearth. Whether the culture is adopted because it was forced (hierarchical) or because it is practical, when culture extends beyond the bounds of its native environment, it is considered to be “popular.”

Cultural Adoption

Accultration is when a “weaker” culture adopts traits from a dominant culture. Often when people migrate to another country, the immigrant will adopt aspects of the new culture and add the new trait to the traits of their home culture.

Assimilation : Sometimes, the second or third generation most aspects of the home culture are lost and cultural traits of the dominant culture are assimilated.

Trans-cultration: Two cultures that have equal influence on each other with out the same effects of accultration or assimilation.

Popular Culture

In order for culture to be appealing to large numbers of people, it must drop many of the unique characteristics that don’t make sense to people outside of the original hearth. Popular culture is therefore broad, general or heterogenous.

Popular Housing Styles

Cultural Adoption

S CURVE

late adopters majority adopters early adopters

From Local to Global: Work Clothing to Popular Clothing

Most popular clothing styles and brands had practical beginnings. Blue Jeans were invented by a merchant in San Francisco named Levi Strauss. Miners in the area kept wearing out or tearing their pants. He used a heavier, canvas like, material called denim and used copper rivets to reinforce the pockets. These pants became popular, not only among miners but among many manual laborers who needed durable pants. In the late 1960’s, middle class teenagers seeking their own identity, defied their parents by wearing Levi’s. To make things worse, instead of wearing them up around the belly button, as was proper, they wore them around their hips. Thus, came the term “hippie” to describe these rebels of society.

Origins of Popular Clothing

Blue Jeans------Miners Carpenter Pants--Carpenters Painter Pants--- Painters Quicksilver-----surfers Vans------------skateboarders Dickies---------manual laborers

Popular Music

Rock and Roll was influenced

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by blues, jazz and folk music. The invention of the electric guitar gave rock music it’s distinct sound. Over the years different bands stretched the limits of the genre to include new themes and instruments. Of all it’s changes, one theme still dominates the majority of songs. That theme is LOVE

Rolling Stone Magazine’s Top Ten Influential Artists

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The Beatles Bob Dylan Elvis Presley The Rolling Stones Chuck Berry Jimi Hendrix James Brown Little Richard Aretha Franklin Ray Charles

Origins of Popular Music: Rap

Rap and hip hop can trace it’s influence back to West Africa. The rhythm and beats come from the drum, an instrument native to Africa.

Rap and hip hop took their current form from the funk and soul music played at block parties in the Bronx. A Jamaican DJ by the name of DJ Kool Herc who started to isolate the percussion breaks and talk (rap) over the instrumental parts of the music. As this trend continued, DJ’s began to include new elements like using two turntables (scratching). While the themes of rap music are unique to urban environments, the ideas of resistance to authority, violence and sex are themes that appeal to many teenagers who are seeking a separate identity from their parents.

Stimulus Diffusion and Rap

Stimulus diffusion explains how new elements are born out of some other original idea. Rap and hip hop led to a sub-culture that included clothing, dance and graffiti.

Sports and Environmental Factors

Some sports are heavily influenced by the local environment. Sports such as hockey and skiing that rely on cold climates and mountain landscapes are limited as to where they can spread. Sports that require a lot of expensive equipment (polo, American football) will find it difficult to become popular among poorer classes. (80% of the world is poor)

Soccer, Basketball and Baseball Global Sports

Soccer, basketball and baseball don’t require expensive equipment and can be played almost anywhere. These sports have spread to nearly all countries of the world.

Contagious Diffusion=Globalization=Popular Culture

Satellite and fiber-optic cables make possible, instant communication via TV, internet and telephone. This allows cultural ideas to spread much more quickly than ever before. Now, instead of a cultural trait becoming popular in a country or throughout a world region, popular cultural traits become popular globally in a very short time.

The more connected a person is with the rest of the world, the more tolerant they will be.

Globalization can preserve culture by connecting people who live far apart, thereby keeping their common culture alive.

Improved communication and transportation lower prices as corporations compete to cut costs and improve quality

Globalization The Up Side

Popular culture often spreads at the expense of local/folk

Globalization:

culture. Many people are afraid

The Down Side

that the spread of American material culture will erode local cultural values.

Multi-National Corporations are becoming so powerful that they can dictate working conditions and influence governments.

Whether it is through the media or via an MNC, many people see the spread of American culture as a form of cultural imperialism

Cultural Divergence

Governments and organizations often feel threatened by the influence of ideas that will challenge their authority. They will often use the following methods to resist unwanted influences. 1.

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Strike back against the perceived threat (terrorism).

Limit the ability to access information (China’s state control of media).

Limit the ability to travel (Berlin Wall/Iron Curtain).

Create propaganda to spread false information against the perceived enemy and paint a positive image of the government or organization.