Transcript Folk and Popular Culture - Glendale Community College

Folk and Popular Culture
Hindu Sadhu (Holy Man)
Varanasi, India
Insanely “Radical” Scot, with
Kilt and Classic Surfboard
Beijing, China
2004
Important Terminology
• Folk Culture – traditionally practiced by a small,
homogeneous, rural group living in relative isolation.
• Popular Culture – found in a large, heterogeneous
society that shares certain habits despite differences
in personal characteristics.
• Material Culture – the physical objects produced by
a culture in order to meet its material needs: food,
clothing, shelter, arts, and recreation. Carl Sauer
(Berkeley, 1930s – 1970s).
Important Terms
• Custom – frequent
repetition of an act until it
becomes characteristic of
a group of people..
• Taboo – a restriction on
behavior imposed by
social custom.
• Habit – repetitive act
performed by an
individual.
Folk Culture – rapidly changing and/or
disappearing throughout much of the
world.
Portuguese Fishing Boat
Northern India, 2009
Indigenous Woman,
Guatemala
Bhopal, India, 2009
Folk Culture
• Stable and close knit
• Usually a rural community
• Tradition controls
• Resistance to change
Brazilian Rainforest, 2011 (click photo!)
• Buildings erected without architect or
blueprint using locally available building
materials
• anonymous origins, diffuses slowly
through migration. Develops over time.
• Clustered distributions: isolation/lack of
interaction breed uniqueness and ties to
physical environment.
FOLK ARCHITECTURE
FOLK ARCHITECTURE
Effects on
Landscape: usually
of limited scale and
scope.
Agricultural: fields,
terraces, grain
storage
Dwellings: historically
created from local
materials: wood,
brick, stone, skins;
often uniquely and
traditionally arranged;
always functionally
tied to physical
environment.
FOLK FOOD
How did such
differences
develop?
Ecuador, 2006 (click photo for slideshow)
Food Cultures (i.e. hog production)
Fig. 4-6: Annual hog production is influenced by religious taboos against pork
consumption in Islam and other religions. The highest production is in China,
which is largely Buddhist.
North American Folk Culture Regions
Food Taboos: Jews – can’t eat animals
that chew cud, that have cloven feet; can’t
mix meat and milk, or eat fish lacking fins
or scales; Muslims – no pork; Hindus – no
cows (used for oxen during monsoon)
Washing Cow in Ganges
Popular Culture
Clothing: Jeans, for example,
and have become valuable
status symbols in many
regions including Asia and
Russia despite longstanding
folk traditions.
Popular Culture
Wide Distribution: differences from place to
place uncommon, more likely differences at
one place over time.
Housing: only small regional variations, more
generally there are trends over time
Food: franchises, cargo planes, superhighways
and freezer trucks have eliminated much local
variation. Limited variations in choice
regionally, esp. with alcohol and snacks.
Substantial variations by ethnicity.
World Cell Phone Subscribers
Cartogram, 1990 & 2002
Territory size shows the proportion of all cellular telephone
subscriptions found there in 1990 and 2002.
Source: www.worldmapper.org
World Internet Subscribers
Cartogram, 1990 & 2002
Territory size shows the proportion of all Internet users in
1990 and 2002.
Source: www.worldmapper.org
GSM World Cellular Coverage, 2009
Source: GSM Association. 2009.
Diffusion of
TV, 1954–
1999
Television has diffused
widely since the 1950s, but
some areas still have low
numbers of TVs per
population.
Much media is still state-controlled.
Ten Most Censored Countries:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
North Korea
Myanmar (Burma)
Turkmenistan
Equatorial Guinea
Libya
Eritrea
Cuba
Uzbekistan
Syria
Belarus
Source: The Committee to Protect Journalists.
2009. www.cpj.org.
Internet Connections
The Internet is diffusing
today, but access varies
widely.
Internet Connections
The Internet is diffusing today, but access varies widely. Some countries
censor the Internet, but this is difficult to do.
Popular Culture
Effects on Landscape: creates
homogenous, “placeless”
(Relph, 1976), landscape
 Complex network of roads and
highways
 Commercial Structures tend
towards ‘boxes’
 Dwellings may be aesthetically
suggestive of older folk traditions
• Planned and Gated Communities
more and more common
Surfing at Disney’s Orlando Typhoon Lagoon
Are places still tied to local landscapes?
Disconnect with landscape: indoor swimming pools? desert surfing?
McDonald’s Restaurant, Venice
Swimming Pool, West
Edmonton Mall, Canada
Dubai’s Indoor Ski Resort
Muslim Women in Traditional Dress at
Indoor Ski Resort
Problems with the Globalization of Culture
Often Destroys Folk
Culture – or
preserves traditions as
museum pieces or
tourism gimmicks.
 Mexican Mariachis;
Polynesian
Navigators; Cruise
Line Simulations
 Change in
Traditional Roles and
Values; Polynesian
weight problems
Satellite Television, Baja California
Problems with the Globalization of
Popular Culture
Western Media Imperialism?
 U.S., Britain, and Japan dominate
worldwide media.
 Glorified consumerism, violence, sexuality,
and militarism?
 U.S. (Networks and CNN) and British
(BBC) news media provide/control the
dissemination of information worldwide.
 These networks are unlikely to focus or
provide third world perspective on issues
important in the LDCs.
Environmental Effects of
Globalization
Accelerated Resource Use in Consumer
Societies:
• Furs: minx, lynx, jaguar, kangaroo, whale, sea otters (18th
Century Russians) fed early fashion trends.
• Aggressive consumerism evident in most Western Media ,
including hip hop and rock and roll.
• Inefficient over-consumption of Meats (10:1), Poultry (3:1), even
Fish (fed other fish and chicken) by meat-eating pop cultures
 New larger housing desires and associated energy and water
use.
Pollution:
• Water treatment and improved public health may come with
higher incomes.
• However, increased waste and toxins from fuel use, discarded
products, plastics, marketing and packaging materials, etc.
Benefits of Economic and
Cultural Globalization





Increased economic opportunity?
Higher standards of living?
Increased consumer choice
More political freedom?
More social freedom?
Shanghai, China, 2003
Beijing, China
Palm Springs, CA
Marlboro Man in Egypt
Forbes Hip Hop Cash Kings, 2007
Fiji
Suburban Sprawl, Arizona
Resisting Globalization
• Protests at WTO
and G9 meetings
• Al Jazeera
• Indigenous
Peoples in Latin
America
• Chinese
government
censorship
The Most Violent Places on Earth?
Source: Wikipedia. 2010. List of countries by intentional homicide rate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
The Happiest Places on Earth?
• What do the social
sciences tell us about
what makes people
happy?
• How does happiness
vary around the
world?
• How does happiness
change over time
within a country?
• Family and Friends, Exercise, Faith
(Sense of Purpose), Extroversion,
Sufficient Employment and
Increasing Income, Flow and
Balance
• Some regions are clearly more
happy than others and there are
geographic clusters.
• In Japan, China, Australia, and the
U.S. satisfaction has stayed level
or decreased as GDP increased for
much of recent history.
The 20 happiest nations in the
World:
1. Denmark
2. Switzerland
3. Austria
4. Iceland
5. The Bahamas
6. Finland
7. Sweden
8. Bhutan
9. Brunei
10. Canada
11. Ireland
12. Luxembourg
13. Costa Rica
14. Malta
15. The Netherlands
16. Antigua and Barbuda
17. Malaysia
18. New Zealand
19. Norway
20. The Seychelles
Other notable results include:
23. USA
35. Germany
Subjective well-being in this study was found to be most closely
41. UK
associated with health, followed by wealth and then education.
62. France
82. China
90. Japan
125. India
167. Russia
The three least happy countries were:
176. Democratic Republic of the Congo
177. Zimbabwe
178. Burundi
2006. Adrian White, Analytic Social Psychologist at the University of Leicester produces first ever
global projection of international differences in subjective well-being; the first ever World Map of
Happiness.
World Values Survey
The Happiest Places on Earth?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Denmark
Finland
Netherlands
Sweden
Ireland
Canada
Switzerland
New Zealand
Norway
Belgium
- Based
on data from World Values Survey
Question: “Taking all
things together, would
you say you are?
1 Very happy
2 Rather happy
3 Not very happy
4 Not at all happy”
Question: “Please imagine
a ladder, with steps
numbered from 0 at the
bottom to 10 at the top.
The top of the ladder
represents the best
possible life for you and
the bottom of the ladder
represents the worst
possible life for you. On
which step of the ladder
would you say you
personally feel you stand
at this time?”
Based on data from Gallup World Poll, 2006
Based on data from
World Values
Survey
The WVS has shown that
from 1981 to 2007
happiness rose in 45 of
the 52 countries for which
long-term data are
available. Since 1981,
economic development,
democratization, and
rising social tolerance
have increased the extent
to which people perceive
that they have free choice,
which in turn has led to
higher levels of happiness
around the world.
“All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days? Using this card on
which 1 means you are “completely dissatisfied” and 10 means you are “completely satisfied”
where would you put your satisfaction with your life as a whole?”
Completely dissatisfied
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Completely satisfied
3.6
3.4
3.2
3
2.8
2.6
2.4
2.2
2
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
mean happiness in China, 1990 - 2006
(1= not at all happy, 4=very happy)
Source: Internet appendix to Inglehart, Foa and Welzel,
“Social Change, Freedom and Rising Happiness,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
3.6
3.4
3.2
3
2.8
2.6
2.4
2.2
2
1945
1950
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
mean happiness in Australia, 1946 - 2006
(1= not at all happy, 4=very happy)
Source: Internet appendix to Inglehart, Foa and Welzel,
“Social Change, Freedom and Rising Happiness,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
3.6
3.6
3.4
3.4
3.2
3.2
3
3
2.8
2.8
2.6
2.6
2.4
2.4
2.2
2.2
2
1945
1950
1955
1960
1965
1970
2
1975
1975
1980
1980
1985
1985
1990
1995
2000
mean happiness in U.S., 1946 - 1980
mean happiness in U.S., 1980 - 2006
(1= not at all happy, 4=very happy)
(1= not at all happy, 4=very happy)
Source: Internet appendix to Inglehart, Foa and Welzel,
“Social Change, Freedom and Rising Happiness.” Accessed in 2010. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology.
2005
2010
HAPPY PLANET INDEX (HPI)
The new HPI results show the extent to which 151 countries across the globe produce
long, happy and sustainable lives for the people that live in them. The overall index scores
rank countries based on their efficiency, on how many long and happy lives each produces
per unit of environmental damage (ecological “footprint”). Thus, high environmental
impact countries drop in ranking.
Map showing countries shaded by their position in the Happy Planet Index (2006).
The highest-ranked countries are bright green; the lowest are brown.
www.happyplanetindex.org
World Values Survey