Transcript Slide 1

Pages 112-125
Introduction
1. Terrorism – an attempt to end the onslaught of Western-dominated
popular culture.
2. Culture = values, material artifacts, and political institutions.
3. Habit – a repetitive act that an individual performs
4. Custom – repetitive act of a group and it becomes a characteristic of the
group.
5. Folk culture – traditionally practiced by a small, homogenous group
living in isolated rural areas.
6. Popular culture – large, heterogeneous societies that share certain habits
despite differences in other personal characteristics.
7. Scale – Pop culture is much lager than folk culture.
8. Geographers look at where folk/pop culture are located in space
9. Connections – pop culture is spread through modern transportation,
communications, etc. – Globalization
Key Issue 1: Where Do Folk and Popular Cultures
Originate and Diffuse?
Origins
1. Folk – anonymous – anonymous hearths
2. Popular – result of MDCs – technology allows mass,
uniform reproduction – CD’s, etc.
3. Folk Music – tells a story about daily life – 2697 BCE?
4. Pop Music – written by individual to be sold to many –
1900’s
a. Music Hall – UK
b. Vaudeville – US
c. Japan, Russia, Poland – write songs in English
d. Hip Hop – folk or pop music?
Diffusion of Folk/Pop Cultures
1. Local issues diffused rapidly through music and internal diffusion
2. Folk Culture diffuses more slowly from location to another, mostly by migration
3. Amish – 1600s in Switzerland; early 1700s moved to Pennsylvania
a. Isolation helped retain traditional values
b. Every son is given a farm when an adult – forced to move to KY – cheaper
4. Sports – hierarchical diffusion – folk custom then migrated – soccer/football
a. 11th Century England – “Kick the Dane’s Head”
b. Transfers from folk to pop culture in 1800s
c. Clubs form in churches and provide leisure activity for workers
d. 1863 – pro leagues – assoc becomes “soccer”
e. Further diffusion through British Empire
f. World Cup is most watched event in the world
5. Lacrosse- Iroquois Confederation of Six Nations – 1636?
a. Bump hips to lacrosse – bishop’s crosier or staff
Key Issue 2: Why IS Folk Culture Clustered?
Himalayan Art – Isolation Promotes Diversity
1. Tibetan Buddhists – paint divine figures like monks or
saints
2. Hindus – create scenes of everyday life
3. Muslims – paint regions plants and flowers
4. Animists – paint designs and symbols from their religion
5. Folk customs are influenced by religion and environment
Physical Environment
1. Customs like food, clothing and shelter are influenced by
climate
2. Reliant on environment due to low level of
technology/agricultural
3. Different folk societies prefer different foods and houses
Food
1. People adapt their food preferences to the
environment
2. Northern Europe – abundant wood – slow cooking
stew
3. Asia – quick cooking of rice and bean sprouts result
from lack of fuel for cooking
a. Food habits strongly influenced by tradition
b. What is eaten establishes social, religious, and
ethnic membership
4. Results in terroir – grounded or sense of place
5. Food habits have become last vestige of folk
customs
Food Attractions & Taboos
1. People may desire or avoid certain foods based on beneficial or
harmful traits
a. Abipone Indians in Paraguay – eat jaguars to make them strong,
brave, swift
2. Refusal to eat certain plants or animals – negative forces or taboo
a. Japan – avoid otters because they are forgetful
b. Chad – avoid chicken or goat – help escape pain during childbirth
3. Hebrews cannot eat animals who don’t chew or have cloven feet or
fish lacking fins or scales
a. Pigs are used for sedentary farming and not nomadic – Kosher
Laws
b. Pigs will compete with humans for water, can’t work, provide
milk or wool
4. Social values determine diet – different income + similar climate =
different food
a. Americans avoid insects despite nutritional value
Houses
1. Influenced by environment and ethnicity.
2. In the US – pioneers took their house
style w/ them to new location
a. Vary more in time than in place
3. Housing faces south to take advantage
of the Sun’s heat
a. Smaller windows in hot climates
Pages 126-135
Key Issue 3: Why Is Popular Culture Widely Distributed?
1. Diffuses rapidly across earth with a variety of physical
conditions
2. High level of economic development needed to acquire
material possessions
Housing
1. 1945-60: minimal traditional
a. One story, front gable, few decorative details
2. 1950-60: ranch
a. One story, long side parallel, sprawl of urban areas
3. 1950-70: split level
a. Attached garage, family room, kitchen in mid-level
Clothing
1. Pop Culture reflects occupations rather than
particular environment
2. 2nd influence is income
3. Improved communications – fashion tastes
change quickly
4. Used to be a year to get new styles, now 6 weeks
and cheaper
5. Jeans – Levi Strauss – image of youthful
independence
a. Asians pay $100-$1000 for 501 button fly
b. Button fly environmental in US?
c. Sold on black market in Soviet Union
Food
1. Pop culture typified by larger quantities of alcoholic
beverages and snack foods
a. High income and national advertising
b. Southerners prefer pork rinds? Northerners prefer
popcorn & chips?
c. Texans prefer tortilla chips?
2. Wine – needs special soil, climate to grow grapes
a. Moderately cold, rainy winters; long, hot summers
b. Hillsides to maximize sunlight and drainage
c. Taste determined by boron, manganese, or zinc in soil
3. Hindus and Muslims don’t drink alcohol
a. Diffusion determined more on customs and less on
environment
Television & Internet
1. TV is the most important mechanism by which
popular culture is spread
2. TV and Internet followed same pattern of
diffusion.
3. US in 1954 – 86% of worlds TV’s
4. By 1970 ½ of the world didn’t have any TV’s
5. Internet diffusion in 5 years:
a. US 9% to 44%; world 40 million to 400 million
b. World usage doubles from 2000 to 2004
c. US at 63% of total population today
6. TV diffusion 50 years, internet diffusion 10 years
Government Control
1. Direct control typical of LDCs like China and India
2. Govt. controls TV to block programs critical of policies
(censorship)
a. Allows totalitarian government to control daily life
3. Now, w/ satellite disks, TV can be instruments of
political change.
a. China, Saudi Arabia ban dishes
b. Dishes may have caused the collapse of communism
– CNN, MTV
4. Now fax, portable video, cell phones, etc. are doing the
same thing
Pages 135-141
Key Issue 4: Why Does Globalization of Popular Culture
Cause Problems?
Loss of Traditional Values
1. Diffusion of pop culture may threaten the survival of
folk culture & environment
2. Diffusion of pop culture from MDC’s to LDC’s spreads
Western ideals
3. LDC’s adopt/imitate foreign symbols of success
4. Clothing – traditional vs. Western suits – symbol of
authority and leadership.
a. Muslims strongly oppose Western values – especially
women’s rights.
Women
1. Subservience of women to men is a folk
custom
2. Taliban – women couldn’t attend school, work
outside the home, get health care, or drive a
car
a. Could leave home only if covered
completely by clothing and escorted
b. Beaten or shot if wearing nail polish,
revealing her face, or walking alone
3. Increase in prostitution? Objects that money
can buy
Media
1. Some LDC’s feel pop culture of MDC’s is threat
to their independence
2. LDC’s feel television spreads cultural
imperialism from MDC’s
3. TV shows upward mobility, freedom for women,
youthfulness, violence, Porky Pig?
4. Costs force dominance of Western news coverage
– AP and Reuters
5. Otherwise, media is dominated by the
government
6. LDC’s claim they don’t show progress – health
care, birth control, construction, etc.
Modifying Nature
1. Pop culture – modify he environment for leisure or sale of products
a. Golf courses
2. Pop culture wants a uniform landscape – “product recognition”
a. Fast food – low costs to attract children
b. People who move or travel – easy recognition
3. Japan – diffused electronics and cars where they look like all other
products
4. Creates large demand large supply of natural resources
a. Extinction of mink, lynx, kangaroo, whale?
b. Demand is smaller in folk cultures
c. 22 lbs of grain to produce 2.2 lbs of beef
5. Solid waste – more cans, paper, plastic, etc.
6. Only getting worse with the spread of pop culture