Download Folk and Popular Culture

Chapter 4
“Folk and Popular Culture”
“Culture is the agent, the natural area is the medium, the
cultural landscape is the result’
- Carl Sauer
Culture – the body of customary beliefs, material traits, and
social forms that together constitute the distinct tradition of a
group of people.
Popular Culture:
Folk Culture:
Carl Sauer’s Cultural Landscape
Folk Culture:
•Practiced by a small group (homogeneous)
•Rural or low density area
•Small Scale
•Isolated
•Unique identity
•Local diversity
•Resistant to change
•Sensitive to the environment
•Vary from place to place at a given time
The Amish
Pop Culture:
•Practiced by a large group (heterogeneous)
•Urban or high density
•Large Scale
•Globalization – transportation, communication
•Rapid diffusion
•Changes quickly
•Modification of environment to suit needs
•Vary from time to time at a given place
The following was developed by Sir Julian Huxley
Artifact – objects that allow us to live, objects that allow us to
feed, cloth, house, defend, transport and amuse us – eg.
Spoon - Anthropology
Mentifact – Ideas, beliefs, how a culture expresses itself,
individual behaviour, what is right and wrong, what is
accepted – eg. Religion, language and laws - Ideology
Sociofact – Social organization of culture, group behaviour,
how individuals are to function in a group – eg. Families,
politics, economics and tribes – Sociology
“A dwelling, for example, is an artifact providing shelter, it can
be a sociofact reflecting the nature of the family and it can be
a mentifact summarizing a cultural groups convictions shown
by design, orientation and building materials.”
One more example:
Clothing:
Artifact – offers protection
Sociofact – identifies an individual’s role in society –
especially a uniform
Mentifact – reflects the values of the wearer – religious
clothing, baggy pants, cowboy hat and boots, colour of
clothing etc.
Other Key Terms:
•Cultural convergence
•Cultural divergence
•Acculturation
•Cultural integration
•Cultural Innovation
•Cultural Realm
•Cultural Region – Core, domain, sphere
•Syncretism – eg. Greek music is a combination European
and Middle Eastern music.
•Taboo
Geographers are interested in the origin, diffusion and
integration of culture with other social characteristics.
Geographers are also interested in the relationship
between culture and the physical environment.
What do you see in
this landscape?
A geographer sees:
•Nature: trees and forest
•Habitat: home of birds and animals
•Artifact: wood to be used for fire and tools
•System: sun makes trees grow, trees and leaves food,
animals eat food and each other, fish etc.
•Problem: limited beach, no pathways, cut trees to create
cottages (ruin the landscape)
•Wealth: sell the land for development
•Ideology: beauty of nature, freedom
•History: past hunters and gathers, natives
•Place: sight, sounds and smells are unique
•Aesthetic: beautiful landscape, picturesque
Article: “The Beholding Eye, by D. W. Meinic
Discussion:
How is culture reflected in the following:
•Music – all the types and styles
•Sports - Soccer
•Food – Italian, French, Chinese
•Clothing – drive around and see all the different kinds
among young people
•Housing styles- colour, material
•Role of Women – empowerment, status
Cultural landscape: The visible, material landscape that
cultural groups create as they inhabit the earth. See the
separate slide show on Cultural Landscape.
Write down the aspects of Culture you see in the next few
slides?
The Culture of Wine
Clothing as
Culture
Music as
Culture
Sports as
Culture
TV’s per 1 000
Internet Users
per 1 000
Culture is very visible in the style of homes that dot the
urban landscape. Please view the slide show on home
styles and view the many architectural styles seen in
Toronto
Cultural Regions are
usually
distinguished by
Architectural Style
View the separate
slide show on
Architectural Styles
of North American
homes
Modern Culture and it affects on Traditional
Culture – EG: Dowries
Vocabulary List
Unit III. Cultural Patterns and Processes, Part 1—Basic Vocabulary and
Concepts
Concepts of Culture
Diffusion types
Acculturation
• Expansion—hierarchical,
Assimilation
contagious, stimulus
Cultural adaptation
• Relocation
Cultural core/periphery pattern
Cultural ecology
Innovation adoption
Cultural identity
Maladaptive diffusion
Cultural landscape
Sequent occupance
Cultural realm
Culture
Culture region
• Formal—core, periphery
• Functional—node
• Vernacular (perceptual)—regional self-awareness
Folk and Popular Culture
Adaptive strategies
Anglo-American landscape
characteristics
Architectural form
Built environment
Folk culture
Folk food
Folk house
Folk songs
Folklore
Material culture
Nonmaterial culture
Popular culture
Survey systems
Traditional architecture
The End