Ch 4.1 Where do folk and popular cultures originate and diffuse?

• Culture: A group’s entire collection of social customs, artifacts, values, etc.

• Material Culture: the physical objects produced by a culture in order to meet its group’s material needs: food, clothing, shelter, arts, and recreation.

• Custom: repetitive act of a group: so that it becomes characteristic of the “group” (food, clothing, shelter, arts, recreation/leisure, housing, sports, festivals, music, medicine)

• Habit: repetitive act or characteristic of an individual

Ch 4.1 Where do folk and popular cultures originate and diffuse?

• Culture • Is learned, not biological• Passed down from one generation to the next through

traditions and imitation• Provides a framework of social norms/rules for

individuals in the society to live by• Dynamic – culture is always changing• Cultural regions (political, religious, etc.)• Cultural realms (groups of regions that share common

cultural complexes and landscapes)

Ch 4.1 Where do folk and popular cultures originate and diffuse?

• Cultural realms

Ch 4.1 Where do folk and popular cultures originate and diffuse?

• Two aspects geographers are interested in regarding culture

• A group’s entire collection of social customs, artifacts, values, etc.

• Need to add second point (see intro of CH 4)

Ch 4.1 Where do folk and popular cultures originate and diffuse?

• Folk Music• Derived from daily life events (life-cycle)• Anonymous composer• Passed down as oral tradition• Familiar to most everyone in the group• Tells a story• Unique instruments• Examples: Vietnamese folk songs about farming,

nursery rhymes…

Ch 4.1 Where do folk and popular cultures originate and diffuse?

• Popular Music• Product of MDCs• Written by individuals to be sold for $$$• High degree of technical skill• Originated from Vaudeville

(Tin Pan Alley in NYC ca. 1900)• Diffusion of popular music started after WWII for

soldiers fighting over seas (expansion diffusion)

Ch 4.1 Where do folk and popular cultures originate and diffuse?

• Hip Hop • began as folk• began in S. Bronx in the late

1970s by low-income, black and Puerto Ricans, adopted by local rappers in Queens, Brooklyn and Harlem

• Became popular and diffused to other large cities like Oakland and Atlanta

Ch 4.1 Where do folk and popular cultures originate and diffuse?

• Amish• Migrated from

Switzerland in 1600s• Live in isolated rural

communities in Pennsylvania

• Have retained their traditions (limited use of high tech conveniences)

Ch 4.1 Where do folk and popular cultures originate and diffuse?

• Soccer• Originated in England in 1600s• Became recreation activity for factory workers in 1800s• More people played it when people had more time for

play• 1863- standardized rules

marks the transition from folk to popular culture

• Now it’s a global phenomenon

Ch 4.1 Where do folk and popular cultures originate and diffuse?

• Characteristics of Popular Sports• Spectators will pay to watch!

Ch 4.1 Where do folk and popular cultures originate and diffuse?

• Folk become Popular Sports

Ch 4.1 Where do folk and popular cultures originate and diffuse?

• What about these Sports?

Ch 4.1 Where do folk and popular cultures originate and diffuse?

• Origin of FOLK CULTURE • Anonymous origin• Isolation (lack of interaction with other groups) causes it to

be unique• Provides an identity to a particular (homogeneous) group• Derived from and influenced by the environment• Diffusion of FOLK CULTURE • Diffusions slowly, usually through migration from a

hearth – particular location (relocation diffusion)• Clustered communities (varies from place to place)

Ch 4.1 Where do folk and popular cultures originate and diffuse?

• Origin of POPULAR CULTURE • Known origin• Large heterogeneous society that share certain habits

despite differences in personal characteristics• DOES NOT provide identity to a particular group• Tends to modify and threaten folk culture & environment• Diffusion of POPULAR CULTURE • Diffusions rapidly, both relocation and expansion,

helped by global connections via internet & technology• Trends & fads -varies from time to time, like “80s” style