What is Culture?

Part II

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

Western Media Imperialism?· U.S., Britain, and Japan dominate worldwide

media.· Glorified consumerism, violence, sexuality, and

militarism?· U.S. (Networks, FoxNews, 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.

Problems with the Globalization of Popular Culture

Environmental Problems with Cultural Globalization

Accelerated Resource Use through Accelerated Consumption

• Furs: minx, lynx, jaguar, kangaroo, whale, sea otters (18th Century Russians) fed early fashion trends

• Inefficient over-consumption of Meats (10:1), Poultry (3:1), even Fish (fed other fish and chicken) by meat-eating pop cultures

· Mineral Extraction for Machines, Plastics and Fuel· New Housing and associated energy and water use.· Golf courses use valuable water and destroy habitat

worldwide.

Pollution: waste from fuel generation and discarded products, plastics, marketing and packaging materials

“They’re growing houses in the fields between the towns.”- John Gorka, Folk Singer

Beijing, China

Palm Springs, CA

Fiji

Marlboro Man in Egypt

How do cultural traits diffuse?

Hearth: the point of origin of a cultural trait.

Contagious diffusion

Hierarchical diffusion

How are Local Cultures Sustained?

Local cultures are sustained by maintaining customs.

Custom: a practice that a group of people routinely follows.

Material and Nonmaterial Culture

Material Culture

The things a group of people construct, such as art, houses, clothing, sports, dance, and food.

Nonmaterial Culture

The beliefs, practices, aesthetics, and values of a group of people.

Little Sweden, USA (Lindsborg, Kansas): Is the Swedish Dala horse part of material or nonmaterial culture?

What do local cultures do to maintain their customs in a

globalized world?

Local Cultures often have two goals:

1. keeping other cultures out.(ie. create a boundary around itself)

2. keeping their own culture in.(ie. avoid cultural appropriation)

What role does place play in maintaining customs?

By defining a place (a town or a neighborhood) or a space for a short amount of time (an annual festival) as representing a culture and its values, members of a local culture can maintain (or reestablish) its customs and reinforce its beliefs.

Rural Local Cultures

• Migration into rural areas is less frequent.• Can better separate their culture from others

and from popular culture.• Can define their own space.• Daily life my be defined by a shared economic

activity.

Makah (Neah Bay, Washington)Why did the Makah reinstate the whale hunt?

Makah (Neah Bay, Washington)Why did the Makah reinstate the whale hunt?

To reinvigorate the local culture.

Little Sweden, USA (Lindsborg, KS)Why did the residents of Lindsborg define it as a

Swedish place?

Little Sweden, USA (Lindsborg, KS)Why did the residents of Lindsborg define it as a

Swedish place?neolocalism: seeking out the regional culture and reinvigorating it in response to the uncertainty of the modern world.

Helen, GA (Alpine Village)

Urban Local Cultures

• Can create ethnic neighborhoods within cities.• Creates a space to practice customs.• Can cluster businesses, houses of worship, schools

to support local culture.• Migration into ethnic neighborhoods can quickly

change an ethnic neighborhood.

For example: Williamsburg, NY, North End (Boston), MA

Runners of the NYC Marathon run through Williamsburg, (Brooklyn), NYHasidic Jewish Neighborhood

Commodification

How are aspects of local culture (material, non-material, place) commodified?

what is commodified? who commodifies it?

Sun City, South Africa

Authenticity

Claims of authenticity abound – how do consumers determine what experience/place is “authentic” and what is not?

What are Cultural Hearths

• Ancient Hearths (locations – source of civilization)

• Hydraulic Civilization Theory (cities able to

control irrigated farming over large hinterlands, held political power over other cities)

• Modern Hearths (locations) – Eastern Megalopolis in the United States

How are hearths of popular culture traits established?

• Typically begins with an idea/good and contagious diffusion.

• Companies (MTV) and Individuals (Tony Hawk) can create/manufacture popular culture.

• Hierarchical diffusion: fax machines on a farm/industrial revolution

• Relocation diffusion: British prisoners to Australia

The hearth of Phish concerts is in the northeastern United States, near where the band began in Vermont.

With Distance Decay, the likelihood of diffusion decreases as time and distance from the hearth increases.

With Time-Space Compression, the likelihood of diffusion depends upon the connectedness among places.

Which applies more to popular culture? Time-Space Compression

Factors that Affect Diffusion

• Distance

• Population Density

• Means of Communication

• Nature of the Innovation

• Prestige of the Node

Culture Change and Convergence• Acculturation -process whereby one culture is substantially

changed through the interaction of another culture• Assimilation -process where two or more cultures fuse, but

not necessarily cultural characteristics• Transculturation -changes that occur from the interaction of

cultures that is equal• Migrant Diffusion -by the time the new ideas and inventions

reach a place, they have faded away at their point of origin• Ethnocentrism -tendency to evaluate other cultures against

the standards of one’s own

Why are popular culture traits usually diffused hierarchically?

How is fashion in popular culture an example of hierarchical diffusion?

The “Irish” Pub