Chapter 4

Folk and Popular Culture

AP Human Geography

Origins and Diffusion of Folk and Popular Cultures

• Culture: A group of belief systems, norms, and values practiced by people.

• Folk culture: small, incorporates a homogeneous population, is typically rural, and is cohesive in cultural traits.

• Pop culture: large, incorporates heterogeneous populations, typically urban, and experiences quick changes in cultural traits.

Folk Culture vs. Popular Culture

Popular Culture:

Food, music, dance, clothing, entertainment

Popular Celebrities

In Popular Culture: TrendsHierarchical diffusion

Example: Fashion Starts at the point of origin: Milan, Paris, New YorkMajor fashion houses: LA, Hollywood etc.Shopping mall

Hearth

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

Time Space Compression: the likelihood of diffusion depends upon the connectedness among places: communications and transportation technologies.

Commodification

The process through which something—a name, a good, an idea or even a person—that previously was not regarded as an object to be bought or sold.. Becomes an object that can be bought, sold, and traded in the world market.

                                   

Convergence of Cultural Landscapes

Convergence of cultural landscapes has three dimensions:

1. Particular architectural forms and planning have diffused around the world

2. Individual businesses and products have become so widespread that they now leave a distinctive landscape stamp on far flung places

3. The wholesale borrowing of idealized landscape images, though not necessarily fostering convergence, promotes a blurring of place distinctiveness

McDonalds World Wide Locations

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Wide Dispersion of Popular Culture

• Diffusion of popular housing, clothing, and food– Popular housing styles– Rapid diffusion of clothing styles– Popular food customs

• Television and diffusion of popular culture– Diffusion of television– Diffusion of the internet– Government control of television

Clustering of Folk Cultures

• Influence of the physical environment– Distinctive food preferences– Folk housing– U.S. folk house forms

Amish Settlements in the U.S.

Fig. 4-4: Amish settlements are distributed through the northeast U.S.

Home Locations in Southeast Asia

Fig. 4-7: Houses and sleeping positions are oriented according to local customs among the Lao in northern Laos (left) and the Yuan and Shan in northern Thailand (right).

House Types in Western China

Fig. 4-8: Four communities in western China all have distinctive house types.

Diffusion of House Types in U.S.

Fig. 4-9: Distinct house types originated in three main source areas in the U.S. and then diffused into the interior as migrants moved west.

Diffusion of New England House Types

Fig. 4-10: Four main New England house types of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries diffused westward as settlers migrated.

U.S. House Types, 1945–1990

Fig. 4-11: Several variations of the “modern style” were dominant from the 1940s into the 1970s. Since then, “neo-eclectic” styles have become the dominant type of house construction in the U.S.

U.S. House Types by Region

Fig. 4-1-1: Small towns in different regions of the eastern U.S. have different combinations of five main house types.

Diffusion of TV, 1954–1999

Fig. 4-14: Television has diffused widely since the 1950s, but some areas still have low numbers of TVs per population.

Distribution of Internet Hosts

Fig. 4-15: The U.S. had two-thirds of the world’s internet hosts in 2002. Diffusion of internet service is likely to follow the pattern of TV diffusion, but the rate of this diffusion may differ.

Impacts of the Globalization of Popular Culture

• Threats to folk culture– Loss of traditional values– Foreign media dominance

• Environmental impacts of popular culture– Modifying nature– Uniform landscapes– Negative environmental impact

Words to KnowCulture

Folk Culture

Popular Culture

Local Culture

Hierarchical diffusion

Hearth

Assimilate

Custom

Commodification

Distance Decay

Time-Space Compression