Folk and Popular CultureRace, Gender & Ethnicity

Chapter 4 & 5

What are local and pop cultures?

• Folk culture- a small group, isolated, rural, traditional (tribal)

• Popular culture- large group that is urban, diverse, quick changing

• Local culture- group that interacts with pop culture, but is unified within their community and are unique from pop culture (Amish)

• Pop culture changes fast, moves hierarchically, and can adapt folk traits to pop culture (Kabbalah and Madonna)

• Local culture has interaction with pop culture and can slightly change to adapt to pop culture (especially laws)

• Material culture- things you can touch (food)• Nonmaterial culture- things you cannot touch

(religion)

Local cultures sustained• Two goals of local

cultures: keep outsiders out and own culture in– Cultural appropriation-

when cultures adopt other culture traits and use it for their own benefit

– Local cultures do not want outsiders to make $ off their culture

– Easier to stay isolated in rural areas

• Local cultures have to adapt to pop. Culture ways– Whaling laws that Native Americans must

follow

• Ethnic neighborhoods share similar ancestry, culture, and identity (can be by choice or force)– As more immigrants come in they take over

already established neighborhoods

• Commodification- process of selling something that was not previously sellable– Amish country tours, Irish pubs…questions on

the Authenticity (factual portrayal)

How is popular culture diffused?• Distance decay not an

HUGE issue with pop culture because of technology– Time space compression-

shows how ideas move based on transportation connections

– Pop culture typically diffuses hierarchically

• Manufacturing a hearth- MTV leader of pop culture and decides what is “cool” and tells you

• Reterritorialization- when a local culture idea becomes part of pop culture (rap music from local to MTV pop)

• Replacing hearths– Top three sports were baseball, football,

basketball…new sports skateboarding, snow boarding, X games

• Three main regions of pop culture that spread worldwide:– Japan- cartoons and electronics– US- music, sports, fast food– Western Europe- fashion, art

Local and Pop culture in landscapes

• Cultural landscape- visible imprint cultures put on the land– US has placelessness loss of uniqueness in

the cultural landscape

Converging cultural landscapes• Glocalization- when local images become

global images

• Borrow ideas from other cultures for your own cultural landscape– Architecture (skyscrapers)– Businesses (starbucks)– Cultural landscapes (Epcot/ Vegas)

Housing Types (3)

• New England- Mass to Iowa

• Middle Atlantic- Penn to Miss and Illinois

• Southern Tidewater- Maryland to Georgia

• LATER Ranch house- West

What is Identity and How are they constructed?

• Race- one true human race; many use the term to mean skin color

• Belief that colonialism began racism with socioeconomic superiority

• Skin color theories on melanin in the skin and vitamin D– Similar skin tone does not mean genetic

similarity (Africans not linked to Aborigines)

• Residential segregation- can be by choice or force or groups living separately

• Ethnicity- where people share a common culture and are bound together in a place with a sense of identity

Gender- women are viewed differently in different parts of the world

• Patriarchal- male dominated society

• Sub-Sahara Africa- women do house, work, field work, but cannot own land

• India- women are bound to the male and must have a dowry (money) to be married– Dowry death and acid burnings common in

Northern India