Chapter 4 - Folk and Popular Culture

Culture was defined in Chapter 1 as the body of material traits, __________ __________, and social forms that together constitute the distinct tradition of a group of people.

customary beliefs

According to a legend, where was music first invented?

China. According to the Chinese legend, music was invented in 2697 B.C., when the Emperor Huang Ti sent Ling Lun to cut bamboo poles that would produce a sound matching the call of the phoenix bird. In reality, folk songs usually originate anonymously and are transmitted orally. A song may be modified from one generation to the next as conditions change, but the content is most often derived from events in daily life that are familiar to the majority of the people. As people migrate, folk music travels with them as part of the diffusion of folk culture.

A custom is a ...

repetitive act of a group, performed to the extent that it becomes characteristic of the group such as many students typically wearing jeans to class.

A habit is a ...

repetitive act that a particular individual performs, such as wearing jeans to class every day.

FYI Nineteenth-century cultural geographer Vidal de la Blache, stated ....

"Among the connections that tie {people} to a certain environment, one of the most tenacious is food supply; clothing and weapons are more subject to modification than the dietary regime, which experience has shown to be best suited to human needs in a given climate."

The distinctive character of a wine is derived from three physical characteristics of a vineyard including ...

1. Climate. Vineyards are best cultivated in temperate climates of moderately cold, rainy winters and fairly long, hot summers. Hot, sunny weather is necessary in the summer for the fruit to mature properly, whereas winter is the preferred season for rain because plant diseases that cause the fruit to rot are more active in the hot, humid weather. 2. Topography. Vineyards are planted on hillsides, if possible, to maximize exposure to sunlight and to facilitate drainage. A site near a lake or river is also desirable because water can temper extremes of temperature. 3. Soil. Grapes can be grown in a variety of soils, but the best wine tends to be produced from grapes grown in soil that is coarse and well drained - a soil that is not necessarily fertile for other crops.

What are the two elements of culture that are emphasized in this chapter?

1. Daily necessities, including food, clothing, and shelter. All people must consume food, wear clothing, and find shelter, but different cultural groups do so in distinctive ways. 2. Leisure activities, such as arts and recreation. Each cultural group has its own definition of meaningful art and stimulating recreation. For example, people in the United States and Pakistan do not allocate their leisure time in the same way.

Geographers divide culture into two types. What are they?

1. Folk Culture - Traditionally practiced primarily by small, homogeneous groups living in isolated rural areas. 2. Popular Culture - Found in large, heterogeneous societies that share certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristics. Each cultural element has a distinctive origin, diffusion and distribution. Geographers observe that folk culture and popular culture typically differ in their process of origin, diffusion, and distribution. Landscapes dominated by folk culture change relatively little over time. In contrast, popular culture is based on rapid simultaneous global connections through communications systems, transportation networks, and other modern technology. Rapid diffusion facilitates frequent changes in popular culture. Thus, folk culture is more likely to vary from place to place at a given time, whereas popular culture is more likely to vary from time to time at a given place.

What two things do popular clothing habits reflect?

1. Occupation. 2. Income.

In the twenty-first century, concern with American-produced media content has spilled over into the Internet. OpenNet Initiative has identified three types of Internet content that are routinely censored in other countries. What are they?

1. Political content that expresses views in opposition to those of the current government or that is related to human rights, freedom of expression, minority rights, and religious movements. 2. Social content related to sexuality, gambling, and illegal drugs and alcohol, as well as other topics that may be socially sensitive or perceived as offensive. 3. Security content related to armed conflicts, border disputes, separatist movements, and militant groups.

What must inhabitants consider before producing particular foods in their region?

1. Soil. 2. Climate. 3. Terrain. 4. Vegetation. 5. Other characteristics of the environment.

Why is TV especially important for popular culture?

1. Watching TV is the most popular leisure activity in the world. The average human watched three hours of TV per day in 2014, and the average American watched five hours. 2. TV has been the most important mechanism by which popular culture, such as professional sports, has rapidly diffused across Earth.

Soccer/Football transformed from a English folk custom to global popular culture when?

1800s. Football and other recreation clubs were founded in the United Kingdom, frequently by churches, to provide factory workers with organized recreation during leisure hours. Sport became a subject that was taught in school.

FYI Geographers are interested in all three components of the definition of culture: 1. The first part of this definition - the visible elements that a group possesses and leaves behind for the future (its material traits) is discussed in this chapter. 2. Two important components of a group's beliefs and values - language and religion 3. The social forms that maintain values and protect the artifacts (ethnicity and political institutions).

A consideration of culture follows logically from the discussion of migration. Two locations have similar cultural beliefs, objects, and institutions because people bring along their culture when they migrate. Differences emerge when two groups have limited interaction.

What is assimilation?

A folk culture often undergoes a process of assimilation, which is a process of giving up cultural traditions, such as food and clothing preferences, and adoption of the social customs of the dominant culture of the place.

What is a taboo?

A restriction on behavior imposed by social custom. According to many folk customs, everything in nature carries a signature, or distinctive characteristic, based on its appearance and natural properties. Consequently, people may desire or avoid certain foods in response to perceived beneficial or harmful natural traits.

In what ways might the Amish people need to interact with popular culture?

An Amish person will drive in a car for an important purpose, such as visiting a distant doctor or family member. A telephone is not used for social chats but is available to summon a doctor or convey important information to distant relatives. The Amish do not use social media such as the internet for business or personal communication, but will permit friends and neighbors who are not Amish to use social media on their behalf.

How is consuming meat depleting our natural resources?

Animal consumption is an inefficient way for people to acquire calories: It is 90 percent less efficient than if people simply ate grain directly. To produce 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of beef sold in the supermarket, nearly 10 kilograms *(22 pounds) of grain are consumed by the animal. For every kilogram of chicken, nearly 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) of grain are consumed by the fowl. The grain could be fed to people directly, bypassing the efficient meat-production step.

Where are soybeans grown?

Asia. They are an excellent source of protein. In the raw state they are toxic and indigestible. Lengthy cooking renders them to edible, but fuel is scarce in Asia. Asians have adapted to this environmental challenge by deriving from soybeans foods that do not require extensive cooking. These include bean sprouts (germinated seeds), soy sauce (fermented soybeans), and bean curd (steamed soybeans).

What are the three most important necessities of life in material culture?

Clothing, food and shelter.

What other sports have diffused less than soccer?

Cricket is popular primarily in the United Kingdom and former British colonies, especially in South Asia, the South Pacific, and Caribbean islands. Ice hockey prevails, logically, in colder climates, especially in Canada, the northern United States, northern Europe, and Russia. Wushu, martial arts that combine forms such as kicking and jumping with combat such as striking and wrestling, is China's most popular sport. Baseball, once confined to North America, became popular in Japan in the late nineteenth century after it was introduced by American Japanese returning from studies in the United States, as well as Americans working in Japan. Australia rules football is a sport distinct from soccer and the football played in North America. Distinctive forms of football developed in Australia, as well as the United States and Canada, as a result of lack of interaction among sporting nations during the nineteenth century. Lacrosse was traditionally played by the Iroquios, who called it guhchigwaha, which means "bump hips." European colonists in Canada picked up the game from the Iroquois and diffused it to a handful of U.S. communities, especially in Maryland, upstate New York, and Long Island.

The production of wine is based principally on what type of value?

Cultural values, both historical and contemporary.

In what ways is the dominance of popular culture threatening the quality of the environment?

Culture and the physical environment are interrelated. Each cultural group takes particular elements from the environment into its culture and in turn constructs landscapes (what geographers call "built environments") that modify nature in distinctive ways. Some of these landscapes are sustainable, and some are not. Folk culture derived from local natural elements may be more sustainable in the protection and enhancement of the environment. Popular culture is less likely to reflect concern for the sustainability of physical conditions and is more likely to modify the environment in accordance with global values.

Where are folk and popular leisure activities distributed?

Culture can be divided into folk and popular culture. Folk culture is traditionally practiced primarily by small, homogeneous groups living in isolated rural areas. Popular culture is found in large, heterogeneous societies that share certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristics. Folk culture is transmitted relatively slowly and primarily through relocation diffusion. Popular culture typically diffuses rapidly through a process of hierarchical diffusion.

Why do folk and popular culture face sustainability challenges?

Elements of folk and popular culture face challenges in maintaining identifies that are sustainable into the future. For folk culture, the challenges are to maintain unique local landscapes in an age of globalization. For popular culture, the challenges derive from the sustainability of practices designed to promote uniform landscapes.

Where did soccer originate?

England Known in the most of the world as football, soccer originated as a folk custom in England during the 11th century. It was transformed into part of a global popular culture beginning in the 19th century.

True or False. Governments cannot prevent unwanted electronic technology by regulating the underlying technology platforms that are supported by the infrastructure in the country.

False. Governments can effectively prevent unwanted electronic technology by regulating the underlying technology platforms that are supported by the infrastructure in the country. Some governments prohibit the sale of certain models of phones, tablets, and computers.

Which culture is more likely to be influenced by environmental conditions?

Folk culture, although popular culture is not immune to these influences.

What do folk songs convey?

Folk songs tell a story or convey information about life-cycle events, such as birth, death, and marriage, or environmental features, such as agriculture and climate.

What are the challenges for folk culture from diffusion of popular culture?

For folk culture, the challenges are to maintain unique local landscapes in an age of globalization. For popular culture, the challenges derive from the sustainability of practices designed to promote uniform landscapes. Many fear the loss of folk culture, if rising incomes fuel demand for the possessions typical of popular culture. When people turn from folk to popular culture, they may also turn away from the society's traditional values.

Who founded Facebook?

Four students from Harvard University in 2004.

What American cultural geographer considered the house to be a good reflection of cultural heritage, current fashion, functional needs, and the impact of environment.

Fred Kniffen.

What is the name of the organization that measures the level of Internet and digital media freedom in countries?

Freedom on the Net. Countries are classified "free" if they have a score of 30 or below, "partly free" if they have a score between 31 and 60, and "not free" if they have a score above 60. One 19 of the 65 countries surveyed by Freedom on the Net were classified as "free." Freedom on the Net identifies three categories of restrictions on the free use of the Internet: banned technology, blocked content, and violated user rights.

How are golf courses depleting natural resources?

Golf courses are designed to remake the environment by creating or flattening hills, carting in or digging up sand for traps, and draining or expanding bodies of water to create hazards. The courses are planted with nonnative grass species, fertilizers and pesticides are applied to the grass to ensure an appearance considered suitable for the game, and a large quantity of water is needed to maintain the grass, even in the desert.

What is the land tradition of the Amish when a boy becomes an adult?

He is given a farm.

In folk customs, in Southwest Asia & North, Africa, they use a practice of covering the head called ...?

Hijab. The niqab is a veil that covers the bottom half of the face. The burqa covers the entire face and body, leaving a mesh screen to see through. European countries, including France and Belgium, prohibit women from wearing them in public.

What does popular music convey?

In contrast to folk music, popular music is written by specific individuals for the purpose of being sold to or performed in front of a large number of people. It frequently displays a high degree of technical skills through manipulation of sophisticated electronic equipment. Popular musicians increasingly cluster in communities where other creative artists reside, regardless of the particular style.

What is acculturation?

Instead of assimilation, a folk culture group often undergoes acculturation, which a process of adjustment to the dominant culture, while retaining features of a folk culture, of syncretism which was defined in Chapter 1 as the creation of a new cultural feature through combining elements of two groups.

Three three worst-offending countries of violating user rights of the internet according to Freedom of the Net are?

Iran, Syria and China.

What French geographer viewed the house as being among the essential facts of human geography.

Jean Brunhes. It is a product of both cultural traditions and natural conditions.

A collection of social customs produces a group's material culture. What typically represents American informality and a badge of youth?

Jeans. Whereas culture refers to a group's ENTIRE collection of customs.

Where are folk and popular material culture distributed?

Material elements of folk culture typically have unknown or multiple origins among groups living in relative isolation, and they diffuse slowly to other locations through the process of relation diffusion. Popular clothing, food, and shelter vary more in time than in place.

True or False. People what is available in their particular environment.

Not entirely. Food preferences are inevitably affected by the availability of products, but food preferences are strongly influenced by cultural traditions. What is eaten establishes one's social, religious, and ethnic memberships. The surest way to identify a family's ethnic origins is to look in its kitchen.

What are the two basic factors that help explain the different spatial distribution of popular and folk cultures?

Origin & Diffusion. Origin - Culture originates at a heart, a center of innovation: - Folk culture often has anonymous hearts, originating from anonymous sources, at unknown dates, through unidentified originators. It may also have multiple hearts, originating independently in isolated locations. - Popular culture is typically traceable to a specific person or corporation in a particular place. It is most often a product of developed countries, especially in North America and Europe. Diffusion - Folk and popular cultures go through different processes of diffusion: - Folk culture is transmitted from one location to another relatively slowly and on a small scale, primarily through relocation diffusion (migration). - Popular culture typically spreads through a process of hierarchical diffusion, diffusing rapidly and extensively from hearths or nodes of innovation within the help of modern communications.

What is access to folk and popular culture unequal?

Popular culture diffuses rapidly around the world in the twenty-first century primiarly through electronic media. TV is by far the world's most important electronic media format. The internet and social media appear to be following similar patterns of diffusion. Access to electronic media is not equal around the world, and in many places governments are trying to prevent or limit access to what is available.

True or False. Americans may choose particular beverages or snacks in part on the basis of preference for what is produced, grown, or imported locally.

True.

Which culture is becoming more dominant at a global scale?

Popular culture. At least for people with the income to have access to it - threatening the survival of unique folk culture. The disappearance of local folk culture reduces local diversity in the world and the intellectual stimulation that arises from differences in backgrounds.

How did the Amish come to the United States?

Several hundred Amish families migrated to North America in two waves. The first group, primarily from Bern and the Palatinate, settled in Pennsylvania in the early 1700's, enticed by William Penn's offer of low-priced land. Because of lower land prices, the second group, from Alsace, settled in Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa in the United States and Ontario, Canada, in the early 1800's.

What is a bostan?

Small gardens inside Instabul, Turkey. They have been supplying the city with fresh produce for hundreds of years. In a bostan, 15 to 20 different types of vegetables are planted at different times of the year, and the choice is varied from year to year, in order to reduce the risk of damage from poor weather.

The taboo against consumption of meat among many people cannot be explained primarily by environmental factors. How then?

Social values must influence the choice of diet because people in similar climates with similar levels of income consume different foods.

What is the world's most important electronic media format?

TV

Name it. The contribution of a location's distinctive physical features to the way food tastes is known by the French term ...?

Terroir. The word comes from the same root as terre (the French word for "land" or "earth"), but terroir does not translate precisely into English; it has a similar meaning to the English expressions "grounded" and "Sense of place." Terroir is the sum of the effects on a particular food item of soil, climate, and other features of the local environment.

FYI Certain foods are eaten in folk cultures because their natural properties are perceived to enhance qualities considered desirable by the society.

The Abipone people in Paraguay eat bulls, jaguars, and stags to make them strong, brave, and swift. The Abipone believe that consuming hens or tortoises will make them cowardly. The Ainu people in Japan avoid eating otters because they are believed to be forgetful animals, and consuming them could cause loss of memory. The Mbum Kpau women in Chad do not eat chicken or goat before becoming pregnant. Abstaining from consumption of these animals is thought to help escape pain in childbirth and to prevent birth of a child with abnormalities. During pregnancy, the Mbum Kpau avoid meat from antelopes with twisted horns, which could cause them to bear offspring with abnormalities.

What group of people provide an example of a cultural group that has retained distinctive elements of folk culture despite living in a country dominated by popular culture?

The Amish. They also shun mechanical and electrical power. They travel by horse and buggy and continue to use hand tools for farming. They have distinctive clothing, farming, and religious practices, and other customs. They do not wish to pose for photos because the act of posing is seen as fostering "graven images".

Facebook is primarily dominated by people in what region?

The United States. Notably absent from the list of leading Facebook users is the world's most populous state, China. They prefer Qzone. The government has also limited their ability to use Facebook. Also absent is Russia.

We Americans dominate the most popular Twitter postings and 1/3 of all Twitter messages come from us. Which country ranks second?

The poorest country, India.

Name a difference between Folk and Popular culture?

The region covered by a folk culture is typically much smaller than that covered by a popular culture. The reason the distributions are different is connection or lack of it. A group's distinctive culture derives from experiencing local social and physical conditions in a place that is isolated from other groups. Even groups living in close proximity to one another may adopt different folk cultures because of limited connections.

How did the world soccer originate?

The word soccer originated when the word association was shortened to assoc, which ultimately became twisted around into the word soccer.

What geographic factors account for the diversity of cultures in the Himalayas?

There are four groups in the Himalaya Mountains: Buddhists. In the northern region, Buddhists paint idealized divine figures, such as monks and saints. Some of these figures are depicted as bizarre or terrifying, perhaps reflecting the inhospitable environment. Hindus. In the southern region, Hindus create scenes from everyday life and familiar local scenes. Their paintings sometimes portray a deity in a domestic scene and frequently represent the region's violent and extreme climatic conditions. Muslims. To the west, folk art is inspired by the region's beautiful plants and flowers. In contrast with the paintings from the Buddhist and Hindu regions, these paintings do not depict harsh climatic conditions. Folk religionists. People from Myanmar (Burma) and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, who have migrated to the eastern region of the study area, paint symbols and designs that derive from their religion rather than from the local government. The distribution of artistic subjects in the Himalayas shows how folk customs are influenced by cultural institutions such as religion and by environmental processes such as climate, landforms, and vegetation. These groups display similar uniqueness in their dance, music, architecture, and crafts.

FYI The style of construction can also be influenced by the environment.

Think of snow or wet climates to facilitate runoff and to reduce the weight of accumulated snow.

How does culture influence behavior?

To answer this question, habit must be distinguished from custom. A habit is a repetitive act that a particular individual performs, such as wearing jeans to class every day. A custom is a repetitive act of a group, performed to the extent that it becomes characteristic of the group such as many students typically wearing jeans to class. Unlike custom, habit does not imply that the act has been adopted by most of the society's population. A custom is therefore a habit that has been widely adopted by a group of people.

What is a uniform landscape?

To create a uniform landscape, hills may be flattened and valleys filled in. The same building and landscaping materials may be employed regardless of location.

True or False. People adapt their food preferences to conditions in the environment.

True. In Asia, rice is grown in milder, moister regions, whereas wheat thrives in colder, drier regions. In Europe, traditional preferences for quick-frying foods in Italy resulted in part from fuel shortages. In Northern Europe, an abundant wood supply encouraged the slow stewing and roasting of foods over fires, which also provided home heat in the colder climate.

The two most common building materials for houses are?

Wood and brick.