Folk and Popular Culture

1. Folk and Popular Culture Review

2. What is the difference? Folk Culture Pop Culture Large, heterogeneous groups Share habits Repetitive act done by an individual Doesn’t imply that it’s been adopted by most people Globalization more likely Less likely to reflect diversity More likely to modify the environment Impersonal relationships with many Weak family structure • Small, homogenous groups • Rural areas • Share customs • Repetitive act done by a group that becomes a characteristic of the overall group • Local diversity • Close relationships with few

3. Origins Folk Culture Popular Culture MDC Increased leisure time and technology Tertiary sector jobs give people free time Music Written for being sold Originated around 1900 WWII diffusion • Anonymous hearths • Or multiple hearths • Independent and isolated from one another • Music • Tell a story • Share information • Daily life

4. Examples Folk Culture Popular Culture Hip-hop “Soccer moms” • Amish (PA) • Gypsies (Europe) • Maori (New Zealand)

5. Folk Culture in the United States

6. Diffusion • Relocation: People move from one place to another, taking ideas with them • Expansion: Snowball effect- as it spreads the total number of “followers” increases • Hierarchical: Leapfrogging of ideas from one important person or place to another • Temporarily skipping insignificant places • Sports • Contagious: Wavelike spreading, no attention to hierarchy • Stimulus: The specific trait is rejected, but the overall idea is accepted • Reindeer domestication came from Siberian peoples seeing domestication of cattle. They didn’t need cattle!

7. Diffusion Folk Culture Popular Culture Hierarchal Because pop culture is stratified by socioeconomic class Starts in urban areas Major world cities! McDonalds Time distance decay not much of a factor Walmart Contagous at first Also reverse hierarchal diff. Advertising causes diffusion • Diffusion is slower • Traditional cultures have more resistance to change • Amish are a good example • Diffusion is not always known • Blowguns- found all over, but where did they start? • Two options: • Independent invention • Relocation diffusion • Many cultures have been traditionally illiterate

8. Other words • Distance decay: The presence of a trait diminishes as distance increases • Time-distance decay: Acceptance decreases with distance and time • Absorbing barriers: A block to the spread of a trait • The Taliban abolished television in 1998 • Neighborhood Effect: Acceptance is usually most rapid in small clusters around an initial adopter • Placelessness: A spatial standardization the diminishes regional variety and demeans the human spirit • Pop culture takes away unique characteristics

9. Folk Culture- Location • The environment influences folk culture • How? • Housing • Tools • Food • Isolation promotes diversity • Sacred Spaces: Java- front door faces south –the direction of the South Sea Goddess; Fiji- Eastern walls are sacred; Madagasar- west is most important direction;

10. Houses….yay

11. Distribution of Pop Culture

12. Distribution of Pop Culture

13. Diffusion of Pop Culture

14. Globalization • Threat to folk culture? • What are environmental impacts? • Modifying nature • Uniform landscapes • Negative environment (resources) • Pollution