Ch. 4 Key Issue 2

1. Ch. 4 Key Issue 2 Why is Folk Culture Clustered?

2. Quick Write • Explain the differences between local/folk and pop culture.

3. How a local cultures sustained? • By clustering • By being isolated • By practicing customs/traditions

4. Influence of the physical environment • Folk culture = close connection to the environment • Most folk cultures are rural and agricultural • Clothing is often tied to environmental conditions • Example: Wooden clogs in the Netherlands

6. Food Preferences and the Environment • Terroir- effects of local environment on food (wine) • Food preferences are adapted to the environment • Example: In Asia, rice is grown in milder, wetter environments; wheat is grown in colder, drier environments • Soybeans- poisonous if not cooked

7. Food Preferences and the Environment • Food taboos may be especially strong • People avoid certain foods because of negative associations with that food • Developed for environmental (protect endangered animals) and cultural (religion) reasons • Examples- no pork for Jews or Muslims

9. Swine Stock Figure 4-8

10. Folk housing and the environment (non US) • Housing = a reflection of cultural heritage, current fashion, function, and the physical environment • Function of house is to protect from extreme elements of the environment • May use environmental elements to build houses

11. Why Is Folk Culture Clustered? • Isolation promotes cultural diversity • Examples: • Unique cultural landscapes • Beliefs and folk house forms • Sacred spaces • U.S. folk housing

12. Landscapes of Local/Folk Cultures • Studying the landscape gives you insight into social structures of local cultures • Mormon landscape in Western US • Farming villages with clustered houses– contrasts the landscape in surrounding states (160 acre plots per farmer) • Clustering allowed for protection- from Indians and other persecutors • Wide streets so farmers could turn a cart and horse around

14. Sacred Spaces • Determines layout of folk housing • Ex: Java- front door faces south; Madagascar- important people are seated against the north wall

15. Do not want to face neighbor's feet, parallel w/ street, perpendicular w/ stream All sleep same direction- East

17. Folk Housing in US • Migrants took memories of housing styles and built them as the moved throughout the US, they also built what was “in style” from the hearth at the time • Three hearths • Lower Chesapeake and Tidewater • Middle Atlantic • New England

18. Diffusion of New England hearth house types

23. Rural Local Cultures • Have an easier time maintaining local cultures because of their isolation • Rurality allows local cultures to define their space to practice their beliefs and customs- creating their own rural landscape • Anabaptists- baptized again, broke from church and state due to persecution. Wanted to live apart and stay together • Hutterites- Northern US, Canada; live in communities/colonies of 100 people • Amish- Pennsylvania • Mennoninites- Virginia

24. Rural Local Cultures • Makah American Indians • Whale hunting issues • Little Sweden, USA • Lindsborg, Kansas • Celebrating of Swedish ancestors • Economic motives? • Neolocalism- reinvigorating the local culture into the landscape in the face of an uncertain (culturally) world

25. Is this authentic culture or “Disneyesque” fakery used to attract tourists? Top: Lindsborg Bottom: Sweden

26. Urban Local Cultures • Successfully built their own “place” to practice their customs within a major city by constructing ethnic neighborhoods; able to maintain their distinctness among members of the popular culture • Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn • Italian Americans in North Boston • Threatened by nonmembers of the local culture moving into their neighborhoods

28. http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/sidebar-who-is-a-jew/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sidebar-who-is-a-jewhttp://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/sidebar-who-is-a-jew/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sidebar-who-is-a-jew