AP Human GEO
Name: _____________
Unit # 3: FOLK AND POPULAR CULTURE
TERMS TO DEFINE AND KNOW:
Concepts of Culture
Acculturation
Assimilation
Cultural Adaptation
Cultural Core/periphery Pattern
Cultural ecology
Cultural identity
Cultural landscape
Cultural realm
Culture
Culture region • Formal—core, periphery
• Functional—node
• Vernacular (perceptual)—regional selfawareness
Diffusion types • Expansion—hierarchical,
contagious diffusion and stimulus diffusion
• Relocation
Innovation adoption
Maladaptive diffusion
Sequent occupance
Artifact, Mentifact, Sociofact, Taboo and
habit
Folk and Popular
Culture
Language
Adaptive Strategies
Anglo-American landscape
characteristics
Architectural form
Built environment
Folk Culture
Folk food
Folk house
Folk songs
Folklore
Creole
Material Culture
Linguistic Diversity
Nonmaterial culture
Monolingual/multilingual
Popular culture
Survey systems
Traditional architecture
Official Language
Pidgin
Toponymy
Transculturation
Trade Language
Dialect
Indo-European languages
Isogloss
Language
Language family
Language group
Language Subfamily
Lingua franca
BE ABLE TO . . .
• define culture and cultural geography
• compare and contrast aspects of folk and popular culture
a) origins
b) methods of diffusion
c) culture regions
• provide specific examples of folk culture and regions
• provide specific examples of specific popular cultural traits and discuss their
diffusion
• discuss ways in which cultural traits are affected by and affect the natural
environment
• discuss the role of racism and ethnocentrism in the understanding of the cultural
landscape
ASSIGNED READINGS
1. Barron’s, Chapter 3: Cultural Geography
2. Kuby, Chapter 2: Layers of Tradition: Culture Regions at Different Scale
Questions:
1. Define folk culture and popular culture. In what ways do folk and
popular culture interact? Think of folk culture and popular as “ends of a
continuum” and attempt to identify aspects of your locality which
exemplify points along the continuum.
2. What is an ethnic neighborhood? Choose an example of an ethnic
neighborhood and describe the traditions, customs and traits that set
the ethnic group and its neighborhood apart from the popular culture.
What are some of the internal and external threats to the local culture
of the ethnic neighborhood you have chosen?
3. Think of the cultural landscape of the city or town where you live. Give
examples of each of the three dimensions of cultural landscape
convergence (1. “globalized architectural forms and planning ideas; 2.
widespread businesses (McDonald's) and products; 3. wholesale
borrowing of idealized landscape images) operative in the landscape of
your community. What attempts are being made to preserve local
cultural landscape features against the encroachment of
“placelessness.”