Mona Domosh
Roderick p. Neumann
Patricia L. Price
Terry G. jordan-Bychkov
C. 2012 W.H. Freeman & CO.
Many worlds:
Geographies of cultural difference
Types of Culture
• Material culture
• Physical and tangible objects (clothing,
art, tools, buildings)
• Nonmaterial culture – “the intangibles”
• Beliefs, values, tales, songs, lore,
superstitions
Types of Culture
• Folk culture
• Small, cohesive, nearly self-sufficient
culture; often isolated
• Popular culture
 Dynamic culture based in a large,
heterogeneous society; features
include individualism, innovation,
and change
Folk Culture
 Stable and close knit
 Usually a rural community
 Tradition controls
 Resistance to change
 Buildings erected without architect or
blueprint using locally available
building materials
 anonymous origins, diffuses slowly
through migration. Develops over
time.
 Clustered distributions: isolation/lack
of interaction breed uniqueness and
ties to physical environment.
Folk Culture
 True folk culture is dead in Anglo America
 Why?
 Industrialization, Urbanization, Mass
communication
 It is almost impossible for a substantial
community to remain in isolation today
Folk vs. Popular Culture
 Economy
 Barter vs. Cash
 Relationships
 Personal
 Family
 What shapes the culture?
 Community or Mass Media?
 Who maintains order?
 Family/Church vs.
Authoritative Institutions
Types of Culture
• Indigenous (Ethnic) Culture
• Culture group that constitutes the original
inhabitants of a territory, distinct from the
dominant national culture, often derived from
colonial occupation
•Subculture
•Group of people with norms,
values, and material practices
that differentiate them from the
dominant culture
Fig 2.1
Material folk culture regions
•Germanic Pennsylvania folk
culture
•Yankee folk culture
•African-American folk culture
•Mormon folk culture
Germanic Pennsylvania folk
culture
Yankee folk culture
• Barns usually
attached to the
house
Scraped-earth folk graveyard, East Texas
(Fig 2.4)
Beef wheel, Harney Basin, Central Oregon
(Fig 2.5)
Quebec French Region
• Stone tower windmills
• Pentanque
Is popular culture “placeless”?
(Edward Relph)
• Death of uniqueness???
•Chain stores and restaurants
Popular food and drink
•Global brands (Coca-Cola, KFC)
Placelessness or Regional Pop Culture?
 Is uniqueness gone in North American
culture?
 Valid theory, but most geographers disagree.
 The Clustering of America (Michael Weiss)
 Argues that society is becoming more
fragmented
Michael Weiss’s Lifestyle Clusters (Fig. 2.8)
U.S. Fast Food Sales (Figure 2.9)
Indigenous Culture Regions
 Concentrations are usually found in areas
that:
 have few roads
 lack modern communication systems
Indigenous Culture Regions
 Physical features
 Mountainous areas
 Large arid regions
 Large expanses of forest or wetlands
Indigenous American Indian Population Distribution in
the United States (Fig. 2.11)
U.S. Southwest Indigenous Culture Region
(Fig 2.12)
Vernacular Culture Region
 A culture region perceived to exist by its
inhabitants, based in the collective spatial
perception of the population at large, and bearing
a generally accepted name or nickname (such as
“Dixie”)
Vernacular “Midwest” (Fig. 2.17)
Diffusion in popular culture
•Advertising as a vehicle for diffusion
•Communications barriers (permeable
barrier for punk rock)
•Diffusion of the rodeo
Diffusion in Pop Culture
 Infrastructure for change is there
 Hierarchical diffusion is more common
 Socioeconomic classes
 No time-distance decay?
 Mass media
 No isolation or core
 Walmart and the exception to the rule
Advertising
 “…popular culture is equipped with the most
potent devices and techniques of diffusion
ever devised.”

Domosh p. 44
 Place of product images
 “Made in the U.S.A.”
 Does it impact the consumer?
Communication Barriers
 Will radio play new styles of music?
 Government censorship
 Control/restrict mass media =>
control/restrict pop culture diffusion
Diffusion of the Rodeo
 Grew from the ranching folk culture
 Rodear – “to round up”
 Contests
 Traveling shows became agent of diffusion
•Spread from the cultural hearth –
a focused geographic area where
important innovations are born and
from which they spread
Fig 2.19
Determining Diffusion
 Blowguns:
Diffusion or Independent Invention?
• Borneo, Native Americans
• Need to examine all aspects of the item
• Style, decoration, use, methods of
construction
• Convergence hypothesis
•
Homogenization of pop culture?
• Are cultures converging, becoming more
alike?
• Placelessness?
All powerful?
 Culture can shape globalization
 Resistance
 Transformation
 Hybridization
 May revitalize local differences
Reactions against convergence
• Local consumption cultures
• Cadbury’s in China
• Consumer nationalism
• Local consumers resist imported products, favor
local alternatives
• May imitate foreign goods
PLACE IMAGES
• Role of the collective imagination
• Hawaii =>
• Middle East =>
Place Images
 List different place images that you have
based on the perception and beliefs about
different parts of the world.
Indigenous Cultures
 Using globalization to their advantage
 Global networks
 Push to preserve culture
 International Cancun Declaration of Indigenous
Peoples (ICDIP)
Subject to Debate
 Mobile Identities: Questions of Culture and
Citizenship
Differing relationships with nature.
INDIGENOUS ECOLOGY
• Indigenous peoples often practice sustainable
agriculture
• Indigenous peoples often occupy territories
identified as critical to global biodiversity
conservation
• What is their role?
Indigenous Ecology Misconceptions
 Common misconceptions?
 Any thoughts??????
 What is your perception of the relationship between
indigenous cultures and the environment?
Global Congruence of Cultural and Biological Diversity
(Fig. 2.22)
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
• Indigenous technical knowledge (ITK): Highly
localized knowledge about environmental conditions
and sustainable land-use practices
• Highly adapted to local conditions
• May be superior to western knowledge of the
environment
Global Economy
S U B S I ST E N C E ECO N O M I E S
• Economies in which people seek to consume only what
they produce and to produce only for local consumption
rather than for exchange or export.
•
 Globalization alters traditional Ind. Economies
 Miskito communities and the green turtle
Folk ecology
• Folk cultures’ close ties to the land and local
environment tend to enhance the environmental
perception of folk groups
 Migrants seek similar lands to the ones they left
Folk Ecology (Fig. 2.23)
Popular culture less tied to physical environment
Less perceived vulnerability to environmental
forces
Mass consumption tied to environmental impacts
Environmental impact of recreational activities
Popular Culture’s
Impact on the
Landscape
(Fig. 2.24)
Folk architecture
•traditional manner and style
•without the assistance of
professional architects or
blueprints
•use locally available raw
materials.
FOLK ARCHITECTURE
Anglo American Hearths
 Mixture of peoples who came as ethnic groups and
settled as Americans or Canadians
 Brought their folk cultures and customs with them
 Material and nonmaterial cultures often had to
change, immediately, in the ‘New World’
 Multiple cultures were developed
Anglo American Hearths
 Culture hearths brought by relocation diffusion (from
Europe) these areas became the hearths
 Expanded into the continent through expansion
diffusion
 These hearths become source regions for architecture,
toys, cookery, music
Folk traditions in Anglo-America
 Easiest ways to identify folk culture remnants are
through:
 Architecture
 Fencing
 Cuisine
 Song
Folk building traditions
 Traditional buildings are being replaced or
remodeled to reflect what is popular
 Old farm structures are fading with new needs and
ideas
Vernacular house styles
 Those built in traditional form but without formal
plans or drawings
 Different culture hearths have provided different
styles based on
 Climate based needs
 Availability of materials
Architectural hearths
 Northern
 Middle Atlantic
 Southern
 Interior and Western
The Northern Hearths
 The Lower St. Lawrence Valley
 Few areas with structural reminders of French





occupation
Norman Cottages
Quebec Cottages
Montreal House
Quebec Long Barn
Most of these styles only exist in French Canada,
Louisiana, Northern Maine, and small sections of
Missouri
The Northern Hearths
 Southern New England
 Heavily framed, sturdy posts, stout horizontal beams,




steep roofs, large central chimneys
Garrison house
Saltbox house
New England Large House
Gable front and Upright-and-wing
The Middle Atlantic Hearths
 Most influential hearth for North American
housing styles
 Log cabin evolved here
The Middle Atlantic Hearths
 The Delaware Valley (a.k.a. the Pennsylvania




Hearth)
Eastern Finns, NOT, the Brits that introduced the log
cabin to the U.S.
Four-over-Four
“I-House”
Bank Barn, combined animal shelter and grain storage
The Middle Atlantic Hearths
 Chesapeake Bay
 Dominantly English and Scotch-Irish
 Raised foundations
 Outside-end chimneys
 One-deep floor plans
 Usually had detached kitchens
The Southern Hearths
 Altered by climate and new ethnic mix
 Mix of northern French, Caribbean French, Spanish,
and African cultures
 Found along Atlantic coast and in the Gulf and
Mississippi Delta
 Different styles for different needs
The Southern Hearths
 The Southern Tidewater
 South Carolina and Georgia
 Problems with heat, humidity, and flooding
 Charleston Single House
The Southern Hearths
 The Mississippi Delta
 2nd French culture hearth
 Mix of many varied cultures
 Grenier house
 Raised off ground for cooling, protection from flooding,
ground rot, termites
 Shotgun house
 Simple, inexpensive, efficient
Interior and Western Hearths
 Where is the timber??
 Have to use sod initially
 Balloon frame houses
 Use cheap wire nails and light, milled lumber
 Quickly constructed, couldn’t use large posts or beams
like areas with large amounts of timber
Fig 2.25
Fig 2.26
Folk Fencing Patterns (Yes, Fencing
Patterns…)
 VERY important to examine the basic fence style of an
area to determine the folk cultural traditions of an area
 Use of materials and style indicated what the initial
settlers had to use and whether or not they intended to
be permanent
Fancy Folk Fences
 Stone fences are an indication of not only permanence,
but also a need to move stone from fields
 Potentially a lack of lumber as well
 Buck fence
 French
 Found in French Canada down to South Appalachia
Fancy Folk Fences
 Wattle fence
 Interlaced poles
 Used by the earliest settlers in Mass and Virginia
 Not found outside those areas
 Angle-railed fence (snake or worm)
 Dominant fence during 1800s
 Usually in temporary settlements
 Post and Rail fence
 Consumed less land and timber
 Spread west from New England and Delaware Valley area
Death of the Folk Fence
 Not used for practical purpose anymore
 What killed the Folk Fence?
 Development of steel industry and barbed wire
 Now traditional fences are almost exclusively used for
aesthetic purposes
Nonmaterial Folk Culture
 Material folk culture is ultimately replaced,
destroyed, or simply lost
 Favorite foods, songs, remedies, and stories
endure
Cuisine
 Must pay attention to the spatial association of the
culture and the environment
 Why? Get into groups and discuss how the
association of cultures and their environments led
to the development of folk food and drink. Be sure
to brainstorm some examples.
Folk Cuisine
 One of the most evident and enduring aspects
distinguishing folk cultures
 Evident today in “fests” or fairs of a local region
 i.e. Oktoberfest
Folk Cuisine
 Characteristic of specific areas, but can be made
part of the national food diet
 New England – chowders
 Great Lakes – wild rice
 Louisiana – crawfish, gumbos
Geophagy
 The custom of eating dirt, usually fine clay
 Widespread throughout the globe, even in the U.S.
 Provides nutrients and ability to eat otherwise
inedible foods
Folk Music
 “a museum of musical antiques from many lands”
 Old world songs were transplanted, then
Americanized and hybrids from multiple cultures
were created
Folk Medicines and Cures
 Like cuisine, folk medicines and remedies are
dependent on the geographic environment the
culture lives in
 Anglo-America developed from herbs brought
from Europe and the teachings of the Native
Americans
Folk Medicines and Cures
 Symbolism was very important
 Diseases of the head treated by the tops of plants
 Problems with your legs? Use roots. Brain fever? Use
nut meats that resemble the brain.
 Folk remedies have been best preserved in the Upland
South, Southern Appalachia, and the rural West
 The Upland South has preserved more of its folk culture
than any other region of Anglo-America
Oral
Folk
Traditions
 Folklore is the oral tradition
of a group.
 How people talk and interact,
the proverbs, prayers,
common expressions,
superstitions, beliefs, etc.
 Preserves old customs and
tales
Oral Folk Traditions
 Death of folklore
 Traditions merge
 Proverbs are shared and altered among groups
 Long folk tales are replaced
 Increased literacy reduces need of folk tales
Oral Folk Traditions
 Folkways – the learned behavior shared by a society
that prescribes accepted and common modes of
conduct
 The most common and useable aspects are adopted by
the society as a whole
Oral Folk Traditions
 New heroes for a New World
 Washington and cherry tree
 Davy Crockett
 Johnny Appleseed
 Paul Bunyan
Folk Culture Regions
 By the end of WWI several technologies began to
homogenize America
 Automobile
 Radio
 Motion Pictures
 National press
 GRRRRR. Sears
 Mail order => end of household crafts and tools
•Pop culture landscape is
constantly changing!
•Landscapes of consumption
• Strip malls on arterial streets
Landscapes of Popular Culture
Leisure landscapes
 Landscapes that are planned
and designed primarily for
entertainment purposes
• Ski resorts, golf courses,
theme parks
Landscapes of Popular Culture
Amenity landscapes
• Leisure landscapes with attractive natural
features
• Minnesota North Woods
• 40% of all dwellings nonpermanent!!!
Landscapes of Popular Culture
Elitist Landscapes
• French Riviera
• Gentleman farms (Kentucky Bluegrass Basin)
 Wealth creates a cultural landscape
 Strict building codes, land prices often rise
 Geographic segregation
The American Popular Landscape
 Go big or go home!
 Walmart
 Costco
 Pentagon
 Sears Tower
 Function over beauty
 Ugly structures can have purpose if return is immediate
 American pop culture landscape is
 Big
 Temporary (ever changing)
 Serves a specific purpose
The American Popular Landscape
(Figs. 2.35, 2.36)