Folk and Popular Culture
CULTURE
HABIT
A repetitive act performed by an individual.
CUSTOM
A repetitive act adopted and performed by a group.
CULTURE
A collection of customs shared by group.
ACCULTURATION
-- A process that happens when one group starts to take on
the customs of another culture
CULTURE DEFINED
•Culture consists of a people’s
--Beliefs
--Institutions
--Technology
•In other words, culture consists of
--Artifacts
--Sociofacts
--Mentifacts
Artifacts…
A. “technologies” or hardware – stuff that
archaeologists dig up. The school room is an example.
What in here is tangible; what might be excavated years
after we are gone? Give examples.
B. Artifacts are of low importance to the culture.
C. We can throw away an artifact and replace it with
“bigger and better.” Example below… Other examples?
Sociofacts…
A. Institutions/organizations of culture – the ways of
doing things
B. Example: At school the bell rings and what
happens? Everyone leaves because it’s part of the
sociofact (the institution that is school) and we
understand the institution.
C. Example: The way religions function = sociofact. In
the Catholic Church there is a very defined set of actions
during a mass – they ways of doing things in the service.
D. Sociofacts are of medium importance to the people.
It might be troublesome at first to have no bells at
school, but eventually we’d get used to it.
Mentifacts…
A. There are our world views – our core values and
beliefs.
B. Example: Our view of time in this country is linear
(we are now living and later will die). Other places have
more of a circular view of time, like the Hindu belief in
reincarnation.
C. What are core values and beliefs in the USA?
D. People REALLY hold tight to menifacts – these don’t
get replaced. Imagine someone asking you to give up
your freedom of religion….
Consider the American flag…
Where doe it fall as far as category? Discuss
American flag is…
• an artifact because you can touch it – tangible
• a sociofact if you consider we do the pledge to it
every day (the way of doing things…)
• a mentifact if you consider that it stands for freedom
and independence
DISTRIBUTION OF CULTURE
Cultures are distributed across the surface of the Earth
in REGIONS…
•Boundaries of the regions are difficult to define.
•Many culture regions are “perceptual regions”
•Along borders, two adjacent cultures may begin to
“share” or “trade” customs
--This is called ACCULTURATION
--It is also an example of DIFFUSION
CULTURE REALMS/MACROCULTURAL REGIONS
•Share only the
most basic
elements of
culture
Language
Religion
Etc.
•Sometimes called
“Macrocultural
regions
What language and religion are in
this cultural realm?
Another way to divide up the world into cultural
realms/macrocultural regions.
What language and religion are
in this macrocultural region?
European cultural
realms
Book: NINE NATIONS OF NORTH AMERICA
(Joel Garreau)