What is culture?
culture is…
• Learned, not biological
• Transmitted within a society to next
generations by imitation, tradition,
instruction
culture provides…
• a “general framework”
• each individual learns & adheres to general
rules
• also to specific sub-groups:
– age, sex, status, occupation, nationality
culture provides….
• Subcultures co-exist
– Masculine / feminine
– Rural / urban
– Different ethnicities
• Joined by common traditions,
behaviors, loyalties, beliefs
– Christmas
– Church attendance on Sunday
cultural variables.. micro vs. macro
• Micro
– Cultural traits – most elementary
– Expression of culture, the smallest distinctions
•
•
•
•
Behavior
Object
Beliefs
Attitudes
• Macro
– these “building blocks” = a culture complex
culture complex
Macro-cultural complex-Individual cultural
traits that are functionally interrelated
– Masai of Kenya – cultural traits centered on
cattle
– Soccer, futbol – sports
culture
culture region
• Portion of the Earth’s surface
occupied by populations sharing
recognizable distinctive cultural
characteristics
– Political organizations/boundaries
– Religions
– Economy type
Types of Cultural Regions
• Core Area (nucleus)
• Domain (dominant extension)
• Sphere (zone of outer influence for a culture
region)
• Subnational (cultural area that is part of a larger
culture – The Mormons)
• National Cultures (The French Culture)
cultural realm
• A set of cultural regions showing related
cultural complexes and landscapes
– Large region that has assumed fundamental
uniformity in its cultural characteristics and
showing significant differences from surrounding
realms
culture realms
Cultural Sphere
• zone of outer influence for a culture region
Folk Culture
• Folk Culture – traditionally practiced by a
small, homogeneous, rural group living in
relative isolation.
Folk Culture – rapidly changing and/or
disappearing throughout much of the world.
Almost nonexistent in the developed world.
Guatemalan Market
Portuguese Fishing Boat
Turkish Camel Market
Folk Culture
• Stable and close knit
• Homogeneous in customs, ethnicity
• Usually a rural community and cohesive
• Subsistence economies; Goods are made by
according to tradition
hand
• 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.
• Some folk traits utilize: astrology, songs, dances, and
food
FOLK FOOD
How did such
differences
develop?
FOLK
ARCHITECTURE
Effects on Landscape: usually
of limited scale and scope.
Agricultural: fields,
terraces, grain storage
Dwellings: historically
created from local
materials: wood, brick,
stone, skins; often
uniquely and
traditionally arranged;
always functionally tied
to physical
environment.
FOLK ARCHITECTURE
Folk Culture and the Land
Terraced Rice Fields, Thailand
Hogan, Monument Valley, AZ
Cohokia Mounds, Illinois
North American Folk Culture Regions
Hog Production and Food Cultures
Fig. 4-6: Annual hog production is influenced by religious taboos against pork consumption in
Islam and other religions. The highest production is in China, which is largely
Buddhist.
Taboo – a restriction on behavior imposed
by social custom.
Food Taboos: Jews – must have cloven hooves and
chews its cud; can’t mix meat and milk, or eat fish lacking fins
or scales; pigs, camel, rabbits are not “kosher” Muslims – no
pork; Hindus – no cows (used for oxen during monsoon)
Washing Cow in Ganges
What are Local and
Popular Cultures?
Local Culture:
A group of people in a particular place who see
themselves as a collective or a community, who share
experiences, customs, and traits, and who work to
preserve those traits and customs in order to claim
uniqueness and to distinguish themselves from others.
Hutterite Colonies
in North America
Are the Hutterites
an example of a
local culture?
Why are
Hutterite
colonies
located
where
they are?
Popular Culture:
A wide-ranging group of heterogeneous people, who stretch
across identities and across the world, and who embrace
cultural traits such as music, dance, clothing, and food
preference that change frequently and are ubiquitous on the
cultural landscape.
Popular Culture=“placelessness”
Wide Distribution: differences from place to place
uncommon, more likely differences at one place over
time.
Housing: only small regional variations, more
generally there are trends over time
Food: franchises, cargo planes, superhighways and
freezer trucks have eliminated much local variation.
Limited variations in choice regionally, esp. with alcohol
and snacks. Substantial variations by ethnicity.
Popular Culture
Clothing: Jeans have become valuable
status symbols in many regions including
Asia and Russia despite longstanding folk
traditions.
How do cultural traits
from local cultures
become part of popular
culture?
Diffusion of TV, 1954–1999
Fig. 4-14: Television has diffused widely since the 1950s, but some areas still have low
numbers of TVs per population.
A Mental Map of Hip Hop
Fig. 4-3: This mental map places major hip hop performers near other similar performers and in the
portion of the country where they performed.
Popular Culture
Effects on Landscape: breeds
homogenous, “placeless” (Relph, 1976),
landscape
 Complex network of roads and highways
 Commercial Structures tend towards ‘boxes’
 Dwellings may be aesthetically suggestive of older folk
traditions
• Planned and Gated Communities more and more
common
Disconnect with landscape: indoor swimming
pools, desert surfing.
Surfing in Tempe, Arizona
Are places still tied to local landscapes?
McDonald’s, Tokyo, Japan
Swimming Pool, West
Edmonton Mall, Canada
McDonald’s, Jerusalem
What is Culture?
Part II
Problems with the Globalization of Culture
Often Destroys Folk
Culture – or preserves
traditions as museum
pieces or tourism gimmicks.
 Mexican Mariachis;
Polynesian Navigators;
Cruise Line Simulations
 Change in Traditional
Roles and Values;
Polynesian weight
problems
Satellite Television, Baja California
Problems with the Globalization of
Popular Culture
Western Media Imperialism?
 U.S., Britain, and Japan dominate worldwide
media.
 Glorified consumerism, violence, sexuality, and
militarism?
 U.S. (Networks, FoxNews, CNN) and British
(BBC) news media provide/control the
dissemination of information worldwide.
 These networks are unlikely to focus or provide
third world perspective on issues important in
the LDCs.
Environmental Problems with
Cultural Globalization
Accelerated Resource Use through Accelerated
Consumption
• Furs: minx, lynx, jaguar, kangaroo, whale, sea otters (18th
Century Russians) fed early fashion trends
• Inefficient over-consumption of Meats (10:1), Poultry (3:1),
even Fish (fed other fish and chicken) by meat-eating pop
cultures
 Mineral Extraction for Machines, Plastics and Fuel
 New Housing and associated energy and water use.
 Golf courses use valuable water and destroy habitat
worldwide.
Pollution: waste from fuel generation and discarded products,
plastics, marketing and packaging materials
“They’re growing houses in the fields between the towns.”
- John Gorka, Folk Singer
Beijing, China
Palm Springs, CA
Fiji
Marlboro Man in Egypt
How do cultural
traits diffuse?
Hearth: the point of
origin of a cultural trait.
Contagious diffusion
Hierarchical diffusion
How are Local Cultures
Sustained?
Local cultures are sustained by maintaining
customs.
Custom:
a practice
that a group
of people
routinely
follows.
Material and Nonmaterial Culture
Material Culture
Nonmaterial Culture
The things a group of people
construct, such as art,
houses, clothing, sports,
dance, and food.
The beliefs, practices,
aesthetics, and values of a
group of people.
Little Sweden, USA (Lindsborg, Kansas): Is the Swedish Dala horse part of
material or nonmaterial culture?
What do local cultures do to
maintain their customs in a
globalized world?
Local Cultures often have two goals:
1.
keeping other cultures out.
(ie. create a boundary around itself)
2.
keeping their own culture in.
(ie. avoid cultural appropriation)
What role does place play in maintaining
customs?
By defining a place (a town or a neighborhood)
or a space for a short amount of time (an
annual festival) as representing a culture and
its values, members of a local culture can
maintain (or reestablish) its customs and
reinforce its beliefs.
Rural Local Cultures
• Migration into rural areas is less frequent.
• Can better separate their culture from others
and from popular culture.
• Can define their own space.
• Daily life my be defined by a shared economic
activity.
Makah (Neah Bay, Washington)
Why did the Makah reinstate the whale hunt?
Makah (Neah Bay, Washington)
Why did the Makah reinstate the whale hunt?
To reinvigorate the local culture.
Little Sweden, USA (Lindsborg, KS)
Why did the residents of Lindsborg define it as a
Swedish place?
Little Sweden, USA (Lindsborg, KS)
Why did the residents of Lindsborg define it as a
Swedish place?
neolocalism: seeking out
the regional culture and
reinvigorating it in
response to the
uncertainty of the
modern world.
Helen, GA (Alpine Village)
Urban Local Cultures
• Can create ethnic neighborhoods within cities.
• Creates a space to practice customs.
• Can cluster businesses, houses of worship,
schools to support local culture.
• Migration into ethnic neighborhoods can quickly
change an ethnic neighborhood.
For example:
Williamsburg, NY, North End (Boston), MA
Runners of the NYC Marathon run through Williamsburg, (Brooklyn), NY
Hasidic Jewish Neighborhood
Commodification/Glocalization
How are aspects of local culture (material, nonmaterial, place) commodified?
what is commodified?
who commodifies it?
Sun City, South Africa
Authenticity
Claims of authenticity abound – how do
consumers determine what experience/place
is “authentic” and what is not?
How is Popular
Culture Diffused?
What are Cultural Hearths
• Ancient Hearths (locations – source of civilization)
• Hydraulic Civilization Theory (cities able to
control irrigated farming over large hinterlands,
held political power over other cities)
• Modern Hearths (locations) – Eastern
Megalopolis in the United States
How are hearths of
popular culture traits established?
• Typically begins with an idea/good and
contagious diffusion.
• Companies (MTV) and Individuals (Tony Hawk)
can create/manufacture popular culture.
• Hierarchical diffusion: fax machines on a
farm/industrial revolution
• Relocation diffusion: British prisoners to Australia
The hearth of Phish concerts is in the northeastern
United States, near where the band began in Vermont.
With Distance Decay, the
likelihood of diffusion decreases
as time and distance from the
hearth increases.
With Time-Space Compression,
the likelihood of diffusion
depends upon the
connectedness among places.
Which applies more to popular
culture? Time-Space Compression
Factors that Affect Diffusion
• Distance
• Population Density
• Means of Communication
• Nature of the Innovation
• Prestige of the Node
Culture Change and Convergence
• Acculturation -process whereby one culture is substantially
changed through the interaction of another culture
• Assimilation -process where two or more cultures fuse, but
not necessarily cultural characteristics
• Transculturation -changes that occur from the interaction of
cultures that is equal
• Migrant Diffusion -by the time the new ideas and inventions
reach a place, they have faded away at their point of origin
• Ethnocentrism -tendency to evaluate other cultures against
the standards of one’s own
Why are popular culture
traits usually diffused
hierarchically?
How is fashion in popular
culture an example of
hierarchical diffusion?