Folk Culture

HUMAN GEOGRAPHY Chapter 4 Culture Folk Culture

HUMAN GEOGRAPHY Insert figure 2.19b

Photo credit: © Getty RF

culture is…..  

Learned, not biological Transmitted within a society to next generations by imitation, tradition, instruction

culture realms

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Every cultural landscape is an accumulation of human artifacts. It contains valuable evidence about the origin, spread and development of cultures. Cultures use, alter and manipulate landscapes to reflect their identity.

Material Culture clothing buildings

farming

patterns technology

Nonmaterial Culture Language Religion

Political

organization Customs or traditions

Cultural Landscapes can also reflect the nonmaterial aspects of culture. The height, centrality and durability of a European cathedral is a good example.

What aspects of Material or nonMaterial culture Are visible in the Picture to the right?

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Each culture creates a distinctive cultural landscape.

How does this shopper compare with the lady from Texas in the previous slide?

Culture Hearth 

The place of origin of any culture group whose developed systems of livelihood and life created a distinctive cultural landscape.

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Categories of Material Culture 

Folk Culture

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Folk Culture – rapidly changing and/or disappearing throughout much of the world.

Guatemalan Market Portuguese Fishing Boat

Turkish Camel Market

Folk Culture 

Stable and close knit

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Usually a rural community

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Tradition controls

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Resistance to change

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Buildings erected without architect or blueprint using locally available building materials

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anonymous origins, diffuses slowly through migration. Develops over time.

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Clustered distributions: isolation/lack of interaction breed uniqueness and ties to physical environment.

West Virginia, Incest Virginia? How the Mountain State got a reputation for inbreeding.

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It's true that, through the 19th century, transportation networks developed slowly in the rugged, westernmost portion of Virginia (incorporated as West Virginia in 1863). The area was never entirely cut off, but many people lived in remote "closed communities" with little incoming or outgoing migration. Research on intrafamilial marriage in such enclaves is slim. In 1980, anthropologist Robert Tincher published a study titled "Night Comes to the Chromosomes: Inbreeding and Population Genetics in Southern Appalachia," based on 140 years' worth of marriage records.

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Hand split shingles…Folk homes in North Carolina http://www.history.com/shows/mountain-men/videos#shingle-ingenuity

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FOLK ARCHITECTURE

FOLK ARCHITECTURE Effects on Landscape: usually of limited scale and scope.

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.

Food Taboos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=WLRX2ZtxpEw

Folk Culture Music Folk music characteristics: Tells a story or recounts important life events or activities Is personal in nature folk music goes right to the heart of a culture. It says something about what is important to that culture. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATv5-GeydF8

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Folk Culture Gypsies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HAUmII_hcg

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Amish Culture http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTkGEBuin8g

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