Chapter 4 : Folk and Popular Cultures

Key Issues

• Where are folk and popular leisure

activities distributed?
• Where are folk and population material
culture distributed?
• Why is access to folk and popular culture
unequal?
• Why do folk and popular culture face
sustainability challenges?

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 Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure
Activities Distributed?
• Geographers study how culture influences
behavior.
– Difference between habit and custom
• Habit is a repetitive act performed by an individual.
– One college student wears jeans with colorful patches.
• Custom is a repetitive act performed by a group.
– All college students from the American South wear jeans
with colorful patches.

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 Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure
Activities Distributed?
• Characteristics of Folk and Popular Culture
– Origin
• Folk Culture
– Anonymous hearths
» Possible to have multiple hearths each originating
independently
– Anonymous sources
– Unknown dates
– Unidentified originators
• Popular Culture
– Product of developed countries
» Typically North American or European
– Origin often traceable to specific person or corporation in a
particular place
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 Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure
Activities Distributed?
• Characteristics of Folk and Popular Culture
– Diffusion
• Folk Culture
– Smaller scale and slower transmissions from one location
to another primarily through relocation diffusion
(migration)
• Popular Culture
– Tends to be transmitted by way of hierarchical diffusion
» Diffuses rapidly and extensively form hearths or
nodes of innovation with help of modern
communications

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 Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure
Activities Distributed?
• Characteristics of Folk and Popular Culture
– Distribution
• Folk Culture
– Combination of local physical and cultural factors influence
distinctive distributions.
» Isolation from other cultures because of physical
barriers—e.g., distance and mountain ranges
» Religion
• Popular Culture
– Widely distributed across many countries with little regard
for physical factors
» Principal obstacle to access is lack of income to
purchase the material

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 Most countries in Europe and Latin America have qualified for the
World Cup finals. As soccer diffuses worldwide, qualification has
increased in other regions.

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 Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure
Activities Distributed?
• Origin and Diffusion of Folk and Popular Music
– Folk Music
• Originates anonymously
• Transmitted orally
– Modifications to songs over successive generations to
represent changes in conditions.
• Content of songs centers on events in daily life that
are familiar to the majority of people.
– Life-Cycle events
» E.g., birth, death, or marriage
– Environmental features
» E.g., agriculture or climate
• Migration of people also diffuses the music.
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 Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure
Activities Distributed?
• Origin and Diffusion of Folk and Popular
Music
– Popular Music
• Music written by specific individuals with the intent of
being…
– Sold
– Performed in front of a paying audience
• Often displays a high degree of technical skill
• Musicians often have strong connections with other
similar musicians that may span the globe.
– Limited connections with local musicians of different
genres

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 Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure
Activities Distributed?
• Origin and Diffusion of Folk and Popular
Sports
– Sports originated as isolated folk customs and
diffused like other folk culture via relocation
diffusion.
• Example:
– Football (soccer) originated in England in the eleventh century.
– Transformation from folk to popular sport began in 1800s when
organized clubs were formed in the UK.
» Professional players hired
– Standardized rules and organized professional league
established in 1863 in UK marks formal transition from folk
sport to popular sport.

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 Boys play cricket in Katni, India.
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 Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure
Activities Distributed?
• Folk and Popular Material Culture
– Include:
• Clothing
• Food
• Shelter
– Diffusion
• Folk material culture diffuses slowly through
process of migration.
• Popular material culture diffuses rapidly.
– Access determined by having sufficient income to
embrace it.

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 Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure
Activities Distributed?
• Folk and Popular Clothing
– Folk Clothing Preferences
• Style of clothing worn in response to distinctive
agricultural practices and climatic conditions
– Ex.
» Folk custom in the Netherlands to wear wooden shoes
because of practical uses in wet climates.
» Fur-lined boots protect against cold in arctic climates.
– Popular Clothing Preferences
• Style of clothing generally reflects occupation and income rather
than particular environment.
– Ex.
» Business suits worn by professionals
» Designer clothes worn by the affluent
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 DUTCH
WOODEN
SHOES A man
wearing wooden
shoes bikes on a
flooded street in
Stellendam,
Netherlands.

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 Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure
Activities Distributed?
• Rapid Diffusion of Popular Clothing Styles
– Improved communications central to rapid
diffusion
• Ex. Time for original designs for women’s dresses
to be designed in fashion capitals—e.g., Paris or
London—and reproductions available in stores has
diminished from years to a few weeks.
– Jeans is an important symbol of the diffusion of
Western popular culture.
• Local Diversity
– Japan: customized with patches and cutouts
– Korea: frayed, ripped, or shredded
– Italy: bleached on seat of jeans
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 Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure
Activities Distributed?
• Folk and Popular Food Preferences
– People adapt their food preferences to
conditions in the environment.
• Asia
– Rice: milder, moister regions
– Wheat: drier regions
• Europe
– Italy: preference for quick-frying foods resulted from fuel
shortages
– Northern Europe: abundant wood supply encouraged
slow stewing and roasting of foods

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 Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure
Activities Distributed?
• Folk and Popular Food Preferences
– Food Taboos
• Many folk customs attribute a signature, or
distinctive characteristic, to everything in nature.
– People may desire or avoid certain foods, as a result of
perceived beneficial or harmful natural traits.
– A restriction imposed by a social custom to eat particular
plants or animals that are believed to embody negative
forces is a taboo.
» Ancient Hebrews in the Bible forbidden to eat
animals that did not chew their cud or that have
cloven feet and fish lacking fins or scales.
» Muslims embrace the taboo against eating pork.
» Hindus embrace the taboo against consuming cattle.
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 Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure
Activities Distributed?
• Folk and Popular Food Preferences
– Popular Food Culture
• Differences among Countries
– Cola preferences can be influenced by politics.
» Soviet Union: Pepsi permitted for sale in country
» Russia: Many former Soviets switched to Coke,
because Pepsi was associated with communism.
– Cola preferences can be influenced by religion.
» Southwest Asia: Predominantly Muslim countries
boycotted products sold in Jewish Israel—e.g., Coke.

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 Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure
Activities Distributed?

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 Dunkin’ Donuts is especially popular in the Northeast, Krispy
Kreme in the Southeast, White Castle in the Midwest, and In-N-Out
Burger in the Southwest.
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 Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure
Activities Distributed?
• Distribution of Folk and Popular Housing
– Environmental Influences on Folk Housing
• Available resources influence building materials used
on folk houses—e.g., stone, grass, sod, and skins.
– Two Most Common
» Wood
» Brick
• Climate and local topography influence design of
housing structures.
– R. W. McColl compared houses in four Chinese villages.
» All used similar building materials, including adobe and
timber from desert poplar tree.
» Distinct designs in each location attributed to local
cultural preference and local geography.
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 HOUSE TYPES IN FOUR WESTERN CHINA COMMUNITIES House types in
four communities of western China. Houses have second-floor open-air patios
in Kashgar, small open courtyards in Turpan, large private courtyards in
Yinchuan, and sloped roofs in Dunhuang.
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 Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure
Activities Distributed?
• Distribution of Folk and Popular Housing
– Sacred Spaces in Houses
• Distinctive form of folk houses may derive from
religious or other customary beliefs.
– Sacred Features—e.g., Walls, Door Orientation, Corners
» Houses in south central part of Java face south—the
direction of the South Sea Goddess who holds the key to
Earth.
» Eastern wall of a house is sacred in Fiji.
» All directions except south have significance in folk
houses in Madagascar.

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 SACRED HOUSING SPACE (top) Houses of Lao people in northern Laos. The fronts of Lao
houses, such as those in the village of Muang Nan, Laos, face one another across a path, and the
backs face each other at the rear. Their ridgepoles (the centerline of the roof) are set perpendicular
to the path but parallel to a stream, if one is nearby. Inside adjacent houses, people sleep in the
orientation shown, so neighbors are head to-head or feet-to-feet. (bottom) Houses of Yuan and
Shan peoples in northern Thailand. In the village of Ban Mae Sakud, Thailand, the houses are not
set in a straight line because of a belief that evil spirits move in straight lines. Ridgepoles parallel
the path, and the heads of all sleeping persons point eastward.
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 Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure
Activities Distributed?
• Distribution of Folk and Popular Housing
– U.S. Folk Housing
• Style of pioneer homes reflected whatever upscale style
was prevailing at the place on the East Coast from which
they migrated.
– Geographer Fred Kniffen identified three major hearths, or
nodes, of folk house forms in the United States.
» Middle Atlantic: Principal house type known as an
“I”-house with one room deep and at least two rooms
wide.
» Lower Chesapeake/Tidewater: Principal house type
characterized by one story, with a steep roof and
chimneys at either end.
» New England: Principal house style was box shaped with
a central hall.
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 U.S. house types in the
United States originated in
three main source areas
and diffused westward
along different paths.
These paths coincided
with predominant routes
taken by migrants from the
East Coast toward the
interior of the country.

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 Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure
Activities Distributed?
• Distribution of Folk and Popular Housing
– U.S. Popular Housing
• Since mid-twentieth century, houses display popular
culture rather than regional influences.
• Most people no longer build their own houses but
instead are mass-produced by construction
companies.
• Houses show the influence of shapes, materials,
detailing, and other features of architectural style in
vogue at any one point in time.

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 The dominant type of house construction in the United States was minimal traditional during the late 1940s and early
1950s,
followed by ranch houses during the late 1950s and 1960s. The split-level was a popular variant of the ranch between the
1950s and 1970s, and the contemporary style was popular
for architect-designed houses during the same period. The shed style was widely built in the late 1960s. Neo-eclectic styles,
beginning with the mansard, were in vogue during the late 1960s. The neo-Tudor was popular in the 1970s and the neo-
French in the 1980s. The neo-colonial style has been widely built since the 1950s but has never dominated popular
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architecture.