AP Human Geography: Folk and Popular Culture

How does human geography define culture?

Culture is the body of material possessions, customary beliefs, and social norms that together constitute the distinct tradition of a group of people.

What is the distinction between folk culture and popular culture?

Folk culture is traditionally practiced primarily by small, homogeneous groups living in isolated rural areas, whereas popular culture is found in large, heterogeneous societies that share certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristics.

What is the difference between a habit and a custom?

A habit is a repetitive act that a particular individual performs, whereas a custom is a repetitive act of a group, performed to the extent that it becomes characteristic of that group.

How do folk and popular cultures differ in their variation across space and time?

Folk culture is more likely to vary from place to place at a given time, whereas popular culture is more likely to vary from time to time at a given place.

How do the hearths of folk culture compare to those of popular culture?

Folk culture often has anonymous hearths originating from unknown sources and dates, whereas popular culture is typically traceable to a specific person or corporation in a particular place within developed countries.

When and where did hip hop music originate?

Hip hop originated on August 11, 1973, at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in New York City's Bronx Borough, during a block party with DJ Kool Herc (Clive Campbell).

How do the diffusion processes of folk and popular culture differ?

Folk culture transmits relatively slowly on a small scale primarily through relocation diffusion (migration), whereas popular culture spreads rapidly and extensively from hearths via hierarchical diffusion using modern communications.

What did geographers P. Karan and Cotton Mather discover about artistic traditions in the Himalaya Mountains?

In a narrow corridor of $2{,}500\,\text{kilometers}$ ($1{,}500\,\text{miles}$), four isolated religious groups created distinct art: Buddhists painted idealized divine figures reflecting harsh conditions, Hindus painted everyday life and extreme climates, Muslims painted plants and flowers without harsh weather, and Southeast Asian folk religionists painted religious symbols rather than environmental features.

How did global cell phone subscriptions change between 2005 and 2022?

Worldwide cell phone ownership increased from $338\,\text{per } 1{,}000$ in 2005 to $1{,}349\,\text{per } 1{,}000$ in 2022.

How are formal, functional, and vernacular cultural regions exemplified in Québec?

Québec is a formal region due to French being its sole official language, a functional region through the support area of the Montréal Canadiens hockey team, and a vernacular region through the widespread cultural affinity for poutine (French fries and cheese curds topped with brown gravy).

How does folk music differ from popular music regarding purpose and transmission?

Folk songs originate anonymously, are transmitted orally, and convey information about life-cycle events, daily life, or environmental features; popular music is written by specific individuals for commercial sale to large audiences, frequently relying on technical skill and electronic equipment.

What is Tin Pan Alley in the context of popular music history?

A district in New York City developed around 1900 to produce music for music halls and vaudeville shows, helping launch the modern popular music industry.

What is a location quotient in the geographic analysis of popular musicians?

The percentage of employees who work in the music industry in a specific city compared with the percentage of employees who work in the music industry throughout Canada and the United States (with Nashville having the highest location quotient).

How was soccer transformed from an English folk custom into a global popular sport?

Originating in 11th-century England as unorganized village mob games kicking a cow bladder ('Kick the Dane's head'), it was adopted by recreation clubs in the 1800s, standardized in 1863 by the Football Association, and exported worldwide via British workers, students, and the British Empire.

What role does lacrosse play in the cultural identity of the Iroquois Confederacy of Six Nations?

Originally called guhchigwaha ('bump hips'), lacrosse fosters cultural identity among the Cayugas, Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas, and Tuscaroras, whose Haudenosaunee Nationals team competes internationally under Haudenosaunee Confederacy passports.

What practical environmental purpose does the traditional folk custom shown in this image serve?

Dutch wooden shoes provide practical, water-resistant footwear suited for agricultural work in the wet climate and soils of the Netherlands.

What cultural geography concept is commemorated by the monument in Le Puy-en-Velay, France?

Terroir, which refers to the sum of the effects of local soil, climate, and physical environmental features on the distinctive taste of a food product, such as the local lentils.

What environmental explanations exist for the religious food taboos on pork in Islam and cattle in Hinduism?

Pigs were tabooed in Islam because they compete with humans for resources in arid environments without pulling plows or producing milk; cows were tabooed in Hinduism to preserve large numbers of oxen essential for plowing agricultural fields during monsoon periods.

Why is Pepsi preferred over Coca-Cola in Canada's French-speaking province of Québec?

Pepsi tied its advertising directly to elements of unique French Canadian culture and identity, which resonated strongly with the Québécois population.

How do folk housing traditions in northern Laos and northern Thailand reflect cultural and religious beliefs?

Lao people arrange beds perpendicular to roof ridgepoles so neighbors sleep head-to-head or feet-to-feet; Yuan and Shan people in Thailand avoid straight village lines to deter evil spirits, orient sleeping heads toward the east, and avoid facing staircases west.

What three major hearths of folk house forms did Fred Kniffen identify in the United States?

New England, Middle Atlantic, and Lower Chesapeake & Tidewater.

How did the diffusion timeline of the internet compare to that of television?

Television took a half-century to diffuse from the United States to the rest of the world, whereas the internet diffused worldwide in approximately a single decade.

How did the United States' share of global internet users evolve between 1995 and 2022?

The U.S. share dropped from $63\%$ of all users in 1995 to $35\%$ in 2000, and down to $6\%$ in 2022, while China's share grew to $22\%$.

What major global shift in Facebook users is illustrated by these maps between 2008 and 2022?

In 2008, Facebook users were predominantly clustered in the United States and select developed countries; by 2022, user concentration diffused globally, with the largest total numbers found in developing nations like India, while the U.S. share fell to $6\%$.

What three categories of internet content are routinely censored by governments according to the OpenNet Initiative?

Political content (human rights, minority rights, freedom of expression), social content (sexuality, gambling, drugs, alcohol), and security content (armed conflicts, border disputes, separatist groups).

What is ransomware, and which three countries lead as its most frequent victims?

Ransomware (cryptoviral extortion) is malware that encrypts computer files to make them inaccessible until a ransom is paid; India, Russia, and Kazakhstan account for roughly half of all victims.

What does this map reveal about the spatial distribution of malware-infected computers?

Infection rates of $5.0\%$ and above are clustered in countries such as Canada, Australia, India, and parts of Southeast Asia and North Africa, while the United States and China fall in the $3.0\%\text{ to }4.99\%$ range.