cultural geography unit 2

local culture

a group of people in a particular place who see themselves as a community, who share experiences, traits, & customs, & who work to preserve this culture complex in order to claim uniqueness

folk culture

small, traditional, homogeneous, simple, & usually rural culture

• older concept that is a restricted version of local culture

rurality

provides isolation that protects a local culture from “contamination” by popular culture; i.e. Hutterite and Amish farming communities

popular culture

a wide-ranging group of heterogeneous, typically urban people, who embrace new, frequently-changing, media-influenced culture traits in music, dance, clothing, and diet that are ubiquitous on the cultural landscape

placelessness

describes the loss of uniqueness in the cultural landscape

tangible, material culture

the things a group of people construct, such as art, houses, clothing, sports, dance, and food

intangible, nonmaterial culture

a group of people’s beliefs, practices, aesthetics, and values

selling Dala horses

would be called commodification

immigrants bring to the new place

elements of their local cultures

the dominant culture of a new place

influences the immigrants and vice versa

acculturation (cultural appropriation)

when the immigrants adapt to and partially adopt the new culture; new definition contends that evil dominant culture steals elements of a minority culture

assimilation

full acculturation by immigrants

transculturation

exchanges between two cultures about equal in “strength”; i.e. Japan’s selective adaptation; cultural appropriation on an international level

culture trait

a single element of a normative practice in a culture

custom

practice routinely followed by a group of people

culture complex

related set of customs of a local culture or larger group

diffusion

culture traits spreading from one area to another

local cultures

resist the diffusion of popular culture

how are hearths of popular culture traits established?

typically begins with an innovative idea or item and contagious diffusion

companies or individuals

can create or “manufacture” popular culture

distance decay

likelihood of diffusion decreases as time and distance from the hearth increases

time-space compression

likelihood of diffusion depends on the connectedness