7.1 Cultural Identities

• The kaleidoscope of culture presents a changing design for every society, religion and national unit

• Globalized popular culture may provide a unifying colour to the kaleidoscope.

• This chapter goes over the tensions and diversity brought by immigration.

• Folk Culture is the collective heritage of institutions, customs, skills, dress, stories, music, and way of life of a small, stable, close-knit, usually rural community.

  • They are responsive to physical environmental circumstances.

  • It is the direct opposite of popular or mass culture.

  • In the States, they are generally socially or physically isolated.

    • Ex. Amish, Native American communities.

  • They are quite conservative but not static as their cultures evolve like all the others.

  • Pop culture has affected every corner of the world but folk cultures have not adopted it.

• Material culture is made of physical and visible things like buildings, furniture, tools.

• Non-material cultures are things like language, speech, worship.

• True folk culture is rare in the States as industrialization, urbanization, and mass communication have had too big an impact.

• Folk culture in Canada is much more preserved with art traditions of Europe being practiced everywhere.

• The States and Canada are composed of people who had their own identities but went through partial or complete assimilation.

  • They preserved their culture with their ways of food, art and buildings but over time the ethnic hearth lost their identity.

  • Each settlement began to form its own identity even though they had their previous practices through relocation diffusion.

  • Newcomers began to add to the cultural mix which was then passed on throughout the country’s expansion diffusion.

• Folk Culture Regions of the United States and Canada

  • Folk customs, characteristic acts and behavioral patterns spread throughout the country such as log styles, furniture styles, decorative arts and architectural design.

  • The folk culture of the Lowland South was derived from English originals and African admixtures.

  • The Mid-Atlantic region was culturally influenced by the English, French and other European countries.

  • They all began to share their foods and traditions.

• Folk Food and Drink Preferences

  • Food is one of the most distinguishable elements of culture. It is still the central attraction of many fairs and fests throughout the country.

  • Food habits are not just a matter of survival but are very connected with culture.

  • The interconnections among folk, ethnic, and customary food habits are evident in the U.S. diet.

  • Many crops that are not native to the continent were brought in by minorities who planted them for their cuisine.

  • Many iconic dishes of a region were adopted from other cultures.

  • Drinks also represent a mixture of ethnic imports and fold adaptations.

    • Drinks like rum were based on West Indian and Tidewater sugarcane molasses.

• Folk Music

  • Folk music is not connected with pop culture.

  • Popular American music was actually inspired by folk music.

  • Old World songs were brought in by settlers.

    • The imported songs became Americanized and became a hybrid of musical traditions.

  • Music from East Texas incorporated unaccompanied, high-pitched, and nasal solo singing, this later became the popular genre of country music.

  • Folk music in Canada has a strong Irish character as they were popularized in lumber camps.

  • The Black folk song tradition came out of racial and economic oppression.

    • They have hints of West African musical patterns and English country dancing.

• Popular Culture and National Uniformities

  • The economic boom had cities rebuild, add and absorb immigrant cultures in their new design.

  • The countryside was where the cultural differentiation was most seen.

  • The flow of young people in the city was altering traditional social norms while those in the countryside and rural areas did not adapt and change. World War I, the Roaring Twenties, the automobile, radio, motion pictures, and a national press began to create its own culture in America.

  • By the middle of the 19th century, there were women’s magazines in fashion and household furnishings for the elite.

    • This created more divide and different cultural practices and identities.

  • Folk culture and pop culture are not the direct opposite but folk culture is practiced by smaller groups, unlike pop culture which is practiced by the mass of the urban population.

  • They continue to adapt and change to the ever-changing trends and fads promoted by mass media.

  • Shows, music, television, fashion are all examples of American pop culture.

• Cultural Globalization

  • Popular culture is not locally distinctive and the landscape of it has spread worldwide.

  • Motel chains use pop culture to their advantage as their billboards and logos all look very familiar and this lets consumers feel more comfortable with them.

  • Critics perceive that the diffusion of popular culture promotes placelessness.

  • The rapid globalization of pop culture is seen with many brands, foods, movies and music being consumed by humans everywhere.

  • The use of technology and its getting cheaper makes it easier for people to be better connected and consume and adapt pop culture norms.

• Popular Food and Drink

  • The expansion of fast-food chains across the world provides benefits to the company and customers as it brings familiarity to all customers across the world and those who are even travelling abroad.

  • Foods have also lost their ethnic identities.

    • Pizza is now American and not Italian, burritos and tacos are closely identified with America and have their own American versions.

  • Though places like Dominos and McDonalds are popular worldwide they all cater to their local culture and tastes.

• Popular Music and Dance

  • Popular music and dance still connect with geography as differences in regional tastes and the symbolizing of music differ across the world.

    • But as the radio and television spread across the country no dance or music was confined to a certain region and was often blended with other styles.

  • The globalization of popular music with fold culture roots is shown by world music.

  • They also spread through expansion diffusion such as Jamaicans who brought reggae music to England when they immigrated there.

• Reactions Against Globalized Popular Culture

  • Globalization of popular culture generates counterreactions.

    • It is often resented and rejected by many people. It can be controlled and restricted by governments.

  • Canada requires radio and television to have a certain minimum of Canadian content.

    • China restricts many Western radio and television shows.

    • Many cultures and countries may not like Western values and cultures and oppose them.

• Culture Regions

  • Popular culture is not spatially or socially uniform

    • There are prominent spatial patterns though: Hockey is dominated by Canadians, the Dominican Republic with baseball and Brazil for Soccer.

7.2 Cultural Landscapes

• Folk and pop culture is a lot more than food, drink, music and folklore. They make a direct impact on the landscape

  • They change the landscape by cultivating it for human habitat.

• The cultural landscape is a blend work of nature and culture

• The everyday landscape; farms, gardens, suburbs, cemeteries, trailer parks, shopping malls showcase the culture’s attitude, priority and way of life.

  • Cemeteries show how a culture approaches death while a trailer park would tell us about society’s way of dealing with economic inequality.

• Monuments and landmarks symbolize a city and have great emotional power.

  • Ex. The Big Ben, Empire State Building, Hollywood sign.

• Today many of the largest cities are on the site of ancient settlements.

• The sequential occupation of the landscape by humans always leaves a visible trace.

• Ancient paths and roads have become some of the busiest streets in the modern world.

• Elite landscapes showcase their refined taste and exclusivity of the most privileged and powerful members.

  • They do so through architecture, gardens, gates, and the generous use of space.

• Land Survey Systems

  • Flying over North America, it’s easy to see the difference between the plains and the large cities.

  • The charter group that settled the area created a system to survey, divide, claim and allocate land. This system has left a mark on the rural and urban landscape.

  • The metes-and-bounds system is used in England and describes properties by using features like trees, water, rocks or cairns.

  • This system led to boundary uncertainty and dispute and lengthy descriptions of property boundaries.

  • The United States adopted a rectangular survey system in the Land Ordinance of 1785. The resulting Public Land Survey System (PLSS).

  • This established townships and survey lines oriented in the cardinal directions and divided townships into 6 miles squared and then into subsections of 1 mile squared.

  • The French used a long-lot system and divided the land into a piece that was 10 times longer than wider.

  • Farmers always lived in smaller, agricultural villages and created a clustered rural population.

• Houses

  • Houses are the most important expression of culture and the most visible feature of a culture.

  • Houses provide shelter, safety needs for the protection of one’s person and property, and places people within a community.

  • Vernacular house styles are houses in traditional form without any architectural plans or drawings.

  • This is why folk housing is so diverse as it reflects the adaptation to their environment.

  • Every region in the world has its own style.

• Hearths and Diffusion Streams

  • There are many different environmental conditions in North America which is why there is a variety of styles and designs.

  • Many original designs are fading as there is a new use for them as the world begins to urbanize.

  • Older farming styles are being replaced by machinery which means there is no need for older styles of houses.

• The Northern Hearths

  • Timber was used and more accessible because of the snowy winters and wetter climates.

  • They were inspired by the French They could be identified by massive chimneys and a “dutch door”.

• The Middle Atlantic Hearths

  • The Delaware Valley and the Chesapeake Bay were ethnically diverse and had the most influence on North American design than any other settlement.

  • Their log design was carried across the country and through the Appalachian range.

  • It had some Finnish-German influences.

  • They were generally just simple rectangular prisms with a large chimney.

• The Southern Hearths

  • The hot and humid climate led to some different styles of housing as they were designed before A.C and electric fans.

  • They were affected by malaria, mosquitos and extreme heat which is why the wealthy moved to coastal cities where the sea breezes provided relief.

• The Interior and Western Hearths

  • Many immigrant groups and some from Eastern states came and responded to the continental climate by using different materials and developed new styles

  • They build sod dugouts and rammed earth houses because of the absence of native timber stands

  • These houses were much cheaper and were much longer.

• National Housing Styles

  • Just as pop culture replaced many folk traditions, so did the national housing style for those who could afford it.

  • The house began to say less about where it was from and more about the status of the owner.

  • Popular styles included neoclassical houses modelled on Greek temples, Italianates modelled on Italian villas, the Second Empire style inspired by French designs, and the Victorian.

  • As cars became popular and people moved to the suburbs ranch-style houses became much more common from the 50s to the 70s

  • That too was a fad as in the 80s houses returned to a more traditional vernacular style.

• Building Styles Around the World

  • Since most housebuilders are local and not global.

  • They follow folk traditions and are inspired based on historical styles

  • This is not the case with apartment complexes and large buildings as there is less variation in them.

• Landscapes of Consumption: The Shopping Mall

  • After ****WW2 shopping and consumerism were on the rise.

  • Pop culture made shopping malls more popular and they became the center of many cities.

  • Malls are massive, enclosed, open to above with glass windows.

  • They are very similar all across North America.

  • They have outcompeted many shopping districts on the main street which has led to many vacant and empty downtown streets.

• Heritage Landscapes

  • Many countries like to preserve their best example of wild and natural landscapes and believe that we should as well.

  • Tourists believe that a settled heritage landscape is attractive and they have been preserved in Europe and Asia but not so much in America.

  • UNESCO has a world heritage preservation program that has over 1000 cultural sites, natural landscapes all over the world.

  • They are selected by their unique scenery, archeology, architecture, history of human habitation, or symbolic significance.