Local Culture, Popular Culture & Cultural Landscape

(Chapter 4)

AP Human Geography

Folk (Local) v. Pop Culture• Culture: a group of people with common

– Belief systems– Norms – Values

Folk culture• Small• homogeneous • usually rural• static

Popular culture• Large• Heterogeneous• usually urban• changing culture

Folk Popular

Teen Culture – Where does it come from?

Youth Culture

• Consumption

• An authentic product or the creation of multinational corporations?

"In much the same way that the British Empire tried to take over Africa and profit from its wealth, corporations look at [teens] like this massive empire they are colonizing, and their weapons are films, music, books, CDs, Internet access, clothing, amusement parks, sports teams." -Robert McChesney

Are "cool hunters" similar to colonial powers? Do they exploit teens or are they providing desired benefits and

services?

The Corporate Web

Local Culture: a community tries to preserve unique experiences, customs & traits to distinguish them from others

Maasai woman

Material Culture

Nonmaterial Culture

BeliefsPracticesValuesAesthetics

Popular Culture

Net gross approx $15M Average movie ticket $0.19

Popular culture can spread via hierarchical diffusion

Queen Rania of Jordan

How are local cultures maintained?

Sometimes they’re not………. i.e. assimilation

How are local cultures maintained?

Customs

Right hand only!

How are local cultures maintained?

Avoid Cultural Appropriation

Local cultures often are easier to maintain in rural areas

When local traditional culture clashes dominant culture

Native American Whale Hunting

Native American use of peyote

FLDS & polygamy

Lindsborg KANSAS!

Neolocalism: reinvigorating a unique local culture

Hasidic Community, Williamsburg NY

Can a folk culture survive in an urban setting?

The Local Culture in an urban setting

Chinatown, London, UK

The Local Culture in an urban setting

Commodification

Bunratty, Ireland

An authentic experience?

An authentic experience?

The Venetian, Las Vegas

Dubai, UAE

How is popular culture diffused?

Time space compression limits distance decay for parts of the planet

Sporting CultureThe old….

The new….

The Reach of American Global Culture

The Backlash!

Opposition to the Golden Arches“Malbouffe” or Bad Food

Jose Bove

Slow Food Movement

Farmer’s Markets

PlacelessnessLoss of uniqueness of

cultural landscape

Beijing

Hutongs High-rise

Placelessness

Convergence of the cultural landscape

Architectural forms have diffused around

the world

Global businesses have distinctively mark distant landscapes

Borrowing of idealized landscapes

India

China

Mexico

Poundbury, UKExperimental new integrated town using traditional architectural forms

Glocalization

How people in a local place alter regional or global processes

• Craigslist

• MS word & en-US or en-GB or en-AU

• Wikipedia languages

• Fair trade

Hyperlocalism