Cultural Geography – Folk Customs from Around the World

Cultural Geography – Folk Customs from Around the World

Except as noted, all photos by Dale LightfootDale Lightfoot's Cultural LandscapesFrom Around The World Oklahoma State UniversityGeography Department

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Folk Customs• Folk customs (a.k.a. traditional customs)

are developed and practiced primarily by small, homogeneous groups living in more isolated rural areas. Social customs such as the provision of clothing, shelter, transportation and food have evolved differently in different areas of the world because natural resources vary widely from place to place. Folk customs reflect the benefits and constraints of each group's environment, and through cultural evolution, particularly the level of technology, each generation has left its unique imprint on the cultural landscape

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Culture:• Culture is the learned, generally

accepted, dynamic way of life of a group of people which reflects the underlying and evolving foundation of that society: their attitudes, objectives, technical skills, and world view.

Adaptation, by Joe Naumann, of a definition expressed by Preston E. James.

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Surface Culture & Deep Culture• Surface culture is composed of those

aspects of a way of life which are relatively easily observed

• Deep culture provides the foundational elements of a culture which are often unexamined and held at the subconscious level by most members of the society – the attitudes, objectives, and world view.

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Dress and Adornment• An element of surface culture

which helps distinguish one culture from another and even between subcultures within a culture.

• It may be much more than just an adaptation to the physical environment.

• It may be also an expression of concepts held within the deep culture of the society.

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Guatemala

• Clothing style of women and girls in the Quichè highlands of western Guatemala.

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Guatemala• While it is more

common in developing countries to see women and girls wearing traditional clothing (with men more commonly wearing western-style clothing), men in rural regions may still prefer traditional styles of dress (Santiago Atitlàn, Guatemala).

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Samoa

• Samoan chief in traditional clothing. Notice the tattoo adornment on leg and torso also.

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Spain• Spanish girls

dancing at a feria (a fair), Jerez, Spain. In western, developed countries some styles of folk dress may still be worn.

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China• A popular

style of clothing among young Chinese males.

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China• The ubiquitous

Mao suit; a garment of choice in China since 1949 when the communist/Maoist era began.

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Kazakhstan • Kazakh rider in

the Alatau range south of Almaty, Kazakhstan; a region of the world traditionally inhabited by nomadic horsemen.

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Uzbekistan

• Uzbek man in Samarkand oblast, Uzbekistan.

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Uzbekistan

• A variety of female traditional clothing in Samarkand oblast, Uzbekistan.

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Syria

• Grandmother and grandson, rural village of Fedra, Syria.

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Yemen• Sari-style

conservative female-wear in Sana'a,Yemen; a different look than the more common chadar or burka worn outside of the home by most women in the Arabian Peninsula.

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Jordan• Kufiyah

(headcloth) and igal (double ring of black cord); traditional raiment of males in the Middle East (Jordan Valley, Jordan).

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Morocco• Water seller in

traditional garb; a common sight in Morocco at markets, bus stations, and other public places where crowds gather (Marrakech, Morocco).

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Jordan

• Kufiyah-capped Bedouin shepherds in the desert of northeast Jordan.

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Morocco

• Berber farmer, Tafilalt Oasis, southern Morocco.

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Morocco

• Modern Berber; Addi Ouadderrou of qsar Mezguida, Tafilalt Oasis, Morocco.

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Italy

• Ethnic dress of the bagpipe player in Rome, Italy is worn for commercial purposes – tourists pay to have photos taken of or with him.

• Photo by Joe Naumann

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Architecture• Another distinguishing

element of surface culture which may be influenced by elements of deep culture.

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Canada

• Folk architecture has always utilized materials found in abundance in the local environment. These reconstructed 11th century sod buildings are built from blocks of earth cut from the tundra. Few trees or stones are available for building materials in this part of the world; northern Newfoundland, Canada.

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Syria

• Beehive-style houses constructed of dried earth; a material found in abundance on the arid plains of central Syria.

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Syria

• Cone-roofed houses constructed of stone; in the very stony landscape around Fedra, near Daret Ezza, northwest Syria.

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Syria

• In areas where nomadism (moving to follow herd animals) is a way of life, stones or mud brick are not practical because they are too heavy to move. These people, who frequently move their home sites, use animal skins or heavy cloth tents which can be folded or rolled up and carried to a new location (Syria).

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Yemen

• Elaborate ornamentation in the stonework of a house in Thilla, Yemen .

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Yemen• Traditional "cake

icing" style of architecture and decoration on Yemeni buildings in The Sana'a region. This folk architecture, complete with unique, semi-circular stained glass insets above each window in the house, is still retained in modern buildings.

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Nebraska

• Old settler's cabin constructed of split logs, eastern Nebraska.

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Dominican Republic

• Houses constructed of palm wood and thatch, the most abundant construction material available around La Isabella settlement, Dominican Republic.

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Jordan

• Traditional architecture constructed with more modern building materials of concrete and cinder block. This neighborhood in central Amman, Jordan is typical of modern, middle class, Middle East architecture.

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Poland

• Traditional European architecture in the Old Town of Warsaw, Poland.

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Religion• On the surface, one observes

architecture, rituals, dress, behavior, etc. which arise out of deep culture which is very resistant to change.

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Mexico• Religion is another

facet of culture that is commonly etched into the landscape. This remote shrine in the southern Baja peninsula of Mexico provides evidence that Christianity is entrenched in this part of the world.

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Egypt

• A mosque with twin minaret spires at the southern entrance of the Suez Canal in Egypt reveals the ubiquitous presence of Islam in this region of the world.

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Armenia

• The "Mr. Pig" restaurant in Yerevan, Armenia. Though this country borders the Islamic countries of Iran, Azerbaijan, and Turkey, it is obviously not Islamic (it is a Christian nation) as pork, and references to pigs and pork, are avoided in Muslim regions.

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South Korea• Buddhist pagoda

along a remote highland trail, Nam San Mountains, near Kyongju, South Korea. Buddhist features, both large and small, have been frequently etched into the landscapes of eastern and southeastern Asia.

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Transportation• An aspect of surface culture which

is greatly influenced by the technological level of the society.

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Guatemala

• A home-built canoe in Lake Atitlàn, western Guatemala. Traditional forms of transportation persist throughout the world, especially in less developed countries, despite the presence of, and growing dependence on, modern transport.

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China

• People-powered fishing vessels in the Li River, near Yangshuo, China.

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Ecuador

• Family transport with Dad at the steering pole; on the Rio Napo, upper Amazon Basin, eastern Ecuador.

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Colombia

• Heading home from market with a head full of produce (southern Colombia).

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Mexico

• Burro transportation, Paricutìn area, Mexico.

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Morocco

• "Ships of the desert"; Sahara traffic at Erg Chebbi, near Merzouga, Morocco.

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Morocco

• The family wagon; mom is being chauffeured. A common form of transportation in the Tafilalt Oasis, Rissani, Morocco.

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Nicaragua

• Ox cart, Grenada, Nicaragua.

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Portugal

• Horse cart, Serpa, Portugal. Folk transportation is still sometimes seen in more developed countries.

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Georgia (former USSR)

• Hay wagon in northeast Georgia. Though the modern capital of Tblisi is well developed, folk ways of life are still visible in the countryside of this former Soviet state.

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Syria

• Mazote wagon, Aleppo, Syria (mazote is the local name for diesel used to fuel home heaters). In spite of the presence of modern cars and trucks, the horse-drawn wagon remains the preferred method of transport for delivering mazote in rural and urban areas alike

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Syria

• Homemade three-wheeled vehicles, Palmyra, Syria. Because of the expense of imported cars (all cars here are imported), people in many developing countries construct their own vehicles from spare parts, operations which sometimes evolve into small cottage industries which design and build similar vehicles for local mass consumption.

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China

• Jerry-built cars in southeast China; a common vehicle in this region.

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Italy

• Cart is used to transport tourists today, more than it is used for its traditional use – wedding gift of a farmer to his son – to be used on the farm later. Agrigento, Sicily.

• Photo by Joe Naumann

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Syria

• A traditional method of plowing, near Menbij, Syria. Such methods are still used in countries where mechanized farming is rare, and in developing countries where mechanization is common but the animals can still be used on very small plots or where the ground is too muddy to support a tractor.

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Oklahoma

• Longhorn cattle, western Oklahoma. Livestock herding practices vary widely around the world, and while cattle, sheep, and goats predominate, other domesticates are still raised in folk fashion.

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Jordan

• Bedouin woman tending to her herd of camels and goats, Wadi Araba, southern Jordan.

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Egypt

• Cattle and camel...an unusual mix; middle Nile Valley, Egypt.

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Peru

• An Indìgena with her pack llama, near Cuzco, Peru.

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Peru

• Alpaca herd grazing in the high Andes Mountains, between Nazca and Cuzco, central Peru.

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Hawaii• "Pigs...for

graduation...order now." Were you presented with a pig for your graduation? You might have, had you lived in rural Hawaii and wanted to roast one for a traditional luau celebration.

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Uzbekistan

• Dung cakes drying in the sun in rural Uzbekistan. Animal fecal waste, mixed with straw as a binding agent, has served as a heating and cooking fuel for many world regions throughout human history.

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Uzbekistan

• A gathering at the village water well and pool, rural central Uzbekistan.

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Yemen

• Outside of villages and their centralized public wells, permanent settlement in dry land regions requires a smaller private or communal well (Hadramaut region, eastern Yemen).

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Syria

• The interior channel of a qanat, or subterranean canal, in Syria. Called karez, foggara, or falaj in other countries these traditional irrigation system have for many centuries provided water for villages and oases across north Africa, the Middle East, and central Asia.