AP Human Geography Chapter 4 Notes

7/21/2019 AP Human Geography Chapter 4 Notes

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AP Human Geography

Chapter Four -

Folk and Pop CultureSeth Adler



Seth Adler

I. Folk and Popular Culture

Material culture deriving from the survival activities of everyone’s

daily life—food, clothing, and shelter

Culture involving leisure activities—the arts and recreation

a. Habit – A repetitive act performed by an individual

b. Custom - The frequent repetition of an act, to the extent that it becomes

characteristic of the group of people performing the act

c. A custom is a habit that is widely adopted

d. Folk Culture - Culture traditionally practiced by a small, homogeneous, rural

group living in relative isolation from other groups

e. Popular Culture - Culture found in a large, heterogeneous society that shares

certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristics

f. Popular culture is more wide spread

g. Rapid diffusion frequently changes popular culture

h. Popular culture caries on time based on location

II. Where Do Folk and Popular Culture Originate and Diffuse?

A. Origin of Folk and Popular Cultures

a. Folk customs often have anonymous or multiple hearths

1. Origin of Folk Music

a. Tells a story about daily activities (farming), life-cycle events

(birth, death, marriage), or mysterious events (storms)

b. According to a Chinese legend, music was invented in 2697 BC when

the Emperor Huang Ti sent Ling Lun to cut bamboo poles that would

produce a sound matching the call of the phoenix bird



Seth Adler

2. Origin of Popular Music

a. Written to be sold

b. Originated around 1900

c. Music Hall in UK and Vaudeville in US

d. Tin Pan Alley made the music and tried to sell printed song sheets

e. The diffusion of American music stared during WWII

f. Hip-Hop is a local form of music

B. Diffusion of Folk and Popular Cultures

a. The spread of popular culture typically follows the process of

hierarchical diffusion from hearths or nodes of innovation (i.e.

Hollywood, California)

b. Folk culture is transferred slowly by migration instead of electronic

communication (relocation diffusion)

1. The Amish: Relocation Diffusion of Folk Culture

a. The Amish have distinctive clothing, farming, religious practices

and other customs

b. In the 1600s, a Swiss Mennonite bishop named Jakob Ammann

gathered a group of followers

c. The Amish originated in Bern, Switzerland; Alsace in northeastern

France; and the Palatinate region of southwestern Germany

d. Settled in Pennsylvania in the early 1700s

e. Sell farm land in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and buy in

Kentucky

2. Sports: Hierarchical Diffusion of Popular Culture

- Folk Culture Origin of Soccer

a. World’s most popular sport

b. First documented in England in the eleventh century. After the

Danish invasion, workers excavating a building found a Danish



Seth Adler

soldier’s head and they began to kick it. It was then imitated

by boys who used an inflated cow bladder

c. Early football games involved two villages kicking the ball into

the center of the rival village. Because this disturbed village

life, King Henry II banned it from England and was later

legalized in 1603 by King James I.

- Globalization of Soccer

a. Transformation to popular culture in the 1800s

b. Because of the increase in leisure time, people came to see

sports so clubs started hiring professional players.

c. When British football clubs organized an association in 1863 to

make rules, it marked the change from folk to popular culture.

d. The game was diffused to other countries through contact with

English players

- Sports in Popular Culture

a. Cricket is popular in Britain

b. Ice Hockey is popular in Canada, Northern Europe, and Russia

c. Martial Arts is popular in China

d. Baseball is popular in Japan

e. Lacrosse came from the Iroquois Confederation of Six Nations

(Cayugas, Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas, and

Tuscaroras)

f. The common element in professional sports is the willingness of

people throughout the world to pay for the privilege of viewing,

in person or on TV, events played by professional athletes.

III. Why is Folk Culture Clustered?



Seth Adler

A. Influence of the Physical Environment

1. Food Preservatives and the Environment

a. Bostans are small gardens in Istanbul, Turkey that supply the city

with food.

b. Rice and soybeans are grown in Asia because of the dry climate

c. Quick-frying food in preferred in Italy because of fuel shortages

d. People refuse to eat particular plants or animals that are thought

to embody negative forces in the environment

e. Taboo - A restriction on behavior imposed by social custom

f. Hebrews were prohibited for eating animals

g. that do not chew their cud or that have cloven feet and fish

lacking fins or scales

h. Muslims do not eat pork because pigs would then compete with

humans for land and resources

i. Hindus have taboos against cows because they are used as plows on

farms

j. Terroir - The contribution of a location’s distinctive physical

features to the way food tastes

2. Folk Housing and the Environment

a. French geographer Jean Brunhes views the house as being an

essential fact of human geography.

b. American geographer Fred Kniffen says a house is a reflection of

cultural heritage, current fashion, functional needs, and the impact

of environment

c. The materials used in folk homes are based on the available

resources

d. Wood and brick are the most common

e. R. W. McColl compared house types in four villages situated in the

dry lands of northern and western China

f. Pitched roofs facilitate rain runoff, windows face South for heat,

can be smaller for not a much heat



Seth Adler

B. Isolation Promotes Cultural Diversity

1. Himalayan Art

a. geographers P. Karan and Cotton Mather demonstrated that

distinctive views of the physical environment emerge among

neighboring cultural groups that are isolated

b. Through their choices of subjects of paintings, each group reveals

how their folk culture mirrors their religions and individual views

of their environment

Buddhists

a. Northern

b. Paintings reflect bizarre and terrifying

c. Inhospitable environment

Hindus

a. Southern

b. Everyday life

c. Region’s extreme climatic conditions

Muslims

a. Islamic

b. Beautiful plants and flowers

c. Not harsh conditions

Animists

a. Burma

b. Symbols and designs

c. From religion instead of environment

2. Beliefs and Folk House Forms



Seth Adler

a. The distinctive form of folk houses may derive primarily from

religious values and other customary beliefs rather than from

environmental factors.

b. Some compass directions may be more important than other

directions.

- Sacred Spaces

a. In Java, the front door faces South (direction of the Sea

goddess)

b. In Fiji and China, the East wall is sacred

c. In Madagascar, the front door is facing West, the most

important direction. The NE corner is most important. The

North wall in for honoring ancestors, important guests enter

from the North and are seated against the North wall. The bed

is placed against the East wall facing North.

d. The Lao’s arrange their beds perpendicular to the center

ridgepole. People sleep with their heads and feet opposite of

one another. However, a child sleeps with his head towards the

parents’ feet.

e. The Yuan and Shan (Thailand) sleep with heads towards the

East, which is the most auspicious direction. Staircases do not

face West, the least auspicious direction and the direction of

the devil.

- U.S. Folk Housing

a. Geographer Fred Kniffen identified three major hearths or

nodes of folk house forms in the United States: New England,

Middle Atlantic, and Lower Chesapeake

The Lower Chesapeake (Tidewater)

a. One story, steep roof, two chimneys, one room deep

b. Tidewater, Virginia, and Southeast coast

The Middle Atlantic (I-House)



Seth Adler

a. Two stories high, gables to the sides, two rooms wide, one

room deep

b. Ohio Valley and Appalachian trails, Eastern half of US

New England

a. Upper New England and Southern Great Lakes region, far

west as Wisconsin

b. Various forms over time

IV. Why Is Popular Culture Widely Distributed?

a. Popular culture varies more in time than in place

A. Diffusion of Popular Housing, Clothing, and Food

1. Popular Food Customs

a. People in MDCs are likely to have the income, time, and inclination

to facilitate greater adoption of popular culture.

- Regional Variations

a. Bourbon consumption is higher in the Upper South, where it is

produced

b. Tequila consumption is high on the border with Mexico

c. Canadian Whiskey is preferred in states contiguous to Canada

d. Southerners may prefer pork rinds because more hogs are

raised there, and northerners may prefer popcorn and potato

chips because more corn and potatoes are grown there.

e. The Southeast has a low rate of alcohol consumption because of

Baptists. Nevada has a high rate because of gambling

f. Texans prefer tortilla chips while Westerners prefer grain

chips

- Wine



Seth Adler

a. The distinctive character of a wine derives from a unique

combination of soil, climate, and other physical characteristics

at the place where the grapes are grown.

b. Vineyards are best cultivated in temperate climates of

moderately cold, rainy winters and long, hot summers. On a

hillside near a lake.

c. The distinctive character of each region’s wine is especially

influenced by the unique combination of trace elements, such as

boron, manganese, and zinc, in the rock or soil.

d. Wines are identified by their place of growth, region, year, and

type of grapes

e. Wine consumption declined after the fall of Rome, and many

vineyards were destroyed.

2. Rapid Diffusion of Clothing Styles

a. In MDCs, clothing reflects occupation and wealth

- Jeans

a. Jeans became popular in the 1960s to show youthful

independence

b. Communist governments could not make them because the

factories make tanks, not clothing

3. Popular Housing Styles

a. Changed in the 1940s

b. In the years immediately after World War II, which ended in

1945, most U.S. houses were built in a modern style. Since the

1960s, styles that architects call neo-eclectic have predominated.

- Modern Housing Styles (1945-1960)





Seth Adler

a. 1970s

b. Steep-pitched front-facing gables

Neo-French

a. Popular in early 1980s

b. Most fashionable

c. Dormer windows, round tops, high-hipped roofs

Neo-Colonial

a. Popular since 1950s

b. Similar to English colonial houses

c. Large central ―great room‖

B. Electronic Diffusion of Popular Culture

a. Television is important because it provides leisure time and spreads

the knowledge of popular culture, such as sports

1. Diffusion of Television

a. In the early years of broadcasting, the US was a monopoly

b. In 1954, the US had 86% of televisions

c. In 1970, the US had more televisions per capita except for Canada

d. By 2005, international differences in television ownership

diminished

2. Diffusion of the Internet

a. Diffused like the television but more rapid

b. In 1995, the US has 25 million users

c. In 2000, internet usage in the US increased from 9% to 44%. The

US % share of the world’s internet declined from 62% to 31%

d. In 2008, 74% or the US population had internet. But, the US % of

world’s internet declined to 14%

3. Diffusion of Facebook



Seth Adler

a. Founded in 2004 by Harvard University students

b. In 2009, it had over 200 million users

V. Why Does Globalization of Popular Culture Cause Problems?

a. Threatens survival of folk culture and may generate environmental

impacts

A. Threat to Folk Culture

1. Loss of Traditional Values

a. Leaders of African and Asian countries traveled to MDCs and

experienced the social status attached to cloths. Back home,

they may wear Western business suits.

b. Wearing cloths typical of MDCs is controversial in some Middle

Eastern countries. Muslims oppose them.

c. Threatens the subservience of women to men that is embedded in

some folk customs

d. Prostitution has increased in some LDCs to serve men from MDCs

traveling on ―sex tours.‖ (Japan, Northern Europe)

2. Threat of Foreign Media Imperialism

- Western Control of Media

a. Three MDCs—the United States, the United Kingdom, and

Japan—dominate the television industry in LDCs. Japanese

operate in South and East Asia. US corporations provide for

Latin America. British companies invest in African countries.

b. Leaders of LCDs view the spread of television as MDCs

controlling the world. They are teaching the wrong message.



Seth Adler

c. In many regions of the world, the

only reliable and unbiased news

accounts come from the BBC World

Service shortwave and satellite

radio newscasts.

d. The Associated Press (AP) and

Reuters dominate the diffusion of

information to newspapers around

the world.

- Satellites

a. George Orwell’s novel 1984,

published in 1949 said that TVs

would play a major role in people’s

everyday lives.

b. Satellite dishes enable people to choose

from a wide variety of programs produced in other countries,

not just the local government-controlled station.

c. Some countries banned the use of

satellite dishes (Chinese, Singapore, Saudi Arabia)

B. Environmental Impacts of Popular Culture

1. Modifying Nature

- Distribution of Golf

a. Golf courses, because of their size, provide a prominent

example of imposing popular culture on the environment.

b. Geographer John Rooney attributes the increase of golf

courses to increased income and leisure time.

c. The number of golf courses are higher in northern states

d. More limited in the south because of lack of land



Seth Adler

2. Uniform Landscapes

a. The diffusion of fast-food restaurants is a good example of such

uniformity (McDonalds). People who travel or moves to another

city immediately recognize a familiar place.

3. Negative Environmental Impact

- Increased Demand For Natural Resources

a. Popular culture may demand a large supply of certain animals,

resulting in depletion or even extinction of some species.

b. Animal consumption is an inefficient way for people to acquire

calories—90 percent less efficient than if people simply ate

grain directly. To produce 1 kilogram of beef sold in the

supermarket, nearly 10 kilograms of grain are consumed by the

animal. For every kilogram of chicken, nearly 3 kilograms ofgrain are consumed by the fowl. This grain could be fed to

people directly, bypassing the inefficient meat step

- Pollution

a. Cans, bottles, old cars, paper, and plastics



Seth Adler

b. Very high rates of soil erosion have been documented in Central

America from the practice of folk culture.

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AP Human Geography Chapter 4 Notes