Transcript 9 Folk Culture - Doral Academy Preparatory

Folk Geography
The cultural makeup of most societies includes
elements of: folk, ethnic, & popular cultures
Folk Culture: the collective heritage of institutions,
customs, skills, dress, and way of life of a small,
stable, closely knit, usually rural community
– Made up of people who maintain the traditional
– “old-fashioned” way
– Strong family or clan structure
folk geography: defined as the study of the
spatial patterns and ecology of folk-life.
Folk Culture in the U.S.
The Old Order Amish in the U.S.
– Perhaps the only “folk” equivalent in U.S.
– German-American farmers
– Largely renounces devices of the industrial age
– Horse-drawn buggies still used, and faithful
own no autos or appliances
– Central religion concept of demut, “humility”
– Rarely marry outside their sect
– Clustered around Pennsylvania & Ohio (in 17
total states)
Old Order Amish
The Amish: Relocation Diffusion of Folk Culture
• In Europe the Amish did
not develop distinctive
language, clothing, or
farming practices and
gradually merged with
various Mennonite church
groups.
• Several hundred Amish
families migrated to North
America in two waves.
Amish Settlements in the U.S.
Fig. 4-4: Amish settlements are distributed through the northeast U.S.
Folk Building Traditions
Mali: “dogon”
Folk Architecture:
• The Maasai are
pastoralists in Kenya who
bring their cattle into their
manyattas at night
• Maasai houses are built
by women
• Constructed with termite,
ant, and beetle resistant
wood poles, insulated
with packed leaves, and
covered with cow dung
An Iroquois longhouse (upstate NY)
A longhouse in Washington state
Inside a Sarawak longhouse (Malaysia)
House Types in Western China
Four communities in western China all have distinctive house types
Irish folk building styles
Folk Housing in North America
• Few folk houses are being built today
• Popular culture with its mass-produced, commercially built
houses has overwhelmed folk traditions
House Types
Traditional
American house
types:
New England
Mid-Atlantic
Southern Tidewater
What are folk building materials dependent upon???
From log cabins to…
wood framed houses.
Yankee New England
Dogtrot (or saddlebag)
Folk Culture Regions
Folk Cultural
Region: folk customs
are distinctively
identified with an area
long inhabited by a
group.
Ex: Pennsylvanian folk
region has an unusual
Swiss-German type of
barn
Folk Clothing
Cuzco, Peru (an Incan capital city)
is a major tourist destinations.
Native llama and alpaca wool
sweaters, ponchos, and rugs are
displayed for the tourist trade.
They are hand woven on handlooms and colored with mineral or
vegetable dyes.
Folk handicrafts and arts often
enter popular culture…
Folk Drinks: Mountain moonshine
Home manufacture of corn whiskey in the
Upland South has been going on since the
1700s.
Corn whiskey is very persistent in the folk diet
of Appalachia.
Entered popular culture through whiskeys
such as Jack Daniels (a “sour mash”). The
government began to tax alcohol…
Illegal whisky production and popular culture integration led to the creation
of the “folk automobile”…
– A fast vehicle needed to outrun the law, but humble in appearance.
– Some have claimed these vehicles were the forerunners of the basic
American stock car used in NASCAR racing.
Folk Music: Bluegrass
Bluegrass emerged in the 1930s in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and
North Carolina.
What popular music tradition is Bluegrass going to influence???
Folk Games: Petanque in Quebec
petanque is a bowling
game played with
metal balls.
Diffused to Canada with
French immigrants in the
16th century. It has
persisted as one aspect
of a Quebec French folk
region.
Western plains ranching folk culture
– the “beef wheel,” a
windlass used during
butchering
Folk Hunting:
Blowguns
•
long, hollow tube through which a
projectile is blown by force of
breath
•
Geographer Stephen Jett mapped
distribution of blowgun
– Found among folk societies in
both the Eastern and Western
Hemispheres
– Used from the island of
Madagascar to Amazonian
jungles of South America
•
A successful rabbit hunt with my
blowgun
“I've hit many squirrels with this store-bought 6' .38cal
blowgun and wire darts, but this is the only one I ever
killed. I shot out my window, and hit him in the brain
with my first shot.”
Folk Religious Styles
Great Mosque of Córdoba, Spain
Islam
Buddhism
Hinduism
Judaism
Shinto Temple