Transcript Influences of Physical Environment

Question #1: How does the environment influence:
Food choices
Food taboos
Housing styles
And, what are the differences among folk cultures?
Folk Culture: Influences of Physical
Environment
• Environmental conditions
can limit the variety of
human actions anywhere
• Two necessities of daily
life- food and shelterdemonstrate the influence
of cultural values and
environment on the
development of unique
folk culture.
• Different societies prefer
different foods and styles
of house construction
Food Preferences
►Food Diversity in
Transylvania
 Food customs affected by
availability of products
►Food habits encouraged by
cultural traditions
 In Transylvania, food
preferences distinguish
groups:
• Romanians: sour bran soups
• Saxons: simmered fatty pork
in water
• Jews: preferred soups made
from beets and sorrel
• Armenians: soup based on
churut and vegetables
• Hungarians: added smoked
bacon to the soup
Hog Production and Food Cultures
Fig. 4-6: Annual hog production is influenced by religious taboos against pork consumption in
Islam and other religions. The highest production is in China, which is largely
Buddhist.
Food Taboos
►People refuse to eat
particular plants or animals
that are thought to
embody negative forces in
the environment.
 protect an endangered
animal
 Conserve natural resources
• Taboo:
 Restriction on behavior
imposed by social custom
Folk Housing
• The house is a product of
both cultural traditions and
natural conditions
 Reflection of cultural
heritage, current fashion,
functional needs, and the
impact of the environment
House Types in Western China
Fig. 4-8: Four communities in western China all have distinctive house types.
Question #2: What role do art, sacred spaces
& housing play in folk culture?
Himalayan Folk Cultural Regions
Fig. 4-5: Cultural geographers have identified four distinct culture regions based on
predominant religions in the Himalaya Mountains.
Sacred Places
• Java
 Front door often faces
south
 Direction of the South Sea
Goddess
» Holds the key to
earth
• Fiji
 East wall of house sacred
• Madagascar
 Main door on west
» Most important
direction
►Thailand
 Yuan and Shan
 Sleep with head towards
east
 Staircases must not face
west
►Direction of death
and evil spirits
►Laos
 Beds perpendicular to the
center ridgepole in house
 Head =noble, high value
 Feet= low value
Home Locations in Southeast Asia
Fig. 4-7: Houses and sleeping positions are oriented according to local customs among the Lao in
northern Laos (left) and the Yuan and Shan in northern Thailand (right).
Folk Housing
Tidewater
“I” house
Saltbox
Front Gable and Wing
Cape Cod
Two-Chimeny
Diffusion of House Types in U.S.
Fig. 4-9: Distinct house types originated in three main source areas in the U.S. and then
diffused into the interior as migrants moved west.
Diffusion of New England House Types
Fig. 4-10: Four main New England house types of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
diffused westward as settlers migrated.
• Question #3: Why and how is there a rapid
diffusion of pop culture? Give examples for
– Food/Beverage
– Clothing
Popular Culture: Regional Variations
 Americans choose
particular beverages or
snacks in part on the basis
of local preference for
what is produced, grown,
or imported locally.
– Bourbon
• Consumption concentrated in
Upper South
– Tequila
• Heavily concentrated in the
Southwest along the border
with Mexico
– Pork rinds
• Preferred in South
• Hogs raised there
– Other examples
• popcorn/ and potato chips in
North
• Corn and potatoes grown
there
Regional Variations
• Cultural backgrounds also
affect the amount and
types of alcohol and snack
foods consumed
– Relates partially to
• Religious backgrounds
• Income
• Advertising
– Religious Backgrounds
• Southeast
– Baptists
• Utah
– Mormons
– Location
• Texans prefer tortilla chips
– Mexican-Americans
• Westerners prefer multigrain
chips
– Concern for nutritional value
Alcohol Preferences in the U.S.
Fig. 4-12: Per capita consumption of rum (top) and Canadian whiskey (bottom) show
different distributions and histories of diffusion.
Wine Production per Year
Wine is typically produced in hilly areas that have cold wet
winters and long hot dry summers.
Fig. 4-13: The distribution of wine production shows the joint impact of the physical
environment and social customs.
Rapid Diffusion of Clothing Styles
• Individual clothing habits
reflect:
– Availability of income
– Social forms
• Job characteristics
• MDCs
– clothing habits reflect
occupations
– higher incomes
• Improved communications
have allowed the rapid
diffusion of clothing styles
from one region of earth to
another
– Speed is essential
– Increasing awareness of
global clothing styles
• Increased travel
Question #4: Discuss how the
style of housing post-WWII
reflected TIME and not PLACE
U.S. House Types, 1945–1990
Fig. 4-11: Several variations of the “modern style” were dominant from the 1940s into the
1970s. Since then, “neo-eclectic” styles have become the dominant type of
house construction in the U.S.
Question #5: How has the electronic diffusion
of pop culture changed? How does it impact
society?
Diffusion of TV, 1954–1999
Fig. 4-14: Television has diffused widely since the 1950s, but some areas still have low
numbers of TVs per population.
Distribution of Internet Hosts
Fig. 4-15: The U.S. had two-thirds of the world’s internet hosts in 2002. Diffusion of internet
service is likely to follow the pattern of TV diffusion, but the rate of this diffusion
may differ.
Question #6: What are the
biggest differences between folk
and pop culture?