Cultural Geography is the study of how culture varies across space

Introduction What is Culture? Comes from Latin word “Cultus” – meaning to care about Includes all the ideas, practices, and material objects associated with a group of people (language, religion, housing, ethnicity, food, etc.) Includes: Artifacts: material objects Customs: set of beliefs and values that set one group apart from another…a widely adopted habit

Folk Culture V. Pop Culture….see handout Acculturation: cultural change that results when one group adopts traits of dominant society Assimilation: process where minority population decreases or loses all together its identifying culture and blends into society Must be a 2-way street – majority population recognizes them as members Often measured by intermarriage and employment opportunities

POP CULTURE

FOLK CULTURE

Acculturation…..Assimilation A process over time of adopting majority culture Language “Anglicanize” name Dress Customs Entertainment – movies, music, TV Slang Education – career Intermarriage

Assimilation Cartoon….process of becoming “American”

When Cultures Collide…. Cultural Imperialism: 1 culture is dominant over another (i.e. imperialism/colonialism…the mother country usually dominated indigenous people; taught their language, their religion, their customs) Cultural Syncretism: new cultural traits emerge as a hybrid blend of two distinct parent traits (i.e. the exchange is never 100% one way…always a mixture)

Where do Folk Culture and Pop Culture originate and diffuse? Hearth: place of origin FC has anonymous hearths, anonymous sources, and unknown dates PC hearth is usually an MDC city

Diffusion of FC and PC FC transmitted from one location to another slowly, often by relocation diffusion and without technology (FC looks different from place to place) PC diffuses hierarchically – starts in large cities and spreads rapidly around globe …driven by technology (PC looks different from time to time)

Blend of PC and FC??

Is Globalization of PC a Problem? Is PC a threat to FC? Does PC make people reject traditional values? Does PC lead to dominance of Western values? i.e. W. dress, food, music, media values Threatens women’s subservience to men in many cultures (ex: Taliban – women behaving like westerners were shot or beaten – walked alone, makeup, nail polish, etc.) IN some areas PC has been bad for women – sex tours, internal prostitution (men from MDCs go to Philippines, Thailand, S. Korea)

Globalization of PC a Problem? Does PC dominate the foreign media as a form of imperialism? i.e. watch our movies, our music, our TV American TV presents our values – freedom of women, violence, sex, glorification of youth, upward social mobility…not all societies agree w/ this News media dominated by Associated Press and Reuters out of U.S. and GB

Environmental Impact of PC Possiblism not environmental determinism….i.e. PC imposes itself on environment Leads to uniformity…all looks the same PC generates higher volumes of waste/pollution