1. Clustering of Folk Cultures
Isolation promotes cultural diversity
Himalayan art
Influence of the physical environment
Distinctive food preferences
Folk housing
U.S. folk house forms

2. Folk Culture is Clustered
A combination of physical and cultural factors influences the distinctive distributions of folk culture.
Cultural institutions like religion and environmental processes such as climate, landforms, and vegetation influence folk culture.
Isolation keeps particular folk cultural elements intact and in place.

3. Himalayan Folk Cultural Regions
Fig. 4-5: Cultural geographers have identified four distinct culture regions based on predominant religions in the Himalaya Mountains. These groups show similar uniqueness in their dance, music, architecture, and crafts.

4. Food and Shelter
Food and shelter reflect the influence of cultural values and the environment on the development of unique folk culture.
Different folk societies prefer different foods and styles of house construction.
The surest way to identify a family’s ethnic origins is to look in its kitchen.

5. Food and Shelter
Jews don’t eat meat from cloven animals because they don’t work in the traditional nomadic ways of the people.
Muslims have a taboo against pork because pigs don’t offer compensating benefits to raising them.
Hindus need abundant cattle to plow the fields after the monsoons, so it is taboo to eat them.

6. 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.

7. Folk Houses & the Environment
Housing can be related to the environment. Windows may face south in temperate climates to take advantage of the Sun’s heat and light. In hot climates, windows may be small to reduce the role of the sun.
Pitched roofs are important in wet or snowy climates.

8. Folk House Building Materials
The type of building materials used to construct folk houses is influenced by the resources available in the environment.
Wood and brick are the most common, although stone, grass, sod, and skins are also used.

9. Folk House Form & Orientation
In this case, distinctive form and orientation may result from customs.
Sacred walls or corners are common: the east wall is sacred in Fiji.
In Laos, beds are arranged perpendicular to the center ridgepole of the house.
In Thailand, the Buddhists sleep with their heads to the east, the most auspicious direction.

10. 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).

11. House Types in Western China
Even in areas with similarities in climate and available building materials, folk housing can vary due to differences in local cultural preferences. Four communities in western China all have distinctive house types.

12. American Folk Homes
Older houses in the U.S. display local folk-culture traditions.
As families migrated west in the 18th & 19th century, their homes used local materials but reflected the styles of the East Coast from which they had migrated.
Homes of the past ½ century reflect popular culture influences.

13. Diffusion of House Types in U.S.
Distinct house types originated in three main source areas in the U.S. and then diffused into the interior as migrants moved west.

14. Diffusion of New England House Types
Four main New England house types of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries diffused westward as settlers migrated.

15. Folk Houses of the Mid-Atlantic & Chesapeake
“I”-House of the Mid-Atlantic and the Tidewater of the Chesapeake.