What is Culture?

1. What is Culture? Part II

2. Problems with the Globalization of Culture Often Destroys Folk Culture – or preserves traditions as museum pieces or tourism gimmicks. • Mexican Mariachis; Polynesian Navigators; Cruise Line Simulations • Change in Traditional Roles and Values; Polynesian weight problems Satellite Television, Baja California

3. Problems with the Globalization of Popular Culture Western Media Imperialism? • U.S., Britain, and Japan dominate worldwide media. • Glorified consumerism, violence, sexuality, and militarism? • U.S. (Networks, FoxNews, CNN) and British (BBC) news media provide/control the dissemination of information worldwide. • These networks are unlikely to focus or provide third world perspective on issues important in the LDCs.

4. Environmental Problems with Cultural Globalization Accelerated Resource Use through Accelerated Consumption • Furs: minx, lynx, jaguar, kangaroo, whale, sea otters (18th Century Russians) fed early fashion trends • Inefficient over-consumption of Meats (10:1), Poultry (3:1), even Fish (fed other fish and chicken) by meat-eating pop cultures • Mineral Extraction for Machines, Plastics and Fuel • New Housing and associated energy and water use. • Golf courses use valuable water and destroy habitat worldwide. Pollution: waste from fuel generation and discarded products, plastics, marketing and packaging materials

6. “They’re growing houses in the fields between the towns.” - John Gorka, Folk Singer

7. Beijing, China Palm Springs, CA

8. Fiji

9. Marlboro Man in Egypt

10. How do cultural traits diffuse? Hearth: the point of origin of a cultural trait. Contagious diffusion Hierarchical diffusion

11. How are Local Cultures Sustained?

12. Local cultures are sustained by maintaining customs. Custom: a practice that a group of people routinely follows.

13. Material Culture The things a group of people construct, such as art, houses, clothing, sports, dance, and food. Nonmaterial Culture The beliefs, practices, aesthetics, and values of a group of people. Material and Nonmaterial Culture

14. Little Sweden, USA (Lindsborg, Kansas): Is the Swedish Dala horse part of material or nonmaterial culture?

15. What do local cultures do to maintain their customs in a globalized world?

16. Local Cultures often have two goals: • 1. keeping other cultures out. • (ie. create a boundary around itself) • 2.keeping their own culture in. • (ie. avoid cultural appropriation)

17. What role does place play in maintaining customs? By defining a place (a town or a neighborhood) or a space for a short amount of time (an annual festival) as representing a culture and its values, members of a local culture can maintain (or reestablish) its customs and reinforce its beliefs.

18. Rural Local Cultures • Migration into rural areas is less frequent. • Can better separate their culture from others and from popular culture. • Can define their own space. • Daily life my be defined by a shared economic activity.

19. Makah (Neah Bay, Washington) Why did the Makah reinstate the whale hunt?

20. Makah (Neah Bay, Washington) Why did the Makah reinstate the whale hunt? To reinvigorate the local culture.

21. Little Sweden, USA (Lindsborg, KS) Why did the residents of Lindsborg define it as a Swedish place?

22. Little Sweden, USA (Lindsborg, KS) Why did the residents of Lindsborg define it as a Swedish place? neolocalism: seeking out the regional culture and reinvigorating it in response to the uncertainty of the modern world.

23. Helen, GA (Alpine Village)

24. Urban Local Cultures • Can create ethnic neighborhoods within cities. • Creates a space to practice customs. • Can cluster businesses, houses of worship, schools to support local culture. • Migration into ethnic neighborhoods can quickly change an ethnic neighborhood. For example: Williamsburg, NY, North End (Boston), MA

25. Runners of the NYC Marathon run through Williamsburg, (Brooklyn), NY Hasidic Jewish Neighborhood

26. Commodification How are aspects of local culture (material, non-material, place) commodified? what is commodified? who commodifies it? Sun City, South Africa

27. Authenticity Claims of authenticity abound – how do consumers determine what experience/place is “authentic” and what is not?

28. How is Popular Culture Diffused?

29. What are Cultural Hearths • Ancient Hearths (locations – source of civilization) • Hydraulic Civilization Theory (cities able to control irrigated farming over large hinterlands, held political power over other cities) • Modern Hearths (locations) – Eastern Megalopolis in the United States

30. How are hearths of popular culture traits established? • Typically begins with an idea/good and contagious diffusion. • Companies (MTV) and Individuals (Tony Hawk) can create/manufacture popular culture. • Hierarchical diffusion: fax machines on a farm/industrial revolution • Relocation diffusion: British prisoners to Australia

31. The hearth of Phish concerts is in the northeastern United States, near where the band began in Vermont.

32. With Distance Decay, the likelihood of diffusion decreases as time and distance from the hearth increases. With Time-Space Compression, the likelihood of diffusion depends upon the connectedness among places. Which applies more to popular culture? Time-Space Compression

33. Factors that Affect Diffusion • Distance • Population Density • Means of Communication • Nature of the Innovation • Prestige of the Node

34. Culture Change and Convergence • Acculturation -process whereby one culture is substantially changed through the interaction of another culture • Assimilation -process where two or more cultures fuse, but not necessarily cultural characteristics • Transculturation-changes that occur from the interaction of cultures that is equal • Migrant Diffusion -by the time the new ideas and inventions reach a place, they have faded away at their point of origin • Ethnocentrism-tendency to evaluate other cultures against the standards of one’s own

35. Why are popular culture traits usually diffused hierarchically? How is fashion in popular culture an example of hierarchical diffusion?