Culture Vocab

Debra Troxell, NBCT

Definition of Culture• A group of belief systems, norms and

values practiced by a people• Recognized in 1 of 2 ways

1. People call themselves a culture

2. Others can label a certain group of people as a culture

• Acculturation - cultural modification or change that results when one culture group adopts traits of a dominant society; cultural development or change through “borrowing

• Assimilation – the minority population reduces or loses completely its identifying cultural characteristics and blends into the host society

Material Culture -

• Artifacts– The Built Environment – the landscape

created– a human-made object which gives information

about the culture of its creator and users • The Contents of Houses & Shops

– Physical, Visible Things• Musical Instruments, Furniture, Tools, Buildings

Nonmaterial Culture

Mentifacts & Sociofacts– Oral Traditions, Folk Songs, Stories,

Philosophies– Includes beliefs, practices, aesthetics, and

values of a group of people

• Mentifacts represent the ideas and beliefs of a culture, for example religion, language or law

• Sociofacts represent the social structures of a culture, such as tribes or families.

Folk Culture

Folk Culture

• Cultural traits such as dress modes, dwellings, traditions, and institutions of usually small, homogeneous, traditional communities

aka Local Culture

• group of people in a particular place – who see themselves as a collective or

community, – who share experiences, customs, and traits,

and – who work to preserve those traits and

customs – in order to claim uniqueness and to

distinguish themselves from others

How are local cultures sustained?

• Local culture sustained through customs• Simon Harrison

– 2 goals of local cultures: keep other cultures out; keep their culture in

– Must avoid cultural appropriation (the process by which other cultures adopt customs and knowledge and use them for their own benefit)

• Not just folk culture being preserved but also protected from becoming popular culture

Protecting Local Culture

• Choosing to live apart from mainstream societies– By creating ethnic neighborhoods

• Hasidic Jews

– Rural Colonies/Communities• Hutterites• Amish

• May mean rallying around unique ideas or practices– Parsi families – Makah American Indians reinstated whale hunting– Little Sweden

Hasidic Jews

• Ethnic Neighborhoods –

• Pious

• Distinctive clothes

• Speak Yiddish

• Do not watch tv, but will listen to radio

• Other Urban Local Culture examples– Italian neighborhoods, Chinatowns, Mexican,

Russian, Polish

Hutterites

• Anabaptist groups (Hutterites, Amish, & Mennonites) broke away from Catholics and Protestants during Reformation times

• Since then have sought to protect their way of life …– By choosing rural locations– Being selective in adopting technology

Hutterites

• absolute pacifism

• Live in rural, self-sufficient, communal “colonies”

• Forbid use tv, radio, usually only 1 telephone for the community

• Avoid pictures

• Colonies will specialize in products, such as feed, feeders, or dairy products

Protecting Local Culture

• Choosing to live apart from mainstream societies– By creating ethnic neighborhoods

• Hasidic Jews

– Rural Colonies/Communities• Hutterites• Amish

• May mean rallying around unique ideas or practices– Parsi families – Makah American Indians reinstated whale hunting– Little Sweden

Parsi Families• Zoroastrians• Migrated to India from Iran around 700 – 900 AD• Present day – financially successful• In last 30 years, population has declined from

100,000 to 56,000– Attributed to intermarriage is not allowed– Intermarried women and their children included– Parsi women, much like in developed countries, are

well-educated professionals, marrying later and having fewer children.

• However, intermarriage ban attributed to preservation of culture/religion within a predominantly Hindu country

Makah American Indians

• Early culture included whale hunting• Whale hunting in the 17th – 19th century- increasingly

commercial and detrimental to the whale population• 1946 – International Whaling Commission instituted

regulations• 1990’s – Makah American Indians, Washington

reinstated whale hunting facing much protest• 1999 – whale killed but not in traditional way with canoes and harpoons, but according to IWC regulations a .50 caliber rifle

Lindsborg, Kansas

• 1869 - Originally founded by Swedish Lutherans

• 1950s – town decided to highlight heritage

• Neolocalism – seeking out regional culture and reinvigorating it (ex. Little Sweden in Kansas)

• Commodification of a culture can compromise authenticity becoming a stereotype –examples?– Cherokee– Branson, Mo– Guinness and the Irish Pub Co.– Hawaiian Luaus

Homework

• Examine the remaining slides and answer the included questions. You do not need to print the slides.

1. Which statement about culture is true?

a.Culture is the traditions and beliefs of a group of people.

b. Cultures are dynamic and always changing.

c. Culture is learned behavior that is passed from one generation to the next.

d. Cultural traits are a reflection of a group’s values.

e. All of the above.

2. The theory that the physical environment causes social and cultural development is called

A.environmental ecology.

B. cultural ecology.

C. cultural determinism.

D. environmental determinism.

E. environmental landscape.

3. How have hot dog stands across the country maintained diversity?

a.Only limited areas have a custom of eating hot dogs.

b. Hot dogs are really the worst part of the animal.

c. The hot dog restaurant has not been standardized and mass marketed.

d. Contrary to some opinion, hot dog service has been commercialized

4. A group that migrates to another country intermarries with people from the new country, and within three generations, the group is indistinguishable from the dominant country. This process is best described as

a.migration diffusionb. Acculturation

c. transculturation d. assimilation

5. What has most contributed to ethnocide, according to Wade Davis?

a.hierarchical diffusion

b. single stories

c. cultural dominance

d. lingua franca

What is the influence of the Physical Environment on Culture?

• Customs are influenced by climate, soil and vegetation (Environmental Determinism)

• Particularly responsive to environment b/c low level of technology and agricultural economy

• 2 necessities of life: food and shelter– Shows the influence of cultural values and the

environment on the development of unique folk culture

1. List 2 examples of how the environment affects food, clothing or shelter in a folk culture.

Distinctive Food Preferences• Derived from the environment• Adapt food preferences to environmental

conditions (Pigs must be slaughtered when below freezing therefore few pigs in warmer climates)

• Role of terrior (effects of the environment on a particular food item)

Food attractions and Taboos• People eat and don’t eat certain things

based on a response as to whether it is socially acceptable or not– The nutritional value is one of the determining

factors in whether someone eats something or not

– Some things are eaten b/c they enhance some characteristic the culture deems important

2. What is a taboo food in the US? Justify why it is taboo.

Food and drink

Local cuisine based on what is available• Also is based on local customs• Ex. Geophagy – eating dirt,

– common in Africa & southern United States, – may counteract digestive issues, – common among pregnant women

3. Why is eating dirt common in the southern US but not other US areas?

Folk food regions

• Mexico—– abundant use of chili peppers in cooking and maize for tortillas

• Caribbean areas — – combined rice-bean dishes and various rum drinks

• Amazonian region — – monkey and caiman

• Brazil — – cuscuz (cooked grain) and sugarcane brandy

• Pampas style — – carne asada (roasted beef), wine and yerba mate (herbal tea)

4. Does your family have favorite foods from your folk culture? What food and which culture?

Folk food regions

• Latin American foods derive from Amerindians, Africans, Spaniards, and Portuguese

• Pattern of Latin American is not simple and culinary regions are not as homogeneous as the map we saw suggests

5. Why do Latin American foods have African, Spaniard and Portuguese influences?

Music• American folk music began as transplants of Old

World songs– Northern song

• Featured unaccompanied solo signing in clear hard tones• Featured Fiddle or fife-and-drum

– Southern, Backwoods, and Appalachian song• Featured unaccompanied high pitch and nasal solo singing• Marked by moral and emotional conflict• Roots of country music

– Western song• Factual, narrative songs• Themes of natural beauty, personal valor, and feminine

purity• Some songs reworked as lumberjack ballads

6. What happens when you play a country music album backwards? See next slide

You get your dog back, your truck back, get your job back, you get out of jail, you get your wife back…

If you don’t understand, we will explain in class.

7. Bluegrass became popular culture during this time period. Why are there music festivals in the west but no bluegrass performers homes?

2012Bluegrass bars, museums, etc.

Folklore regions

• Displays regional contrasts in much the same way as material folk culture

• Folk geographers consider diverse nonmaterial phenomena as folktales, dance, music, myths, legends, and proverbs

• Most thoroughly studied in Europe– First research appeared early in the nineteenth century– We know more about vanished folk cultures than surviving ones– Example of Switzerland

8. Write a brief explanation about the folk lore story involving what happens when you lose your baby teeth?

Where did babies come from?

9. Have you heard any of these explanations? Rank the folk lore explanations in order of the ones you were told, the ones you have heard, the ones you understand the reference, ones you are completely unaware.

Switzerland

Amish and Haka

• Amish:10. What do the Amish gain by living apart?

11. How does popular culture threaten the Amish?

• Haka:12. How does folk culture serve the Haka?

Amish and Haka

13.How do the Amish protect folk culture?

14.How do the Haka protect folk culture?

15.Which method is most successful at protecting folk culture?