Chapter 4 Local culture, popular culture, and Cultural landscapes

Hutterites, began in Germany and Switzerland in 16th century Broke from catholic and protestants and were called Anabaptists (meaning baptized again) Hutterites named for Jacob hutter Look like Amish Accept technology for agricultural needs, but not cell phones, TVs, cameras. (individual behaviors that dont go with religion) Diverse agriculture One leader, minister

What are Local and Popular cultures? Culture- group of belief systems, norms, and values practiced by a people 1. People of call themselves a culture or 2. Other people (including academics) can label a certain group of people as a culture Folk culture- small, incorporates homogenous population, typically rural, cohesive of cultural traits Popular culture- large, heterogeneous populations, typically urban, quickly changing cultural traits Local culture- group of people in a particular place who see themselves as a collective or a community, who share experiences, customs, and traits, who work to preserve those traits and customs in order to claim uniqueness and distinguish themselves from others Local constantly redefining themselves as they come into contact with other The Material culture of a group of people includes things they construct, such as art, houses, dance, food, sports etc. Nonmaterial culture includes beliefs, practices, aesthetics, and values of a group of people Popular culture is ubiquitous and can change in a matter of days It is heterogeneous: people across identities and across the world Popular culture spreads through hierarchical diffusion

How Are Local Cultures Sustained? In 1800s through 1900s, US had Assimilation policy Assimilates indigenous people into dominant culture Indians in Americans Local culture kept alive by customs Practice route inly followed Simon Harrison finds that local cultures have 2 goals : keeping other cultures out and keeping their culture in Cultural appropriation- the process by which other cultures adopt other customs and knowledge and use them for benefit When places take pop culture out, keep theirs in and have control over customs and knowledge, the become increasingly important

Rural Local Cultures Rural towns= less interaction Makah American Indians: in 1990s reinstated whale hunt, did so because of cultural reasons, recreate and solidify local culture. hunted the whale with international whaling commission, had to kill more quickly Little Sweden, USA. : from after people of Lindsborg shared narrative of Swedish history had neolocalism, seeking out regional culture and reinvigorating it in response to the uncertainty of modern world

Urban Local cultures Ethnic neighborhoods- local culture in a major city Italians in new York, 12 societies, led by romaband, Italian band, playing since 1919 Biggest problem is people of pop culture entering neighborhood New arts group is inundating the Hasidic neighborhood of Brooklyn called Williamsburg Painted old warehouses, converted into residences Local cultures and cultural appropriation Commodification the process through which something that previously was not regarded as an object to be bought or sold becomes an object which can be bought or sold and traded in the world market Affects material culture, nonmaterial culture can be commoditized. EX: people viewing Amish from tour buses Question of authenticity comes up. Stereotyping occurs

Authenticity of places Europeans tagged cultures as savage or mystic, during colonization authentic destinations for exploitation of mystical in local cultures The Lost city park capitalizes on mystical images of Africa described in a legend Branson, Missouri melds people and perception in one place so tourists can consume Surrounding towns try to copy Guinness and the Irish pub company Exploits mystique of Irish pub Makes a lot of pubs around the world, has pub- school Craic- Irish for fun Most enigmatic pub in las vegas, Nine fine Irishmen authentic pub in authentic new York in the disneyfied las vegas People always searching for authentic local culture

How is popular Culture diffused?

Transportation and communications technologies have alerted distance decay It doesnt spread in a circle around hearth anymore Time-space compression explains how quickly innovations diffuse and refers to how interlinked 2 places are through transportation and communications technologies Far away cities have become much closer through technology Places that lack transportation and communications technologies are now farther away and apart from interconnected places than ever Phishing for a hearth Developers of an idea or innovation may find they have followers that do or listen to the music they play Phish - college band, started out small, then diffused to most of US, then diffused to Europe and japan. When phish broke up, they pleaded to fans to leave their rural varmint as they found it

Manufacturing a hearth Whether people make it is largely decided on actions and choices of record producers and corporate giants

MTV produced popular culture globally Helped get hip hop and rap into production since 1997 merchants of cool looks at roles of corporations and marketing agencies play in creating pop culture sends cool hunters out to talk with cool kids talk about whats cool, goes through teenagers bedrooms MTV creates whats cool, Sharon lee, a producer, explained how trends in popular culture are spread from the hearth its triangle, at top is innovators, 2-3% of pop, underneath is 17%, they pick up ideas and claim them as their own.bottom is 80 %.. they make it palatable for mass consumption, they tweak, make more acceptable, and when mass consumer picks up on it they kill it Reterritorialization when people within a place start to produce an aspect of popular culture themselves, doing so in the context of their local culture and making it their own Hip hop when it grew out of inner cities in 80s and 90s such and los Angeles and new York, it diffused and Reterritorialized, it changed to adapt to culture and situation, artists in Europe made it to appeal to country, hip hop came into Indonesia and it changed, to create hybrid.

Replacing old hearths with new Baseball, football, basketball big 3 sports Telegraph, railroads, and other technology allowed better games and stuff During 1900s big three dominated culture During big 3, other sports captured imagination of young sports fans Films and TV immortalized surfing, sidewalk surfing (skateboarding), diffused from hearth in southern California, snowboarding came into existence, but saw strong resistance from ski slopes in America Organization of ESPNs X games, sparked interest in skateboarding, from video games. In 2001, skateboarding beat baseball, more people under 18 skateboarding Ages 12-34 Became more mainstream, when tony hawk beat Shaq in 2001 kids choice awards Now people look for other extreme sports that not as mainstream as skateboarding

Stemming tide of popular culture losing the local? Policies of assimilation Popular stuff diffuses quickly form UK and US

Influence of Europe ,Us, and japan in global culture makes many people feel threatened by cultural homogenization They exert gratest influence US influences music sports and fast food Japan influences children televion and electronics games Europe influences in certain realsm of fashion,art, and philosophy French government heavily subsidizes in domestic film industry In 1990, French set policy 40% of air time on radio must be French Half of the 40% must be new artists Help-s maintains cultural industries, governemtns and cultural insituitions lack the means of will to promote local cultural production. Local culture will interpret, choose, and reshape influx of popular culture

How can Local and Popular Cultures be seen in the cultural landscape? Cultural landscape visible imprint of human activity on landscape Placelessness describes the loss of uniqueness of place in cultural landscape so that one place looks like the next... McDonalds on every other intersection or city Convergence of cultural landscapes has 3 dimensions: 1. Particular architectural forms and planning ideas have diffused around the world 2. Individual businesses and products have become so widespread that they now leave a distinctive landscape stamp on a far flung place 3. The wholesales borrowing of idealized landscape images, though. Example : skyscrapers. Almost made exclusively be same architects and engineering firms Global-local continuum concept what happens at one scale is not independent of what happens at other scales. What happens in individual place is product of interaction across scales Glocalization- people in a local place mediate and alter regional, national, and global processes in this process

Housing types When people migrate, they carry notions of how a home should be planned and constructed, but in new environment those ideas need to be modified Example comes from eastern seaboard of US Fred Kniffen conducted research on house types and diffusion concluded that 3 principles of housing appear simultaneously in new England, middle atlantic region, and tidewater south of lower Chesapeake bay. Theses building types disused westward and southward int several parallel streams These streams created 3 distinct Folk housing regions New England house, unlike Canadian counterpart, is wood frame, called saltbox house, styple from colonial times and becomes more elaborate over time Countered cold winder by placing fireplace in the center of home, Middle atlantic style originated as one room log cabin with stone chimney and fireplace at one end Warmer so fireplace not at center, Later, more rooms, a porch, and second floor In south, smaller than new England, one story mostly, characteristic porch, raised platform to reduced interior heat, or guard against flood Present cultural landscape a composite of older and newer forms Old house types still exist. Diffusion routes routes that something diffuses Diffusion of americna houses not limited to US, new England saltbox design found in Norway Does not show ranch style houses Ranch house for balmy climate, outdoor living, single story, open construction not suited for extremes of temperature, nevertheless, ranch houses found in virtually everywhere in USD