Local Culture, Popular Culture, and Cultural Landscape

Field Note: Preserving Culture
1. The Tata Corporation's logo was everywhere, on buildings, TV's, Satellites etc.
2. Tata is part of the religious group Parsi, who came to India asking to settle in Western India.
  1. Turned away and given a bowl of milk signifying that there were too many people. Gave back milk with gold ring to say that they would bring wealth without displacing people
3. Tata group controls much of the Indian economy, even though they make up less than 1% of the population
  1. Financial success is not linked to one thing
4. Parsi Population is dwindling due to the fact that they don't count children born from a non-Parsi father as part of their group
  1. Reason 1: women that are Parsi are more literate, therefore want to wait longer to have children, also, they have the choice to marry non-Parsi and are educated enough to make the right descision
5. Because we are in an era of globalization, it is hard to maintain local culture, and not be influenced by outside culture
What are local and popular cultures?
1. 2 ways to recognize culture 1) the people call themselves it 2) other people label them
  1. Local culture = small Popular Culture = larger group of people
2. Folk culture is limiting because it requires us to make a list of characteristics
  1. one of the big Q's is how and what are the characteristics that local culture members form for themselves?
    1. it should be about how the PEOPLE want to define themselves, not how society wants to define them
3. LOCAL CULTURE is a group of people who see themselves as a communtity
  1. Constantly refining themselves based on their new interactions
  2. SEE QUIZLET--- what is produced of material culture is directly affected by their beliefs or values (non-material culture)
4. Popular culture is much larger than local and changes faster and is diffused by transportation, media etc.
  1. EX- Fashion is popular culture and is diffused by a hierarchy, when a famous person wears it, everyone else wants that same style
5. local and popular culture act together on same level, constantly changing one another
  1. EX- Henna is worn by non-Indians as a fad
    1. people wear their religious clothes to popular super markets or stores
  2. both are constantly navigating through political and religious barriers that make up their culture
How are local cultures sustained?
1. During 1800-1900- assimilation of indigenous people was destroying local cultures
  1. US offered rewards for Indians that looked and acted most "American"
  2. Australia and Canada offered apologies after, but the US has not
    1. Indigenous people in the US are pushing against assimilation and using language, and food, etc. as a way to keep their culture alive
2. Researcher Simon Harrison says that local cultures is sustained through CUSTOMS
  1. Local culture want to keep their culture in, and other cultures out
    1. To avoid cultural appropariation, or the stealing of cultural knowledge for personal gain, is a reason why
3. Members of local culture have an easier time maintaining their in a rural environment, because of the isolation
  1. After breaking off from the catholic church, Anabaptists fled to rural areas to stay together and escape persecution
    1. The Hutterite religion did not used to accept tech. but now use them for their own profit
      1. use online dating sites to find other men or women of their religion, but then follow strict religious ways with that marriage
      2. use tech. and new advancements in agriculture to better their crop and farm production
    2. groups of Mennonites travel from the east coast to south Dakota to Canada, all the way to Bolivia to find farm land where then can live without being persecuted
  2. In 1920, the Mekah Indians were forbidden to hunt whales
    1. when the animal was no longer extinct, they wanted to hunt to return to their culture but were restricted to only using a rifle instead of the traditional harpoon
  3. In Lindsborg, Kansas, the people call it Little Sweden. They have festivals to celebrate the migrations to Lindsborg, and revel in the shared culture
    1. in their festivals they dress like the Swedish peasants that first came to America--JAMES SHORTRIDGE called this NEOLOCALISM, or the seeking of a culture and bringing it into the modern world
4. local cultures create their own place in urban areas through ethnic neighborhoods
5. local cultures want to keep to themselves so people don't take their ideas and use them for profit
  1. process of making something that currently wasn't for profit, profitable is called COMMODIFICATION
    1. when commodification happens, authenticity comes into play
    2. commodification freezes time to get a more "authentic" look--but it isn't really authentic because local culture is always rewriting and changing their characteristics to match their experiences
  2. Authentic tourist destinations are supposed to exploit the "mystical" or unknown in local culture
    1. The Guinness Brewing Company took their pub worldwide, creating a fun "authentic" Irish experience
How is popular culture diffused? MAP ON SEPERATE SHEET
How can local and popular cultures be seen in the cultural landscape? MAP ON SEPERATE SHEET

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Local Culture, Popular Culture, and Cultural Landscape

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	Created by OLIVIA WALSH about 9 years ago