I am quite angry about what happended Friday

The more I think about it the angrier I get. I will probably remove this top part of the post later but for now I need to vent. The school should have had a sub for Friday. The fact that that did not happen dismays me and shows me that my work of getting stuff ready was not worth it. This is not acceptable and I will be complaining about it to the main office. It will not happen again. I will not go to any conferences if they cannot do their part and get a sub in the classroom. I cannot lose more time. Last week was ridiculously interrupted and now we have to get work done. The assignment is below. Get it done by early next week (not this upcoming week but the following one). I cannot and will not accept any excuses on this. Read the bottom part on folk and popular culture. You need to know that for Monday. I will be testing on it on Tuesday with a strict time limit so you need to know it and know it well. I cannot afford to not push you. We are not losing any more time and now we need to make up for too much lost time because last week was ridiculous.

Current Events Symposium - Friday Work

Use the article on India Malls in your newspaper folder / I will give you the other article for the first part on Monday. Those of you that see this should at least read the folk and culture stuff below. Get the work done and turn it in to me by early next week. I will be testing on this material sometime this week.

Read each article and answer the corresponding questions. Remember to be specific and thoughtful in your answers and USE THE VOCABULARY AND THE IDEAS THAT YOU HAVE LEARNED IN CLASS OR FROM THE HANDOUT. One paragraph each for this section.

“It’s Splitsville” Newsweek October 23, 2006

What is a demographer? What significance do they play in our society? Why are their findings important?

-Take a guess and make it good.

Do you think this way of life is good for the economy? Why or why not?

-Think about how popular culture is the culture of consumption.

-Think about the amount of wealth one must have to do this and how this kind of spending would affect the economy.

Why does “splitting” occur in stage 4 countries? What factors need to be in place for people to live this way?

-Think about the nature of popular culture societies.

-Why would this sort of thing be impossible in a folk culture society.

-Use the handout and

How do you think this phenomenon will affect how people live in the future?

-Think about popular culture, homogeneous settings (how chain stores and chain restaurants make all places feel the same), and technology will allow this to happen. -With people moving so much how will this change the idea of local areas having their own local cultures.

Malls Sprout at Breakneck Pace in India

1. How will malls change India and why? Answer this question in two paragraphs of around ten sentences. You must add onto the material provided for you with the hints and you must use material from your notes, text or the handout. I want to see you incorporate the ideas of human geography into your answer as much as you can. use the hints. They are there to help you. But you must also use specifics from the article and specifics from the folk/popular cultrue handout. Feel free to help each other out and discuss answers. Take this seriously and try and get good answers down by the end of the period when it will be collected and left in my top drawer in the middle of the desk (the drawer with the keyhole). I will grade this and I will deduct points severely if I think you blew this off. I need you to teach yourselves and to help yourselves while I am gone. This is AP and it is expected that you can learn on your own.

Hints

-Going from a folk culture to a popular culture.

-Growth of wealth of the Indian economy will make it adopt more popular culture. India will develop and have more factories. People will gain wealth. More and more Indians will become middle class and have more personal wealth and more free time. More businesses will be in India and they do not market to people along ethnic lines

-As the market becomes more and more global, these malls will have chain stores from all over the globe. This changes the nature of associating certain materials with certain places.

-Popular culture tries to appeal to everyone and tries to get everyone to like the same products. GAP wants everyone to like their jeans and see their clothes as beautiful. This is different from the way folk societies choose their clothing styles. Examine the issue of people lightening their skin.

-Popular culture encourages people to see things in the same and makes the landscape homogenous even though it appeals to a heterogeneous group of people.

Popular culture

Consists of large masses of people who conform to and prescribe to ever-changing norms

Large heterogeneous groups (causes problems for some, why?)

Pronounced division of labor leading to establishment of specialized professions

The government and business interests take the place of religion and family in maintaining order (in the eyes of those from folk cultures)

Money based economy prevails

Replacing folk culture in industrialized countries and many developing nations

Folk-made objects give way to their popular equivalent (globalization)

Item is more quickly or cheaply produced

Easier or time-saving to use

Lends prestige to owner

Folk culture

Made up of people who maintain the traditional ways previous to development (often)

Rural, cohesive, conservative, largely self-sufficient group, homogeneous in custom

Strong family or clan structure and highly developed rituals

Tradition is paramount — change comes infrequently and slowly and often through conflict

Little specialization in labor though duties may vary between genders

Subsistence economy prevails

Individualism and social classes are weakly developed

In parts of the less-developed world, folk cultures remain common

Industrialized countries no longer have unaltered folk cultures

-Typically, bearers of folk culture combine folk and nonfolk elements in their lives

-Includes both material and nonmaterial elements

-Material culture includes all objects or “things” made and used by members of a cultural group—material elements are visible

-Nomnaterial culture, including folklore, can be defined as oral, including the wide range of tales, songs, lore, beliefs, superstitions, and customs

-Other aspects of nonmaterial culture include dialects, religions, and worldviews

-Folk geography—defined as the study of the spatial patterns and ecology of folklife

Diffusion Methods

Relocation is a form of diffusion wherein there is spatial expansion but not an increase in numbers - Folk

Expansion diffusion occurs when there is an increase in numbers with the increase in space - Popular

Hierarchical diffusion is where the factor experiences resistance going up and less resistance going down a series of geographic regions - Which?

Folk Diffusion

Diffuses by the same methods as other cultural elements, but more slowly

Weakly developed social stratification tends to retard hierarchical diffusion

Inherent conservatism produces resistance to change

Essential difference between folk and popular culture is speed by which expansion diffusion occurs

Folk Culture and Ecology

Folk group’s close relationship with the physical environment

Adaptive strategies often possess sustainability

Livelihood gained directly through primary activities — farming, herding, hunting, gathering, and fishing

Folk tales honor great hunters

Proverbs offer wisdom concerning weather and proper time for planting

Architecture reflects local building materials and climate

One is tempted to conclude folkways exist to facilitate the adjustment to physical environment

Folkways involve more than merely cultural adaptation

A variety of folk cultures can exist in any particular ecosystem

They are not enslaved and wholly shaped by their physical surroundings

Not necessarily true that they live in close harmony with their environment

Often soil erosion, deforestation, and overkill of wild animals can be attributed to traditional rural

Folk cultures tend to be:

-Homogeneous in ethnic and cultural background and leery of outsiders

-Have food and clothing that is locally made

-Have strong family values that promote having children and go against alternate lifestyles

-Tend to be male dominated and women tend to have lower education levels and not to have a choice of not having children or being independent and single. There are low divorce rates in such a country

-The customs of the group tend to be united by religion.

-Conflict can often occur with those of outside cultures or those of differing folk cultures popular cultures.

Popular cultures tend to:

-Be more about individuality and individual rights

-People have more money and free time and have the industries that can exploit this.

-Popular culture items are created based off of marketing strategies not religious or ethnic connections. An example of this can be found in the differences between a McDonald's restaurant and an Italian restaurant.

-Have less family values as they allow for DINKS, higher divorce rates, LATs, and other alternative lifestyles