dec1.doc

Local cultures are sustained by maintaining customs. Custom: A practice that a group of people routinely follows. Material and Nonmaterial Culture Material: Things a group of people construct such as art, houses, clothing, dance, sports and food. Nonmaterial: The beliefs, practices, aesthetics and values of a group of people. Assimilation: Assimilate indigenous peoples into the dominant culture by using schools, churches, and government agents to discourage native practices. (ie. Make ?American Indians? into ?Americans? rather than ?Indians?.) Local Cultures often have two goals: Keeping other cultures out. (ie. Create a boundary around itself) Keeping their own culture in. (ie. Avoid cultural appropriation) Cultural appropriation: The process by which other cultures adopt customs and knowledge and use them for their own benefit. What role does place play in maintaining customs? By defining a place (a town or a neighbourhood) 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 re-establish) its customs and reinforce its beliefs. 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 may be defined by a shared economic activity. Urban Local Cultures Can create ethnic neighborhoods within cities. Creates a space to practice customs. Can cluster businesses, house 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 Commodification It?s a process through which something (a name, a good, an idea or even a person) that previously was not regarded as an object to be bought or sold becomes an object that can be bought, sold, and traded in the world market. Authenticity When commodification occurs, the question of authenticity follows. When local cultures or customs are commodified, usually one image or experience is typecast as the ?authentic? image or experience of that culture and those are the tourist or buyer desires. To gain ?authentic? sense of place, people need to directly experience the complexity of a place rather than the stereotype of a place. Irish Pub Company Pubs are examples of commodification and authenticity. Irish Pub Company and Guinness Brewing Company created 5 models of pubs and export them around the world. How are hearths of popular culture traits established? Typically begins with an idea/good and contagious diffusion. Companies can create/manufacture popular culture. (ie. MTV) Individuals can create/manufacture popular culture. (ie. Tony Hawk) Distance decay is altered by transportation and communication technologies. With Distance Decay, the likelihood of diffusion decreases as time and distance from the hearth increases. Time-Space Compression explains how quickly innovations diffuse and refers to how interlinked two places are through transportation and communication technologies. With Time-Space Compression, the likelihood of diffusion depends upon the connectedness among places.