Folk Culture and Popular Culture

What types of recreational activities do you enjoy? Are you a sports fan? Do you enjoy the theater, music, art, or dancing? Whatever you prefer, you are an heir to cultural traditions thousands of years old. Art, leisure, and recreation have been important aspects of cultures throughout the world since the dawn of civilization.

Folk Customs and Popular Customs. In examining relationships between geography and recreational activities, it is important to distinguish betweenfolk customs and popular customs. Customs are practicescharacteristic of individuals in particular cultures. Theymay be associated with styles of food or clothing, formsof etiquette, recreational activities, or any convention thatregulates social life.

Some customs are peculiar to individual cultures and are unaffected by cultural contact. These customs are known as folk customs. Other customs are common to many different cultures, diffusing quickly across cultural boundaries. These are known as popular customs. Attending sporting events, listening to popular music, and eating in fast-food restaurants are examples of popular customs. All of these activities are enjoyed by people around the world, regardless of location or culture (Figure 6-1).

Figure 6-1 Popular Music. Popular customs are common to many different cultures. These concert-goers are enjoying a Jazz Festival held in Nice, France. Popular music is enjoyed by most cultural groups

Collectively, the folk customs associated with a particular culture constitute folk culture. Folk culture includes the folk songs, art forms, and games that change little from one generation to the next. Folk culture spreads primarily through relocation diffusion. European settlers in North America brought many folk customs including food preferences, architectural styles, and folk songs with them across the Atlantic Ocean.

Popular culture, on the other hand, is the aggregate of popular customs. Unlike folk culture, popular culture is subject to rapid expansion diffusion. The diffusion of popular culture is expedited by radio, television, newspapers, and other communications media. New movies, television shows, and popular songs are broadcast throughout the world shortly after being written and produced.

The relationship between folk culture and popular culture is interactive. Many popular customs were once folk customs. The folk game called "hangman" became the popular television game show "Wheel of Fortune." Popular sports such as soccer, baseball, football, and golf originated as folk games, some of them hundreds of years ago. On the other hand, popular spectator sports generate folk games that are played by children and adults throughout the world. Children playing whiffle ball or kickball in a backyard are playing folk games derived from the popular sport of baseball.

The contemporary world is becoming evermore integrated: hence, few customs are exclusively folk customs any longer. Yet, many people are involved in efforts to preserve folk customs. People who collect folk songs, produce traditional artwork, cook traditional dishes, and engage in crafts like stained glassmaking, weaving, or quilting are helping to preserve folk culture.