2. • Cultural traits such as dress modes, dwellings, traditions, and
institutions of usually small, traditional communities
• Examples?
• Amish, Mennonites, Hutterites (Canada) or tribals in India
• Local culture – group of people in a particular place who see
themselves as a collective or community, who share experiences,
customs, and traits, and who work to preserve those traits and
customs in order to claim uniqueness and to distinguish themselves
from others
3. • This type of culture is neither “Primitive” in usual sense of word nor
are “Civilized” in the sense of being integrated into modern industrial
culture.
• They appear at first glance, to be scattered at varying intervals along
the roads leads from a tribal society to modern urban society.
4. FOLK LIFE
• Material Culture - Artifacts
• Physical, Visible Things
• Musical Instruments, Furniture, Tools, Buildings
• The Built Environment – the landscape created
• Nonmaterial Culture
• Mentifacts and Sociofacts
• Oral Traditions, Folk Songs, Stories, Philosophies
• Includes beliefs, practices, aesthetics, and values of a group of people
• Mentifacts represent the ideas and beliefs of a culture, for example religion,
language or law
• Sociofacts represent the social structures of a culture, such as tribes or families.
• Artifact is a human-made object which gives information about the culture of its
creator and users
5. • Music
• Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music
transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music
with unknown composers.
• It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. One
meaning often given is that of old songs, with no known composers;
another is music that has been transmitted and evolved by a process
of oral transmission or performed by custom over a long period of
time.
6. • There are numerous eminent bards/saints or Fakirs who had
contributed a lot in this field.
• Few of them are Kabir, Moinuddin Chishti, Lalon Fakir and many
more.
• Main classification can be done based on the regional languages.
• It has many forms including bhangra, lavani, dandiya and Rajasthani.
8. Folk dances
• Folk dances are dances that share some or all of the following
attributes:
• Dances performed at social functions by people with little or no
professional training, often to traditionally based music.
• Dances not generally designed for public performance or the stage,
though they may later be arranged and set for stage performances.
• Execution dominated by an inherited tradition rather than innovation
(though folk traditions change over time)
• New dancers often learn informally by observing others and/or
receiving help from others.
9. • Examples of Folk Dances
• Odori, Japanese traditional dance, often danced in long parades in the
streets where anyone can join in.
• Baile folklórico, literally "folkloric dance" in Spanish, is a collective
term for traditional Latin American dances that emphasize local folk
culture with ballet characteristics - pointed toes, exaggerated
movements, highly choreographed.
11. • Folk culture also include local food or cuisines.
• Mexico—abundant use of chili peppers in cooking and maize for
tortillas
• Caribbean areas — combined rice-bean dishes and various rum drinks
• Punjab: Excess Use of Desi ghee
12. • FOLK CULTURE
• Transmitted
interpersonally
• Stable, conservative,
traditionalist
• Based on idea of
community (shared
experience and mutual
obligations)
• Clear-cut social roles,
M/F division of labor
• Adapted to a particular
environment
• POPULAR CULTURE
• Transmitted by media
such as books & TV
• Constantly changing and
innovating
• Based on idea of society
(specialized roles and
interdependence,
impersonal coordination)
• Flexible and vague social
roles
• Not adapted to any
particular environment
13. • Folk Culture includes
traditional medicine.
What are some ways
folk culture medicine
gets incorporated into
popular culture?
• pharmaceutical
companies “discover”
and patent a
compound
• a substance becomes
popular for
“recreational” use
• A technique like
acupuncture or
Chinese herbal
medicine gains
mainstream
acceptance
14. POPULAR CULTURE
• Transmitted by media such as books & TV
• Constantly changing and innovating
• Based on idea of society (specialized roles and interdependence,
impersonal coordination)
• Flexible and vague social roles
• Not adapted to any particular environment
