2.1: Folk Culture

Almost nobody living in the United States today belongs to a folk culture. Generally, folk culture describes the practices of groups people who have few or no modern conveniences, live according to age-old customs and are economically primitive (cashless economy, little occupational specialization, etc.). Probably only the Amish and maybe some native Alaskan groups approximate a folklife existence today in the United States, but even that is doubtful. Much of American folklife disappeared in the mid-19th century when the telegraph and the railroad began invading spaces once isolated from the rest of the world. Folk cultures require a significant degree of isolation from the rest of world to persevere. Geographers tend to see culture spatially, therefore in this text, only practices and behaviors unique to an isolated population considered part of a folk culture. Folk practices tend to be non-commercial, passed down through word of mouth, etc., but they must be local. After a folk practice is exported to the wider world, then there’s a very strong tendency for it to become popularized and commercialized. Once that happens, those practices can no longer be accurately characterized as an element of “folk culture”. Instead, those practices should be recognized as elements of popular culture. The distinction between folk and popular culture practices can often be difficult to define, but geographers look to the spatial patterns and process when in doubt.

Folk culture represents a long-standing fascination among geographers. Part of the attraction is a certain sentimentality or nostalgia for historical landscapes. Geographers have written hundreds of books about mundane things like folk houses, old barns, or banjo playing styles. Some might find these studies worthless or quaint, but that criticism is largely unwarranted. Not all research need be applied to modern problems. If it were, entire fields of study might not exist on campuses across the globe.

Figure 2-1: Cottondale, AL. This scraped earth cemetery in Alabama reminds us of the durability of folk practices. It is likely these burial traditions originated in Africa, brought by slaves to America where it has been maintained in some regions by Blacks and adopted by Whites.

An understanding of folk practices from earlier days and far off places helps us understand the evolution of contemporary or popular cultural practices and beliefs that find expression in our daily lives. Many of our ideas and daily routine has evolved from the folkways of our ancestors, or the ancestors of others. Investigations into folkways and folk landscapes, also help us better understand the evolution of complex interactions between people and their physical environment. Today, advanced technologies often mask our interactions with the natural environment, isolating people both from the lessons of the past and the messages sent by “Mother Nature”. Understanding how people adapted to the constraints and challenges presented by local climate, soils, and topography proves both illuminating and practical as we face significant environmental challenges in our time.