2.2: Folk Regions

Contemporary American society was built from the ideas and practices of at least four majorfolk cultures, and a handful of smaller folk cultures. Though many of the behaviors that once characterized the thoughts and actions of people within these regions are largely extinct, the long-term effects of those folk cultures are still very prominent in the lives of Americans today. Hearth areas and isolated locations within the old folk regions retain more folk traits than urban zones and areas peripheral to the old folk regions. These extinct folk practices are nevertheless evident in contemporary religious practice, political beliefs, musical tastes, and foodways. The following sections delve into some of these practices to help you see the connections between our folk past and our modern lives.

Figure 2-2: US Map - Significant Folk Regions of the United States

Folk regions are defined by the ideas and behaviors of their core or hearth areas. Folk regions are defined by traits (such as foodways) and as such examples of formal regions. The core area is often the cultural hearth, where cultural practices were invented and remain most undiluted. At the periphery, or near the borders of folk regions, cultural practices are often diluted or modified through a process known as cultural hybridization where folk practices of one region mix with cultural practices from an adjacent region.

Figure 2-3: Map - Folk Regions of Louisiana. Source: Louisiana Folklife Program

Within each of the major folk cultural regions, there may be dozens of sub-regions. Consider the map of Louisiana’s folklife regions (figure 2.3). Even within a small state like Louisiana, a rich tapestry of folk practices evolved, thanks in large part to successive waves of immigration and several significant barriers to travel, including the Atchafalaya Swamp.

The map of Louisiana’s folk regions demonstrates the complexity of cultural practices. Too often, people tend to assume individuals are beholden to cultural ideas and behaviors of some larger group. You probably know making assumptions of that nature leads to stereotyping. In geography, mistakenly assuming that regions are uniform, or homogeneous, may lead you to commit the ecological fallacy, the erroneous assumption that there are no variations within a formal region. For example, a map of the US showing religion would show California as a Catholic region, but you would be very wrong to assume that all Californians are Catholic. In other words, to avoid the ecological fallacy, do not assume that sub-regions are exactly like parent regions, much the same way you should not assume that all individuals within a group (e.g. Koreans) conform to group tendencies. There are many dozens of artifacts we could study to learn more about the historical and environmental roots of our modern culture. This text focuses on folk housing, folk music, and sports. The chapter on Food and Agriculture provides some additional insights into the folk cultural roots of our foodways.

Figure 2-4: Chillicothe, OH. This house was built using hand-hewn heavy timbers with brick infill. This method of construction is replaced by the mid-1800s in the US by new, popular techniques.