Folk Culture

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Folk Culture
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Definition

• Folk culture cultural traits such as dress,
  dwellings, traditions, and institutions of
  usually small, traditional communities
• Folk culture is usually passed person-to-person
  within the relatively small, close-knit community

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Aspects of Folk Culture

• Folk culture comprises people (and objects, etc.)
  who represent or maintain a "traditional" mode of
  life
• Live in an old-fashioned way
• Or with a simpler life-style which is not modern"

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• Folk culture is usually rural, tight-knit,
  conservative, and largely self-sufficient.
• There is often a strong family or clan structure
  and highly developed family, religious, or
  general community rituals.

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• Tradition comes first change comes infrequently
  and slowly

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• Folk culture may be either (or both) material and
  nonmaterial
• Material culture includes all objects made by
  members of a particular cultural group
• Nonmaterial culture
• Folklore folktales, folksongs, folkdance, folk
  beliefs (superstitions and customs)
• Dialects, religions, etc.

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African Folk Culture
A legacy of tradition
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• African folk
• culture includes
• Art
• Religious Beliefs
• Traditions
• Dance
• Music
• in hundreds of ethnic groups

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• Africas ancient tribal culture has been closely
  tied to their religious beliefs, known as
• animism
• the belief that inanimate objects contain the
  spirit and consciousness of living things

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• Most early African art and rituals were heavily
  influenced by a belief in animism

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• Shamans are priests or priestesses that use magic
  to gain power over the supernatural

Music, dance, and art came together in animistic
rituals these customs were the origins of later
African folk culture
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Art

• Primitive art tried to represent the human form
  in carvings

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Folk Art

• Modern folk art is often self-taught and unrefined

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Dance

• Highly stimulating and often emotional

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Music

• Uses many variations of percussion instruments,
  especially drums