Folk Culture

Folk culture is different from popular culture because it isn't financially driven. Folk culture includes the traditional and nonmainstream cultural activity. Folk culture is normally restricted to the middle class, as it is primarily passed down due to oral traditions. Because of this, many jobs and duties that are outsourced outside of the local community end up not carrying down the oral traditions and folk culture of the native community. One of the main mediums that folk culture exists upon is music, and according to its namesake, folk music.

Folk culture can be used to help explain different socioeconomic classes and their intercultural interactions. It is important to study because many people don't pay attention to popular culture. That makes it difficult to study culture and cultural relations because you are leaving out a large group of people. This difference is very important when studying culture. One of the most prominent areas where folk culture can be seen is within the Native American culture. Much of the Native American music and language is now being passed on only through oral traditions. That has made some scholars speculate that it is going extinct.

When I hear about popular culture, I now understand that it doesn't represent culture that everyone participates in or has available to them. I think that it is important to consider folk culture when thinking about popular culture and intercultural interactions dialectically. It is something that can be seen and creates an impact everyday in intercultural interactions.

References:
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2009). Intercultural Communication in Contexts. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.