A description of the Folk Urban Continuum as depicted by Redfield and Chan Kom: A Maya Village.

Essay by kdagreenUniversity, Master'sA, February 2003

download word file, 2 pages 4.3

Downloaded 42 times

Chan Kom: A Maya Village:

The Folk-Urban Continuum

The "folk-urban continuum" model elaborated by Robert Redfield continues to reappear from time to time in various guises. The concept of the continuum has been attacked as being simplistic, and overgeneralized, not least because many geographers have detected village-type communities within large cities.

Redfield's speculations about what he saw as the significant changes from the folk to the urban end of the continuum are based on studies conducted in the Yucatan during the early 1930s. It's essential elements focus on the fact that as a community moves from the folk to the urban end of the continuum, there occur shifts from cultural intimacy and organization to disorganization. Along with this there is collective or community orientation to individualization; and the sacred to the secular.

Folk cultures are borne by small, closely-integrated social units or by aggregates of such units which have already worked out satisfactory mutual adjustments.

Redfield characterized the folk societies he had been studying as traditional, spontaneous, and uncritical where men follow similar lifestyles. These patterns remain clear throughout the generations. In sum, the folk society holds its traditions to heart and doesn't question their way of life. These lifestyles are practically sacred. In modern civilization, on the other hand, the small social units are being broken down, giving place to masses of individuals who are much more loosely interrelated than the members of the former local groups and classes. In modern civilizations, culture is being reduced. Our own civilization is simply a blend of differences which he must choose.

The concepts of folk religion and folk belief--at least when filtered through Redfield's categories--are descriptive anthropological categories meant to aid in the attempt to understand the conditions and development of certain kinds of society. In part, Redfield's concept of...