Some Definitions:

Culture - "learned collective behavior." One of the simplest definitions of culture (Jordan & Rowntree 1990, 4), it differentiates cultural behavior from instinctive or inborn behavior and allows for inclusion of ideas and values as well as physical items.
Popular Culture - Popular culture is the behavior patterns of the great mass of people in a given region at the present time. "Vernacular" is another name used for this type of culture. Popular culture can be differentiated from several other types of culture, e.g.
High Culture - This is the culture of the elite and usually refers to artistic endeavors such as music, dance, theater, certain writing, architecture, etc. High culture is the realm of elites and once something becomes part of the popular culture elites will usually abandon the practice. In other words, certain behaviors can begin as an element of high culture and migrate into popular culture.
Folk Culture - Many social and behavioral scientists split culture into the two groups of popular culture and folk culture. A folk culture group is a "small isolated, cohesive, conservative, nearly sefl-sufficient group that is homogeneous in custom and race, with a strong family or clan structure and highly developed rituals "(Jordan & Rowntree 1990, 227). Others have questioned the distinction between these two culture type (references?) and this atlas takes the point of view that popular culture is more stable than most think and that important elements of popular culture are passed on pretty much intact from generation to generation.
"Pop" Culture Some equate popular culture with "pop" culture but I take some exception to this. "Pop" culture is faddish, often affects only a few people in the culture and is not felt deeply. Popular or vernacular culture, on the other hand, is more stable, is experienced by most in the group and, while perhaps not expressed as such, is deeply held.

The Northeastern United States - For this atlas, the Northeastern United States is defined as the six states of New England (Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont) and New England, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In several instances the patterns extend further south to the Baltimore area. Other cultural geographers have placed some of these states in different regions and have valid reasons to do so. But states to the west of Pennsylvania begin to show characteristics of the Midwest and those to the south belong to the border south. No regionalization scheme is perfect.