SocSci Section II: Cultural Patterns and Processes

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and definitions from the Cultural Patterns and Processes lecture notes.

Cultural geography

The study of how cultures differ across space, change over time, and spread to new locations.

Culture

Customs, art expressions, social norms, institutions, and other collective characteristics of a social group.

Material culture

A physical component of culture that includes items such as tools, weapons, utensils, machinery, decorations, artwork, structures, monuments, documents, religious imagery, apparel, and any other material items made or utilized by people.

Nonmaterial culture

The non-physical components of culture, such as language, moral principles, social conventions and practices, beliefs and ideologies, and symbolic meaning.

Sociofacts

Structures and institutions that organize and affect social norms, including familial, governmental, educational, and religious institutions.

Mentifacts

Shared ideals, values, and belief systems that shape culture, including religious, political, moral, and social points of view.

Cultural hearth

The location where a certain culture first appeared.

Cultural traits

Singular aspects of culture, such as language, cuisine, and fashion.

Cultural complexes

Groups of cultural traits that cluster and exchange effects.

Cultural systems

Groups of cultural complexes that define broad features of culture, including how religion, education, and politics work in a society.

Habit

A personal behavior that is frequently repeated, such as getting dressed, going to the same restaurant, or taking a walk.

Custom

Group behavior that is frequently repeated, such as dressing in business attire, celebrating holidays, or playing team sports.

Folk culture

Culture characteristic of smaller, more isolated, and more culturally unified groups, including rural populations, Indigenous tribes, and immigrant communities.

Popular culture

Culture characteristic of larger, denser, and more diverse groups, including urban and industrial centers.

Food taboos

Social, cultural, and religious prohibitions on particular foods.

Ethnocentrism

The attitude of judging another culture's values against the values of one's own culture.

Cultural relativism

The attitude of judging another culture based on the values of that different culture.

Cultural landscape

A geographic area, including its natural and built environments, shaped by human development and use over time.

Traditional architecture

Architecture reflecting longstanding cultural features of a location.

Postmodern architecture

Architecture that is more imaginative and symbolic and can be purposefully unconventional.

Symbolic landscape

A place that holds deep felt significance for a culture.

Sequent occupancy

The cultural imprints that successive societies leave on a place.

Feminism

Advocacy for women's equality to men.

Patriarchy

The preference for males in a society.

Cultural ecology

Refers to how communities respond to nature through culture.

Adaptive strategies

The ways that people adjust their lifestyles according to their environment, including foraging, agriculture, industrialization, and sustainability efforts.

Long lot surveying

A survey method using long, narrow plots that extend along water.

Metes and bounds surveying

A survey method using natural landmarks, such as forests, mountains, and bodies of water, to delineate land.

Township and range survey system

A survey system that uses a grid to evenly determine property lines.

Ethnic cleansing

The systematic, forced removal of an ethnic, racial, or religious group from an area.

Centrifugal forces

Factors that divide a state, pulling its population apart and weakening internal cohesion.

Balkanization

The fragmentation of a larger state or region into smaller, often hostile, and ethnically homogeneous units.

Cultural shatterbelt

An unstable region where diverse cultural groups—often with conflicting interests—coexist and interact.

Centripetal forces

Factors that unify a state, pulling its population together and strengthening internal cohesion.

Placemaking

The process when humans use cultural practices and rituals to create meaning for a place.

Language families

Groups of languages related via their descent from a common ancestral language.

Lingua franca

A shared language used to facilitate communication between people who do not have the same native tongue.

Universalizing religions

Faiths that seek global appeal, actively convert others, and aim to be practiced by people worldwide regardless of ethnicity or culture.

Ethnic religions

Faith systems that are linked to a specific ethnic group, culture, or geographic location and do not actively seek global conversion.

Cultural diffusion

The various ways that cultural characteristics, beliefs, and practices pass from one culture to another and between individuals.