APHUG Unit 3

Culture

The body of material traits, customary beliefs and social forms that together constitute the distinct tradition of a group of people.

Habit

Repetitive actions that an individual does. (eg. wearing jeans daily)

Custom

Repetitive actions that a group does, which happens so much that it becomes a characteristic of the group. (eg. all my friends wear only jeans)

Folk Culture

Culture that is practiced in mostly small groups, groups living together in isolated areas.

Pop Culture

Large, separated societies practice this culture, despite differences in personal characteristics.

Folk Culture Diffusion

Diffusion of this kind of culture is usually slow, happens at a smaller scale, and occurs by relocation diffusion (migration).

Pop Culture Diffusion

Diffusion of this kind of culture happens rapidly because of modern communication, and occurs by hierarchical diffusion (influencers, people of power). Its main obstacle is a lack of income.

Folk Culture Music

Music of a culture that tells stories or describes things regarding life itself (eg. birth, death). This music travels alongside people, and it perpetuates from long ago.

Pop Culture Music

Music of a culture that’s sole purpose is to to be sold for profit or to be performed. It usually consists of very skillful instrumentation from modern electronic equipment.

Folk Culture Clothing

Clothing of a culture, in which people wear distinctive clothing because of many environmental and/or cultural reasons.

Pop Culture Clothing

Clothing of a culture, in which people wear new styles, which are regardless of physical features. These styles constantly change, and they most likely reflect occupation/income.

Folk Culture Food

Food of a culture that has strong ties to its environment.

Pop Culture Food

Food of a culture that is more influenced by cultural values rather than environmental features. Additionally, advertising plays a key role in this.

Folk Culture Housing

Housing of a culture that is built with surrounding resources; most commonly wood and bricks. These consist of very old houses that are based around cultural traditions.

Pop Culture Housing

Housing of a culture that is relatively new and built by construction companies.

Cultural Homogenization

Phenomenon of when pop culture expands across so much space, to the point where there is a loss of folk culture diversity, meaning that some cultures and cultural preferences will converge.

Taboo

A restriction on behavior because of a religious law or social custom

Terroir

The contribution of a location’s distinctive physical features to the way food tastes.

Centripetal Force

Something that ties people together, like people of a language understanding and communicating with each other.

Centrifugal Force

Something that pulls people apart, like people not knowing a language and being unable to communicate.

Language

System of communication by means of speech, movements, sounds, or symbols that a group of people understands to have the same meaning.

Institutional Language

Language used in education, work, mass media, government

Developing Language

Language that has daily usage from people of all ages.

Vigorous Language

A developing language that lacks literary tradition.

Literary Tradition

Written while being practiced

Threatened Language

Language only used for face-to-face conversation, losing users.

Dying Language

Language used by older generation, and not told to children.

Language Family

Collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed long before recorded history.

Language Branch

Collection of languages within a family related through a common ancestral language from thousands of years ago.

Language Group

Collection of languages within a branch that share a common in origin in recent past and have similarities.

Indo-European

The most populated language family that is dominated by most of Europe and some of the Western hemisphere.

Sino-Tibetan

The second most populated language family, including languages like Chinese.

Creolized Language

A language that results from the mixing of a colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated.

Dialect

A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.

Endangered Language

A language that children are no longer learning, and its remaining speakers use it less frequently

Extinct Language

A language that was once used by people in daily activities, but is no longer used.

Isogloss

A boundary that separates regions in which different language usages predominate

Isolated Language

A language that is unrelated to any other languages and therefore not attached to any language family

Lingua Franca

A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages.

Logogram

A symbol that represents a word rather than a sound.

Mutual Intelligibility

The ability of people communicating in two ways to readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort

Pidgin Language

A form of language that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of a lingua franca; used for communications among speakers of two different languages.

Official Language

The language adopted for use by a government for the conduct of business and publication of documents.

Standard Language

The form of a language used for business, education, and mass communication.

Working Language

A language that is used by an international organization or corporation as its primary means of communication for daily correspondence and conversation.

Universalizing Religion

A type of religion that appears in multiple places and appeals to all people, regardless of location. Includes Christianity, Islam, Buddhism.

Ethnic Religion

A type of religion that appears in only one specific region/place and appeals to only a certain ethnic/cultural group. Includes Hinduism, Judaism, and folk religions.

Atheism

Belief that there is no God

Agnostic

Belief that God cannot be proven or disproven without evidence

Congregation

Local assembly of people for common religious worship

Denomination

Local congregations into one legal and administrative body

Branch

Large and fundamental division within a religion

Syncretic

Combining several traditions/religions

Monotheism

Belief in one god

Polytheism

Belief in multiple gods

Roman Catholic

A branch of Christianity that accepts the teachings of the Bible along with the seven sacraments. They also interpret the teachings of the Church hierarchy, which is headed by the pope.

Orthodoxy

A branch of Christianity has most of their faith originating from a collection of churches in the East Roman Empire. They still believe in the seven sacraments but reject all other doctrines adopted by the Roman Catholic church (in the 8th century).

Protestant

A branch of Christianity that believes that salvation is earned personally, not through sacrament performed by a church.

Christianity

A universalizing religion that was founded upon the teachings of Jesus, born in Bethlehem and died on a cross in Jerusalem.

Islam

A universalizing religion based on the five pillars (one god, pray daily, be charitable, Ramadan, pilgrim to Mecca), whose prophet was Muhammed.

Buddhism

A universalizing religion that is neither monotheistic or polytheistic. It is based on the teachings of Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama), and the religion essentially attempts to escape the suffering cycle in life.

Hinduism

An ethnic religion that is polytheistic and concentrated/originates in India.

Judaism

An ethnic religion that is monotheistic, originated in Israel, and has ties with Christianity and Islam.