AP Huge Unit 3: Cultural Patterns & Processes

Culture

The mix of values, beliefs, behaviors, & material objects that form a people’s way of life

Cultural Trait

A single aspect of a given culture or society

Cultural Attitudes

Concepts & ideas in a society that are shaped by cultural opinions, beliefs, & perspectives

Relocation Diffusion

Occurs when migrating individuals or groups bring an idea or practice from their old homeland to their new homeland

Expansion Diffusion

Ideas or practices spread in snowballing process (includes Hierarchical, Stimulus, & Contagious)

Hierarchical Diffusion

When ideas leapfrog from one influential person, community, or place to another, bypassing other people, communities, or rural areas

Stimulus Diffusion

Occurs when a specific trait is rejected, but the unifying idea is accepted (ex: McDonald’s)

Contagious Diffusion

Involves rapid spread of cultural ideas or traits through a population, often through direct contact & interaction

Centripetal Forces

Forces that bring people together and unite a neighborhood, society, or country

Centrifugal Forces

Forces that threatens the cohesion of a neighborhood, society, or country

Time-Space Convergence

The phenomenon whereby the introduction of new transportation technologies progressively reduces the time it takes to travel between places (“shrinks” the world)

Material Culture

Physical, visible objects made & used by members of a cultural group

Non-Material Culture

intangible elements, including norms, beliefs, values, myths, & symbolic meanings that can be passed down within a given society

Popular Culture

Heterogeneous, influenced by urban areas, and quick to adopt new technologies

Folk/Local Culture

Homogeneous, connected to local land, pass traditions, slow/resistant to change, more regionally distinct

Taboo

Practices that are religiously or socially prohibited or discouraged

Ethnocentrism

An approach to understanding other cultures that evaluates them from the perspective of the observer’s culture

Xenophobia

The fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange

Cultural Relativism

An approach to understanding other cultures that seek to understanding individuals and cultures from a wider perspective of cultural logic

Multiculturalism

Set of policies that promote active participation & inclusion of minority groups in national histories, national policies, and cultural institutions with goal of embracing differences within the society

Sequent Occupance

Refers to the fact that many places have been controlled or affected by a variety of groups over a period of time, groups have reshaped the functions or meanings of those places, leaving behind layers of meetings

Placelessness

Feeling resulting from standardization of built environment, occurs when local distinctiveness is erased, and many places end up with similar cultural landscapes

Cultural Landscape

Made up of geographic patterns of cultural traits and practices - includes physical, industrial, agricultural, & architectural features

Agricultural Landscape

Evoke a sense of place through architecture

Physical Landscape

All the natural, physical surroundings that create & shape the places we are living in or examining

Urban Ethnic Landscapes

Ethnic cultural landscapes appear in urban settings, can be exclusive like in ethnic neighborhoods

Linguistic Landscapes

Signs, billboards, graffiti, and other displays can reveal locally dominant languages, bilingualism, linguistic oppression, and more

Religious Landscapes

Places such as sacred spaces or places that are more secular

Sacred Spaces

Natural or human-made sites that possess religious meaning worthy of devolution, loyalty, fear, or esteem

Secular 

Less influenced by religion

Secularization

Process where religion becomes less dominant force in everyday life than in the past

Pidgin Language

A trade language characterized by a very small amount of vocab that is derived from languages of at least two or more groups in contact

Creole Language

A languages made by languages that are combined and has a fuller vocab than pidgen, becomes a native language

Creolization

Linguistic process where languages converge and create new languages & forms of communication

Lingua Franca

Language of communication & commerce spoken across a wide area where it is not a mother tongue

Imperialism

Motivating impulse to control greater amounts of territory

Colonization

The act of formally controlling a foreign territory (becomes known as a colony)

Empire

A sovereign political entity that seems to expand beyond origin land to control more territory politically and/or economically 

Genocide

The systematic killing of members of a racial, ethnic, or religious group

Ethnic Cleansing

The forced removal of an ethnic group by another ethnic group to create an ethnically consistent territory

Classification

Dividing societies into different groups & distinguishing between “us” and “them”

Symbolization

Naming different groups or distinguishing them through symbols, colors, or dress

Discrimination

A group holding power using law, custom, or political power to deny the rights of other groups

Dehumanization

One group denying the humanity of another group, often by reducing them to an animal or disease

Organization

When perpetrators create a plan for genocide and train and arm militias, may set up secret police to spy and arrest victims

Polarization

When moderate leaders and groups are eliminated, leaving a polarized society, propaganda is more widespread

Preparation

The process of preparing for mass murder. Leaders use euphemisms to hide their intentions, and people are trained to kill

Persecution

Victims are identified and separated from society. Leaders of the genocide draw up lists of people or communities targeted for death and deprive their victims of basic resources like water and food. Violent acts often begin at this stage

Extermination

The mass killing we know as genocide

Denial

Some may try to cover up evidence or refuse to acknowledge that genocide happened

Endangered Language

A languages not taught to children and not used actively everyday

Extinct Language

A languages that has only a few elderly speakers or no living speakers

Dialect

A regional variation of a languages that is understood by people who speak other variations of that language

The most spoken language in the world

English

The most spoken language in the world by natives

Mandarin

Cultural Convergence

The idea that cultures are converging and becoming more alike due to globalizing forces & trends

Glocalization

Adopting global practices to fit local cultural practices & preferences

Cultural Hearth

A focused geographic area where important innovations are born & form which they spread

Judaism Hearth

Southwest Asia

Hinduism Hearth

India

Christianity, Islam, & Judaism Hearth

Southwest Asia

Religion

Complex, interrelated set of cultural traits, beliefs, & rites

Monotheistic Religion

Relating to the belief in only one god

Language Family

A group of related languages that share a common ancestry

Indo-European Language Family

• Largest & most widespread

• Spoken in all continents, dominant in Europe, Russia, N & S America, Australia, and some parts of SW Asia & India

• English, Hindi, Spanish, French, Bengali, Russian, Portuguese

Sino-Tibetan Language Family

• Spoken in most of China & SE Asia

• Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan, Burmese, etc

Afro-Asiatic Language Family

• Orginated in Asia, but only spoken in Africa today

• Semitic & hamitic languages, such as arabic

Universalizing Religions

A religion that actively seeks new members (through expansion diffusion, such as missionary or migration) & believes its message has universal importance and application

Most Common Universalizing Religions

Christianity, Islam, Buddhism

Ethnic Religions

A religion identified with a particular ethic or tribal group & doesn’t seek converts, spread mainly through relocation diffusion

Most Common Ethnic Religions

Judaism, Hinduism

The 5 Most Popular Religions

1. Christianity

2. Islam

3. Hinduism

4. Buddhism

5. Judaism

Atheists

Non-religious group that don’t believe in a God

Agnostics

Non-religious group that believes humans are not capable of knowing whether God exists

Universalizing Religions can be organized into

Branches → Denominations → Sects

Toponyms

Names given to places

Acculturation

Occurs when an ethnic or immigrant group adopts enough of the ways the host society to be able to function economically & socially

Assimilation

Occurs when an ethnic or immigrant group blends in with host culture and loses many culturally distinctive traits

Transculturation

Notion that people adopt elements of other cultures as well as contribute elements of their own culture, thereby transforming both cultures

Cultural Syncretism

Can help explain complex patterns that emerge as multiple cultures affect one another to create new traits & cultural patterns

Syncretic Religions

Religions that combine elements of two or more different belief systems

Orthodox Religions

Religion that emphasizes purity of faith and is generally not open to blending with elements of other belief systems