AP Human Geography Unit 3: Culture

Culture

Shared beliefs, values, practices, behaviors, and technologies shared by a society.

Cultural Traits

Visible and invisible attributes that characterize a culture.

Artifacts

Visible, physical objects such as houses and clothing.

Sociofacts

Ways a society behaves, exemplified by family and government.

Mentifacts

Beliefs, values, and knowledge of a culture, including languages and food.

Folk Culture

Culture characterized by small, homogeneous groups living in rural areas, unlikely to change.

Pop Culture

Culture characterized by large, heterogeneous groups living in urban areas, quick to change.

Cultural Norms

Agreed upon cultural practices within a society.

Cultural Taboos

Behaviors that are heavily discouraged in a culture.

Ethnocentrism

Looking at a culture through one’s own cultural standards.

Cultural Relativism

An unbiased view of someone’s culture.

Acculturation

A change that occurs within a culture due to the adoption of practices from another culture.

Transculturation

An equal exchange or two-way flow of traits between cultural groups.

Syncretism

The blending of two cultural traits to create a new cultural trait.

Assimilation

The process where one culture is abandoned and a new culture is adopted.

Multiculturalism

The acceptance of different cultures existing in close proximity.

Cultural Appropriation

The inappropriate or unacknowledged adoption of customs from another culture.

Dialect

A regional variation of a language distinguished by distinctive vocabulary.

Isogloss

A word not used by the entire nation.

Language Family

A collection of languages that are related before recorded history.

Language Branch

A collection of languages connected by an ancestral language, typically several thousand years ago.

Language Groups

A collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin.

High Germanic

The variant of Germanic language founded in high elevations and the basis of modern German.

Low Germanic

The variant of Germanic languages founded in lower elevations, including Dutch, Flemish, and Afrikaans.

Indo-Iranian

Language branch with the most speakers among Indo-European languages, divided into Eastern and Western groups.

Baltic Slavic

Language branch that includes East Slavic and Baltic languages; Russian is the most widely spoken.

Romance languages

Languages mostly spoken in Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy; developed from Latin.

Creolized Language

A language that emerges from the mixing of colonists' languages and indigenous languages.

Lingua Franca

A common language used by speakers of different native languages.

Pidgin Language

A simplified version of a lingua franca that has no native speakers.

Crede Language

A pidgin language that evolves into a new combined language.

Monotheism

The belief in one god.

Polytheism

The belief in multiple gods.

Animism

The belief that inanimate objects and animals have spirits and conscious life.

Cosmogony

Religious beliefs concerning the origin of the universe.

Calendars

Religious calendars that align with important events in a religion.

Sacred Spaces

Places where religious figures and congregations perform ceremonies.

Universalizing Religions

Religions that actively seek to convert others.

Ethnic Religions

Religions that members are born into; do not actively seek new converts.

Religious Fundamentalism

A strict adherence to the literal interpretation of a religion.

Interfaith Boundary

Boundaries between the world's major religions.

Intrafaith Boundary

Boundary within a single religion.