AP HGEO Unit 03

Culture

The ways of life of a particular group of people

Cultural traits

The building blocks of culture; Visible and invisible attributes that combine to make up a group’s culture.

Artifacts

Tangible objects created by a culture

Sociofacts

 The ways in which a culture behaves and organizes institutions.

Mentifacts

The ideas, beliefs, values, and knowledge of a culture

Cultural norms

Agreed upon cultural practices or standards that guide the behavior of a culture

Cultural taboos

Behaviors heavily discouraged by a culture

Example of cultural taboo

Eating pork in Islam + Judaism

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one’s own culture or ethnic group is superior to others; judging other groups through the lens of one’s own culture.

Cultural relativism

The principle that an individual human’s beliefs and actions should be understood by others in terms of that individual’s own culture

Cultural hearth

An area where civilizations began that radiated its customs, innovations, and ideologies and transformed the world

Environmental Determinism

The belief that the physical environment, especially things like climate and terrain, actively shapes culture.

Possibilism

The belief that environmental conditions may impact culture in some ways, but people are the primary architects of culture.

Cultural Realms

A large segment of the Earth with uniformity in cultural characteristics.

Folk culture

Culture that is traditionally practiced primarily by small, homogenous groups living in isolated rural areas.

Popular culture

Culture found in large, heterogeneous societies that share certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristics.

Cultural hearth

An area where civilizations began that radiated its customs, innovations, and ideologies and transformed the world.

Origins of folk culture

Anonymous hearths

Origins of popular culture

Traceable hearts

Di

Diffusion of pop culture

fast

Distribution of folk culture

Hindered or stopped by physical or cultural factors

Distribution of pop culture

Widely spread and not hindered

Music of folk culture

songs anonymus, technically simple, passes on knowledge

Music of pop culture

Written by specific people for a specific purpose, technically sophisticated

Sports

Many sports originate as folk culture but later become part of popular culture (soccer!) Inclusion in Olympics is a good indication as to whether a sport is folk or popular culture. Surviving folk sports: cricket, wushu, baseball, etc.

Food in folk culture

Foods eaten because their natural properties are perceived to enhance qualities considered desirable by the society. Locally produced

Food in pop culture

Preferences influenced by cultural values, often importedFo

Folk culture in clothing

Unknown origins, response to other things

pop culture in clothing

originate from certain companies, reflects occupation

Gender roles in folk culture

gender specific

popular culture gender roles

diminishes gender specific gender roles

popular culture in housing

Materials produced in factories (steel, glass)

Built by a business and then sold to an individual

Variety of architectural styles

Similar between cities

housing in folk culture

Materials produced locally (stone, grass, wood) 
Built by the community or the owner themselves
Similar style used throughout a community
Different styles between cultures

Linguists

People who study languages

Language Family

A collection of languages related through a common ancestry that existed that existed long before recorded histry

Language Branch

A Collection of Languages within a family, related through a common ancestral language that existed thousands of years ago

Roman Branch

French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, etc.

Germanic Branch

English, German, Dutch, Swedish, etc.

Indo-Iranian Branch

Hindi, Urdu, Farsi, Kurdish, etc.

Language Group

A collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display many similarities in grammar and vocabulary

Proto-Indo-European Language

The single language that people believe decended from a single common language

Official Language

A language designated by a country as the one used by the government for laws, reports, and public objects

Dialect

A regional variation of a language

distinguished by unique vocabulary,

pronunciation, and spelling.

Recieved Pronounciation

The Standard form of British English pronunciation

Isogloss

Word usage boundaries determined by data collected directly from people

Pidgin languages

A simplified form of a language that allows speakers of two different languages to communicate

Creole/Creolized Language

A language that results from the mixing of a colonizers language with the indiginus of the people being dominated

Lingua Franca

A Language of international communication

Isolated Language

A Language unrelated to any other and therefore not attached to any language family

Endangered Language

A language in danger of being extinct

Extinct Language

A Language that is no longer spoken or used in daily activities by anyone in the world

Revived Language

A language that was once extinct but has come back into daily use

Accultiration

The adoption of cultural traits, such as language, by one group under the influence of another, while still maintaining elements of their own culture.

Assimilation

The process of adapting one culture into another. This group has no distinguishment between them and the other cultural group.

Syncretism

When two traits from distinct cultures fuse together

Multiculturalism

When multiple cultures exist within two societies and all cultures are valued and seen as equals

Naitivism

Favoring those born in a country over immigrants. (Australia)

Centripetal force

A force that UNITES people (shared history, language, etc)

Centrifugal force

A force that divides people (racism, diversity, etc)

Ethnic cleansing

forced removal of a major ethnic group

Genocide

The deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular cultural or ethnic group, with the aim of destroying that group.