APHUG Unit 3 Culture and Ethnicity - TWHS

Acculturation

The process of social, psychological, and cultural change that stems from blending between cultures; adapting some aspects of the larger culture.

Apartheid

Laws (no longer in effect) in south Africa that physically separated different races into different geographic areas.

Assimilation

The process by which a person's or group's culture come to resemble those of another group; loss of own culture.

Centrifugal force

A force that divides people and countries.

Centripetal force

An attitude that tends to unify people and enhance support for a state.

Colonialism

A particular type of imperialism in which people move into and settle on the land of another country.

Cultural convergence

When two cultures become more similar because of frequent interactions.

Cultural divergence

When a culture splits into different cultures because of lack of interaction.

Contagious diffusion

The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population.

Cultural relativism

The practice of evaluating a culture by its own standards.

Culture

Body of material traits, customary beliefs, and social norms that together constitute the distinct tradition of a group of people.

Cultural landscape

The visible imprint of human activity and culture on the landscape.

Cultural trait

A single element of normal practice in a culture, such as the wearing of a turban.

Custom

The frequent repetition of an act, to the extent that it becomes characteristic of the group performing the act.

Diffusion

The process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time.

Ethnic cleansing

A process in which a more powerful ethnic group forcibly removes a less powerful one in order to create an ethnically homogeneous region.

Ethnic/Folk culture

Culture traditionally practiced by a small, homogeneous, rural group living in relative isolation from other groups.

Ethnicity

Identity with a group of people that share distinct physical and mental traits as a product of common heredity and cultural traditions.

Ethnic enclave

A place with a high concentration of an ethnic group that is distinct from those in the surrounding area.

Expansion diffusion

The spread of a feature from one place to another in an additive process.

Ethnocentrism

The practice of judging another culture by the standards of one's own culture.

Gender

The socially constructed roles and characteristics by which a culture defines male and female.

Gendered spaces/gendered landscapes

Concept that specifically addresses cultural values regarding gender, such as behaviors that are acceptable only for one gender, and often only in certain spaces.

Genocide

The deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.

Global/Popular culture

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

Globalization

Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope.

Hearth

A center where cultures developed and from which ideas and traditions spread outward.

Hierarchical diffusion

The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places

Imperialism

Domination by one country of the political, economic, or cultural life of another country or region.

Indigenous

Originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native.

Innovation

An improvement of an existing technological product, system, or method of doing something.

Multiculturalism

The presence of, or support for the presence of, several distinct cultural or ethnic groups within a society.

Placemaking

The process of creating a physical environment that is comfortable and reflects one's values, experiences, and tastes.

Race

A category of humankind that shares certain distinctive physical traits. (Social concept with no genetic basis)

Relocation diffusion

The spread of a feature or trend through bodily movement of people from one place to another.

Racism

Believe that race is primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.

Sense of place

The feeling that an area has a distinct and meaningful character.

Stimulus diffusion

The spread of an underlying principle, even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse.

Sequent occupance

The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape.

Syncretism

The blending of traits from two different cultures to form a new trait.

Time-space convergence

The idea that distance between some places is actually shrinking as technology enables more rapid communication and increased interaction among those places.

Taboo

A restriction on behavior imposed by social custom.

Uniform landscape

The spatial expression of a popular custom in one location being similar to another.

Xenophobia

General dislike of people from other countries.