Human Geography: Roots & Meaning of Culture

These flashcards cover essential vocabulary related to human geography, culture, and the dynamics of cultural change.

Culture Traits

Units of learned behavior such as tools, languages, objects, techniques, or beliefs that are elementary expressions of culture.

Culture Complex

Traits that are functionally interrelated; an assemblage of traits within a particular culture.

Culture System

A broader generalization than a cultural complex; it refers to the collection of interacting cultural traits and complexes shared by a group within a territory.

Culture Region

A portion of the earth's surface occupied by populations sharing recognizable and distinctive cultural characteristics.

Culture Realm

A set of culture regions grouped together whenever they show related cultural complexes and landscapes.

Globalization

The homogenization of cultures as economies are integrated and uniform consumer demands are satisfied by standardized commodities.

Environmental Determinism

The belief that the physical environment exclusively shapes humans, their actions, and thoughts; a now-rejected concept.

Possibilism

A reaction against environmental determinism; the notion that people are dynamic forces of development, shaping the environment.

Cultural Landscape

The visible imprint of human activity on the physical landscape, often altering or destroying the natural landscape.

Cultural Divergence

Populations moving from food gathering to food production, leading to differing lifestyles and economies.

Carrying Capacity

The maximum population size that an environment can sustain based on resources.

Domestication of Animals and Plants

The process where certain plants and animals are cultivated and bred by humans for food and other services.

Neolithic Innovations

Developments during the Neolithic era, marking a stage of cultural advancement with new tools, technologies, and social structures.

Culture Hearth

The place of origin of any culture group that creates a distinctive cultural landscape.

Multilinear Evolution

The idea that similar characteristics of widely separated cultures develop under similar ecological circumstances.

Diffusionism

The belief that cultural similarities arise from spatial spread from common origin sites.

Cultural Convergence

The reduction of differences between places due to improved communication and cultural exchange.

Cultural Integration

The interlocking nature of all aspects of culture, including ideological, technological, and sociological subsystems.

Innovation

Cultural change initiated within a social group.

Diffusion

The process by which an idea or innovation is transmitted from one individual or group to another across space.

Acculturation

A process where a culture is modified through the adoption of traits from another dominant group.

Diffusion Barriers

Conditions that hinder the flow of information or movement of people, slowing or preventing the acceptance of an innovation.

Syncretism

The fusion of old and new cultural elements, a significant aspect of cultural change.