AP HG Unit 3

Culture

body materials, customary beliefs, and social forms that together constitute the distinct tradition of a group or people

Material Culture

material manifestation of culture, including tools, housing, systems of land use, clothing, etc.

Nonmaterial Culture

beliefs, traditions, celebration, thoughts, values, and ideas of a group (religion, morals, attitudes, etc.)

Cultural Relativism

the culture should be judged based on its own standards, not based on another culture

Ethnocentrism

judging other cultures based on the rules of your culture

Taboo

something that is forbidden by a culture or a religion, sometimes so forbidden that it is often not even discussed

Cultural landscapes

the forms superimposed on the physical environment by the activities of humans (ex. street lights, rice fields, churches, cemeteries, etc.)

Ethnic Neighborhoods

neighborhood, district or suburb which retains some cultural distinction from a larger surrounding area

Indigenous people

a cultural group that constitutes the original inhabitants of a territory, distinct from the dominant national culture, which is often derived from colonial occupation

Sequent occupancy

idea that societies or cultural groups leave their cultural imprints when they live in a place, each contributing to the overall cultural landscape over time; most cultural landscapes are a mixture of historic and modern structures

Ethnicity

is a sense of belonging or identity within a group of people bound by common ancestry and culture; this is different from race which is based on physical characteristics

Ethnic Patterns

there is oftentimes a predictable distribution of ethnicities that can be examined at multiple scales

Gendered Spaces

places in the cultural landscape utilized to reinforce or accommodate gender roles for men and women

Postmodern Architecture

diverse designs, representative of popular culture, business and economic success (ex. skyscrapers)

Cultural Traits

visible and invisible attributes that combine to make up a group’s culture

Artifacts

visible, physical objects created by a culture (houses, clothing, architecture, toys, tools, furniture)

Sociofacts

the ways in which a society organizes and relates to one another and organizes institutions (family, school/education, government, religion, land use, gender roles)

Mentifacts

ideas, beliefs, values, and knowledge of a culture; non-material culture, intangible concepts (religious beliefs, language, food preferences and taboos)

culture

a group of belief systems, norms, and values practiced by a people (ex. Makan American Indians who hunt whales)

folk/local culture

how a group of people in a place that see themselves and share customs/traits; or a small culture that incorporates a homogeneous population that is typically rural and cohesive in cultural traits

popular culture

large culture that incorporates heterogeneous populations, is typically urban, and experiences quick changing traits

material culture

the things a group of people construct, including homes, clothing, sports, dance, and foods

built environment

a material, spatial, and cultural product of human labor

nonmaterial culture

beliefs, practices, aesthetics, and values of a group of people (ex. Hutterites value marrying within their religion)

cultural appropriation

the process by which other cultures adopt customs and knowledge and use them for their own benefit (ex. people not of the culture getting henna tattoos)

ethnic neighborhoods

tight knit neighborhoods within a major city where local cultures have built a world apart to practice their customs (ex. Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn, NY

distance decay

how quickly innovations diffuse and refers to how interlinked two places are through transportation and communication; describes how the strength of a relationship between people, places, or systems decreases as the separation between them increases

time-space compression

explains how quickly innovations diffuse and refers to how interlinked two places are through transportation and communication

hierarchical diffusion

a type of cultural diffusion that occurs when ideas, trends, or innovations spread from influential ones (ex. large cities to smaller ones (trickles down)

contagious diffusion

the rapid spread of cultural ideas or traits from one person to another (ex. word of mouth)

stimulus diffusion

when an exact idea can’t be adopted in a certain area (due to cultural barriers, etc.) leading to altering of the idea; it is a stimulus for newer ideas (ex. non-meat burgers at McDonald’s in India

relocation diffusion

when individuals who have adopted the idea move to new places and disseminate it; the hearth loses strength in the idea and the places the individuals move to gain strength in it (ex. Buddhism started in India, but now has more followers in Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar)

assimilation

the process of making indigenous people adopt the dominant culture and abandon their own culture (ex. US wanted to assimilate Native Americans in the 18 and 1900s)

acculturation

the process of making indigenous people adopt the dominant culture and abandon their own culture (ex. people learning English in the US

cultural landscape

the visible imprint of human activity on the landscape

sequent occupance

proposed by Derwent Whittlesay; cultural imprints made over top of each other (over time), each affect the next, having a lasting imprint (ex. in N Africa, Islamic mosques have Roman influences

placelessness

coined by George Edward Relph to describe the loss of uniqueness in place in the cultural landscape to the point that one place looks like the next (ex. suburbs)

globalization

the process of increasing connection and interdependence between people, cultures, and economies around the world

traditional architecture

buildings use building material available and reflect social/environmental customs of the people (ex. log cabins, mud huts)

folk songs

traditionally sung by the common people of a region; forms parts of their culture (ex. may tell stories)

folk food

traditional food (ex. barbecue in south)

gender

social differences between men and women

race

a socially constructed way to categorize people based on their physical characteristics and ancestral origins

racism

sense of superiority attached to race

sense of place

made by the emotions and memories attached to a place; changes as we and the place change

ethnicity

a sense of belonging to a group of people who share a common identity based on cultural characteristics, such as language, religion, national origin, or collective history (ex. Latino, Hispanic, German)

standard language

a published, widely distributed, and purposefully taught language that most technologically advanced societies have (ex. Ireland promotes the use of the Celtic by requiring all government workers to pass Irish-language exam)

dialect

a variant of a standard language along regional or ethnic liens; made of differences in: vocab, syntax, pronunciation, cadence, and pace (ex. Southern-English)

isogloss

a geographic boundary in which a particular linguistic feature occurs; rarely a simple line (ex. the lines of which American dialects are fuzzy)

language family

way of classifying languages at the global scale; the languages have shared by fairly distant origins; broken into sub-families (ex. Indo-European language family includes Italian, Spanish, and French)

language subfamily

divisions within a language family, the commonalities are more definite and origins more recent; consists of individual languages with smaller spatial extents and dialects with even smaller spatial extents (ex. Indo-European is broken into sub-families of Romance, Germanic, and Slavic)

language groups

set of languages with a relatively recent common origin and many similar characteristics (ex. Germanic, Romance, Slavic)

Indo-European language

a language from the Indo-European family; spoken by half of the world’s people and includes among others, the Germanic, Romance, and Slavic subfamilies

lingua franca

a language used among speakers of different languages for the purpose of trade and commerce; can be one language or mixture

pidgin language

when people speaking 2 or more languages are in contact and they combine parts of their languages in a simplified structure and vocabulary (ex. the first widely known pidgin language is the Frankish language, a mix of Frank tongue with Italian, Greek, Spanish, and Arabic for trade on eastern Mediterranean with Southern Franks)

creole language

a pidgin language that has developed a more complex structure and a vocabulary and has become a native language of a group of people (ex. Swahili)

monolingual states

countries in which everyone speaks the same language (ex. Japan, Uruguay, Iceland, Denmark, Portugal, Poland, and Lesotho)

multilingual states

countries in which more than one language is in use (ex. US)

official language

adopted by countries with linguistic fragmentation to tie the people together; or in colonies, one that ties them to their colonizer

global language

a common language of trade and commerce used around the world (ex. like a lingua franca)

religion

a system of beliefs and practices that attempts to order life in terms of culturally perceived ultimate priorities (ex. Baha’i)

monotheistic religion

worship a single deity, God or Allah (ex. Islam grew in Northern Africa from 11 to 234 million in 1900 to 2010)

polytheistic religion

worship more than one deity, even 1000s (ex. Hinduism, Vodum/Voodoo)

animistic religion

centered on the belief that inanimate objects, such as mts., trees, rivers, and boulders; posses spirits and should be revered (ex. Shamanism)

universalizing religions

actively seek converts because they view themselves as offering belief systems and universal appropriateness and appeal; few in number and of recent origin (ex. Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam)

ethnic religion

adherents are born into the faith and converts are not actively sought; spatially concentrated, except for Judaism (ex. traditional religions in Africa and SA Judaism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Shintoism)

Hinduism

3rd biggest religion, DID NOT originate in Pakistan, given name by Aryans, no founder, based on ancient practices of Indus River Valley city of Mohenjo Daro and Harappa, sacred river in the Ganges, and their main god is Brahman; other gods are expressions of Brahman; not a polytheistic or monotheistic religion, or even both; Vedas is it’s 4 sacred texts; defined as an ethnic religion to SE Asia

reincarnation

a soul is reborn and in Hinduism you are moved up and down in the caste system based off your behavior; the goal is to escape reincarnation through union with Brahman (ex. Hinduism)

caste system

locks people into particular social classes and imposes many restrictions, especially to those in lower castes

Sikhism

created by interaction of Hinduism and Islam; didn’t like worship of idols and caste system in Hinduism (ex. wear turbans and forbid hari-cutting)

Buddhism

came from Hinduism as a question to its teachings (caste system); 2 branches: Mahayan (salvation comes by appeal to holy sources of merit) and Theravada (Salvation is personal matter achieved by good behavior and being monk or nun) (ex. Theravada-Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Mahayana-Vietnam Korea, Japan, and China)

Shintoism

ethnic religion, related to Buddhism, focuses on nature and ancestor worship (ex. Japan)

Taoism

traced to older contemporary of Confucius, Lao-Tsu, who published Tao-te-Ching or “Book of Way” (ex. China, avoid competition possession pursuit of knowledge; evils=war, punishment, takes, and ceremonial ostentation)

Confucianism

philosophy of life; like Taoism, great impacts of Chinese Life; Confucius was appalled by the poor and suffering and urged them to assert themselves; said virtues and abilities, not heritage, should determine position in society; altered by emperors over time

Judaism

grew out of the beliefs of Jews, a nomadic semetic tribe in SW Asia; based off teachings of Abraham; in Middle East, N Africa, Russia, Ukraine, Europe, and N and S America; monotheistic

Christianity

single founder (Jesus), split from Judaism, monotheistic, first split: between Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox; Emperor Diocletian split empire eventually leading to separate denominations; last branch - Protestant (came from Catholic)

Islam

founded by Muhammad, Qu’ran, Allah, monotheistic, 5 pillars, pilgrimage to Mecca/hajj (ex. most Muslims are in Indonesia)

Sunni

majority accept rulers who aren’t descendants of Muhammad/Ali (ex. many in US and Europe)

Shia/Shi’ite

don’t accept rulers who aren’t descendants of Muhammad; more centralized hierarchical clergy than Sunni; Imams are the source of knowledge (ex. Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan)

sacred sites/sacred space

places people infused with religious meaning (reverence or fear); if infused with reverence, a pilgrimage may be made in the place

religious toponym

the origins and meanings of the names of religions (ex. St. Peter’s Basilica- burial site for Catholic tradition)

enclave

when a community or group is trapped and surrounded by unfriendly population or government (ex. the Gaza strip in Israel where Muslims are surrounded by the Jewish population and government

exclave

a portion of a country not connected to the main part physically (ex. Alaska)

genocide

a mass killing of people (ex. Holocaust)

theocracy

a government in which religion rules (ex. Taliban)