Culture Flashcards

Flashcards about culture

Culture

Central to a society and the identity of its people, encompassing all a group's learned behaviors, actions, beliefs, and objects.

Cultural Hearth

The area in which a unique culture or specific trait develops.

Taboo

Behaviors heavily encouraged by a culture.

Globalization

Refers to the increased interrogation of the world economy since the 1970s

Popular Culture

When cultural traits such as clothing, music, movies, etc., quickly spread and are adapted by various cultures.

Cultural Landscape

Modification of an environment by a group, a visible reflection of group practices and beliefs of their culture.

Artifacts

Tangible objects that can be experienced with our senses that are significant to that particular culture.

Mentifacts

Non-materialistic culture or intangible concepts.

Sociofacts

Ways that groups organize their society and relate to each other.

Placelessness

Certain modern landscapes resemble other areas' landscapes/layouts

Built Environment

Physical buildings/artifacts that are man-made that form the landscape.

Traditional Architecture

Reflects the local culture and their beliefs, values, history, and community.

Postmodern Architecture

Movement away from concrete/brick structures.

Contemporary Architecture

Expansion of postmodern architecture that uses many shapes, curves, and rotations.

Ethnic Enclaves

Clusters of people from the same culture/ethnicity often surrounded by other forms of dominant cultures and are typically found in neighborhoods/subregions that reflect a culture's desires to stay separate from society

Charter Group

The first group to establish cultural and religious customs in a space.

Neocolonialism

The use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies.

Sequent Occupance

Ethnic groups who move in and out of neighborhoods and create new cultural imprints in the landscape.

Culture Hearth

A geographic location where distinct cultural traits originate and then spread to other regions.

Centripetal Forces

Any factor that tends to unify people within a state or nation, strengthening its identity and stability.

Centrifugal Forces

Any factors that divide a population by pulling people apart.

Fundamentalism

An attempt to follow a literal interpretation of a religious fate. They believe people should live traditional lifestyles similar to those described in the faith's holy writings. The farther you are from the hearth, the less fundamentalism.

Ethnocentrism

Believe their own culture is superior to others.

Cultural Relativism

The concept that a person or group's beliefs, values, norms, and practices should be understanding from the perspective of others.

Relocation Diffusion

Spread of culture and/or cultural traits by people who migrate and carry their traits with them.

Contagious Diffusion

Occurs when a cultural trait spreads continuously outward from its hearth through communication.

Hierarchical Diffusion

The spread of culture outward from the most interconnected places or from center of wealth and influence.

Reverse Hierarchical Diffusion

Trait diffuses from a group of lower status to a group with higher status.

Stimulus Diffusion

When an underlying idea from a culture hearth is adopted by another culture but the trait is adapted so it won't interfere with one another.

Imperialism

A broader concept that includes a variety of ways of influencing another country of group of people by direct conquest, economic control, or cultural domination.

Colonialism

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

Lingua Franca

Common language used by people who do not share the same native language.

Time-Space Convergence

Greater interconnection between places that results in increased transportation.

Cultural Convergence

Cultures are becoming more similar to each other by sharing more cultural traits, ideas, and beliefs.

Language families

A relationship between language families which suggests how several languages are related to each other which reflects human migration

Official Language

One designated by law to be the language of the government

Ethnic Religions

A major belief tradition that emphasizes strong cultural characteristics.

Universalizing Religions

Actively seeks converts regardless of ethnic backgrounds and is open to all people.

Acculturation

The adoption of cultural traits from one group by another, often a minority culture adopting traits of the host culture.

Assimilation

The process where a minority group adopts the dominant culture's traits and loses their own, becoming indistinguishable from the larger society.

Syncretism

The blending of different cultural influences, resulting in new practices, beliefs, or traditions.