Unit 3 Cultural Patterns and Processes

These flashcards encompass key vocabulary terms and definitions related to Unit 3: Cultural Patterns and Processes, useful for exam preparation.

Culture

The shared beliefs, values, practices, behaviors, and technologies of a society, transmitted through learning and social interaction.

Cultural Traits

Attributes such as food preferences, architecture, and land use that characterize a specific culture.

Cultural Relativism

The perspective that a culture should be understood on its own terms without judging it by the standards of another culture.

Ethnocentrism

Judging other cultures based on one's own standards, often believing one's own culture is superior.

Folk Culture

Traditions of small, rural groups that are often isolated but not necessarily indigenous.

Indigenous Culture

The culture of native peoples living on ancestral lands with unique languages, spiritual beliefs, and traditions.

Popular Culture

Culture shared by large, diverse groups, often found in urban areas and spread rapidly through media and technology.

Placelessness

The loss of uniqueness of place in the cultural landscape so that one place looks like the next.

Rural Land Use

Agricultural practices influenced by local conditions and traditions, such as terrace farming.

Urban Land Use

Focus on urban and suburban development, including the idea of placelessness.

Food Taboos

Foods avoided due to cultural beliefs, such as beef consumption for Hindus.

Architecture

The design and construction styles that reflect the cultural identity and environmental adaptation of a society.

Neolocalism

A movement to revive and celebrate older cultural traditions in response to modernization and globalization.

Ethnic Neighborhoods

Clusters of people of the same ethnicity that form in specific locations, maintaining cultural identity.

Centripetal Forces

Cultural factors that unify a country and provide stability, such as a common language or religion.

Centrifugal Forces

Cultural factors that divide a country and create instability, such as multiple competing ethnicities.

Cultural Hearth

A geographic origin of a culture or cultural trait from which it spreads.

Relocation Diffusion

The spread of cultural traits or ideas through the migration of people.

Expansion Diffusion

The spread of cultural traits or ideas through interaction between people without migration.

Contagious Diffusion

Cultural traits or ideas that spread quickly and widely through direct contact among people.

Hierarchical Diffusion

Cultural traits spread from leaders or major nodes of influence down to the wider population.

Stimulus Diffusion

When cultural traits are modified as they spread to match local customs or practices.

Syncretism

The blending of two cultural traits to create a new cultural trait.

Acculturation

The process by which individuals from one culture adopt some traits of another culture.

Assimilation

The process of cultural change where individuals or groups abandon their original culture in favor of another.

Multiculturalism

The acceptance and tolerance of multiple cultures existing in close proximity to one another.