AP HUG Unit 3 vocab

Sacred Sites (spaces)

areas/places of religious/spiritual signficance, including cathedrals, mosques, temples and cementeries

Syncretism

Development of a new cultural trait as a result of the blending of two distinct but interacting cultures

Placelessness

Loss of distinct local features in favor of standardized landscapes which happens as a result of pervasiveness of pop culture and mass production and availability of a wide variety of consumables

Pop culture

Culture traits of large heterogeneous, urban populations

Globalization

The process of increased interconnectedness amoung countries most notably in the areas of economics, politic and culture

Urbanization

refers to the movement of people to towns and the resulting expansion of the rural countryside to absorb increase in people

Time - Space Convergence

increasing connectivity between cultures that occurs as a result of communication technology

Cultural Convergence

Cultures become more alike as their interactions increase

Cultural Divergence

the tendency for culture groups to disassociate from others in order to protect their cultures from influence or change

Local culture (Folk culture)

culture traits usually small, traditional, homogerous, rural communities

Culture Hearth

the source of civilization; Place where a civilization began and their ideas and practices

Language Family

a group of language with a shared but fairly distant origin

Dialect

varient of a standard languages along regional or ethnic lines

Indo-European language family

family of languages believed to all come from a single language that spreads outward

Toponym

Place-names that can uncover historical information about a place and its origins, such as the language, original inhabitans and succeding settlement history and population dispersal

Universalizing Religion

religion that actually seek converts because they view themselves as offering belief systems of universal applicability and appeal

Ethnic Religion

Religion that do not actively seek converts and are generally found near the heart or spread through relocation diffusion

Assimilation

Process in which members of one cultural group adopt the beliefs and behaviors of another group, but still retain some original uniqueness; often occurs as a result of colonization or immigration

Acculturation

Process by which a person acquire the social and psychological characteristics of a group and cannot be distinguish from anyone else

Multiculturalism

maintaining a diversity of ethnic cultures within a community that are valued and respected for their unique differences

Culture Change

Occurs through media technological change, politics, economics, and social relationships

Cultural Imperialism

Dominance of one culture over another, historically often occurred as a result of colonization

Colonialism

the policy of acquiring control over another country occupying it with settlers and exploiting it economically

Sequent Occupance

the combined imprint on an area when it has been inhabited by a succesion of cultures

Cultural Landscape

the combination of physical features, agriculture, and industrial practices, religious and linguistic characteristics, sequent occupancy, traditional and post modern architecture

Cultural Relativism

the idea that a person’s beliefs, values and practices should be understood based on that person’s own culture, rather than judged against the criteria of another

Hierarchial Diffusion

Type of expansion diffusion when particular groups are affected as it leapfrogs over areas

Stimulus Diffusion

type of expansion diffusion when a small portion of the population adopts and idea or modifies it

Creolization

the blending out of Europe, Amerindian, and African cultures in the new world as a result of colonialism to create something new

Ethnocentrism

judging another cultures based on the values of one’s own culture

Culture Trait

a single attribute of a culture such as food, preferences, architecture and land use

Race

historical classification that is used to categorize human populations with shared physical traits (not culture)

Ethnicity

a group of people who share a common cultural identity

Indigenous Communities

the original settlers of an area who have retained their culture apart from the colonizers

Ethnic neighborhood

an area within a city occupied by a distinctive minority culture

Gender

social and cultural differences between males and females

Gender role

learned behaviors that are deemed appropriate to gender as determined by cultural norms

Gender Spaces

areas which gender expression is either welcome or unwelcomed

sense of place

term used to attachment to and comfort in a particular place with a strong identity that is deeply felt by inhabitants

Place making

how culture makes a place fit their identity by shaping the land scape to show what they believe and value

Centripetal Forces

forces that unite a country

Cultural Diffusion

the spread of an idea, innovation, cultural trend or disease from its sources area to another areas

Expansion Diffusion

type of cultural diffusion when an innovation or idea develops in a source area and remains strong there while also spreading outward the innovation or idea

Contagious Diffusion

type of expansion diffusion where nearly all individuals are affected as it spread outwards

Lingua Franca

a language mutually understood by people who speak different languages usually for the purpose of trade