APHUG Unit 3

Culture

All of a group’s learned behaviors, actions, beliefs, and objects

Culture traits

Visible and invisible elements of a culture

Cultural complex

A series of interrelated cultural traits

Culture hearth

the area where a culture or culture trait develops

Taboos

Behaviors heavily discouraged by a culture, such as consuming certain foods

Traditional culture

Long held beliefs, values, and practices that are handed down and are resistant to rapid change

Folk culture

Beliefs and traditions of small homogenous groups of people that are often found in isolated, rural areas

Indigenous culture

Members of a group residing in ancestral lands with their own unique culture traits.

Globalization

Increased integration of the world economy since the 1970s

Popular culture

When cultural traits spread quickly over a large area and are widely adopted

Cultural landscape

The built environment; modification of the environment by a group that relfects that group’s beliefs and values

Horizontal diversity

Traditional cultures, each have their own distinct customs and languages and each grou is homogenous

Vertical diversity

Popular culture, modern urban societies are heterogenous and diverse.

Artifacts

Comprise material culture, made of tangible things or experiences such as art or food

Mentifacts

Comprise a grou’s non-material culture and consists of intangible concepts such as beliefs and values

Sociofacts

The way people organize their society and relate to one another, such as family structure

Placelessness

The phenomenon where many modern cultural lanscapes look homogenous

Built environment

The cultural landscape; physical artifacts that humans have created that form part of the landscape

Traditional architecture

Reflects a local culture’s values, history, and community adaptations to the environment

Postmodern architecture

Developed after ‘60s, high rise strucutres of steel and glass

Contemporary architecture

Extension of postmodernism, uses technological advances. to create buildings that stretch, curve, and push the limits of size and height

Ethnic enclaves

Clusters of people of the same culture surrounded by people of the dominant culture in the region

Ethnicity

Memberhip of a group of people who have common experiences and share ancestry, language, culture, and history

Cultural regions

determined based on characteristics such as language, religion, and ethnicity

Cultural realms

Larger areas that include several regions an

Sacred places

Places or natural features that have religious significance

Diaspora

Occurs when one group of people is dispersed to various location

Charter group

First to establish cultural and religious customs in a spaceand set the tone for the cultural landscape.

Ethnic landscape

Group arriving after charter group may choose to create a distincitve space with their own customs

Ethnic Island

Ethnic concentrations in rural areaswhere distinct cultural practices and identities are maintained, often influenced by immigration patterns.

Sequent occupancy

Ethnic groups moving in and out and creating new cultural imprints on the landscape

Neolocalism

Process of re-embracing the uniqueness and authenticity of a place

Nationality

Connection to a particular country based on cultural traits

Centripetal forces

Forces that unify a group of people or regions based on shared characteristics

Centrifugal forces

Forces that divide a group of people or a regionbased on differences or conflicts.

Multicultural states

Possess more than one distinct cultural identity or ethnic group

Sharia Law

Legal framework of a country derived from Islamic edicts found in the Quran

Blue laws

Laws that restrict certain activities on Sundays due to observation of the Sabbath

Religious fundamentalism

An attempt to follow a literal interpretation of a religion

Theocracy

Country run by religious leaders through use of religious laws

Ethnocentrism

Believing one’s culture group to be more important or superior to other culture

Cultural Relativism

The concept that a group’s beliefs, values, and norms should be viewed through the lens of their culture

Cultural appropriation

Adopting traits, icons, or elements of another culturewithout permission or understanding their significance.

Diffusion

The spread of information, ideas, behaviors, etc from cultural hearths to wider areasthrough various means such as migration, trade, or social media. R

Relocation diffusion

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

Expansion diffusion

Spread of cultural traits outward from a hearth through exchange without migration

Contagious diffusion

Expansion diffusion where a trait spreads continuously outward from its hearth through contact among people

Hierarchical Diffusion

Expansion diffusion; spread of culture outward from the most interconnected places or centers of wealth and influence to less connected areas.

Reverse hierarchical diffusion

Expansion diffusion; trait diffusing from a group of lower status to a group of higher status

Stimulus diffusion

Expansion diffusion; when an underlying idea from a cultural hearth is adopted by another culture but the adopting group modifies/rejects a trait

Imperialism

Broader concept including a variety of ways of influencing another country or group of people through direct conquest, economic control, or cultural dominance

Colonialism

Type of imperialism in which people move to settle on the land of another country

Animism

The belief that non-living objects possess spirits

Native speakers

People who have used the language from birth

Lingua Franca

A common langauge spoken by people who do not share a native language

Slang

Words used informally by a segment of the population

Pidgin language

Simplified mixture of 2 languages with few grammar rules and small vocabulary

Creole language

When a pidgin language develops a more formal structure and vocabulary over time to become a stable developed language

Acculturation

When minority adopts the values or practices of the majority whiile still maintaining valuable elements of their own culture and vice versa

Assimilation

The process by which a non-dominant culture loses cultural characteristics under pressure to become like the dominant culture

Dialects

Variations in accents, grammar, usage, and spelling because of distance and isolation within the same language

Social constructs

Ideas, concepts, and perceptions that have been created and accepted by people in a society

Time-space convergence

The greater interconnection between places that results from improvements in transportation and communication

Cultural convergence

The belief that globalization is causing cultures to become more homogenous

Cultural divergence

The idea that a culture may change over time as the elements of distance, time, and physical separation create divisions and changes

Linguists

Scientists who study languages

Language families

Multiple languages that share a common ancestor, often categorized by similar vocabulary and grammatical structures.

Language tree

Diagram suggesting how languages are related

Indo-European languages

One of 15 major language families, spoken by almost 50% of the world

Romance languages

Distinct regional languages that evolved out of latin

Isoglosses

Boundaries between variations in pronunciation/word usage

Adages

Attempt to express a truth about life, vary by dialect

Toponyms

Place names, provide insight into physical geography, history, and cultural landscape of a region

Official languages

Those designated by law to be the language of government

Adherents

Believers in a faith

Ethnic religions

Belief traditions that emphasize strong cultural characteristics among their followers

Universalizing religions

Actively seek converts regardless of ethnic background

Hinduism

Ethnic, polytheistic religion with hearth in India

Karma

Idea that all behaviors have consequences in the present life or a future life

Buddhism

Universalizing religion originating in South Asia

Sikhism

Relatively new universalizing religion originating in south Asia

Gurdwara

Sikh place of worship attended once a week

Judaism

Ethnic monotheistic religion originating in Middle East, Abrahamic.

Christianity

universalizing monotheistic religion originating in the Middle East that grew out of Judaism based on the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth

Islam

Universalizing, monotheistic, and Abrahamic religion based on teachings of Muhammad and originating in the Middle East

Pilgramages

Religious journeys taken to sacred places

Kurgan Warrior Theory

Indo-European languages first diffused from Russia/Ukraine through nomadic warriors that conquered throughout Europe and South Asia

Anatolian Farmer Theory

Successful agriculture led to migration from Anatolia and the spread of the proto-IndoEuropean language

Homogenization

Making people of different places more alike

Syncretism

Blending of 2 distinct culture traits into a unique new hybrid trait

Glocalization

Form of syncretism that involves the creation of products or sevices for the global market by adapting them to local cultures

Multiculturalism

Coexistece of several cultures in one society with the ideal of all cultures being valued

Nativism

Attittude of predjudice or discrimination to an immigrant group based on a sense of superiority from being a part of a group that already lived in a place