Unit 3: Cultural Patterns and Processes

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards defining key concepts, diffusion mechanisms, cultural traits, linguistic theories, and religious classifications from Unit 3 Cultural Patterns and Processes.

Culture

Shared practices, technologies, attitudes, and behaviors transmitted by the members of a society that are not the result of biological inheritance (socially constructed).

Ethnicity

A group of people who share a common cultural identity (e.g., Hispanic, German, Italian, Hmong, Japanese).

Race

A historical classification used to categorize human populations with shared physical traits, rather than cultural characteristics.

Culture trait

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

Material culture traits

Tangible cultural artifacts and physical items produced by a society, including clothing, food, literature/art, and houses/public buildings.

Nonmaterial culture traits

Intangible cultural attributes, beliefs, and practices of a society, including language, religion, education systems, government/law systems, and music/holidays.

Ethnocentrism

Judging another culture based on the values of one's own culture (language, religion, customs).

Cultural relativism

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

Cultural landscape

The combination of physical features, agricultural and industrial practices, religious and linguistic characteristics, sequent occupancy, traditional and postmodern architecture, and land use patterns.

Sequent occupance

The combined imprint on an area when it has been inhabited by a succession of cultures (e.g., buildings, transportation systems, farms, irrigation, recreation facilities).

Indigenous communities

The original settlers of an area (pre-invasion/colonialism) who have retained their culture apart from the colonizers (e.g., Native Americans, First Nations, Aborigines).

Ethnic neighborhood

An area within a city occupied by a distinctive minority culture (e.g., Little Italy in NYC).

Gender

Social and cultural differences between males and females, distinct from biological differences.

Gender role

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

Gendered spaces

Areas in which gender expression is either welcome or unwelcome (e.g., public space belonging to men and private space to women in Muslim society, or public restrooms divided by gender in U.S. society).

Sense of place

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

Strong sense of place

A sense of place that is felt by visitors as well as inhabitants (e.g., Amish country, Little Italy).

Place making

How a culture makes a place fit their identity by shaping the landscape to show what they believe and value (buildings, statues, sacred sites, etc.).

Centripetal forces

Forces that unite a country.

Centrifugal forces

Forces that divide a country.

Cultural diffusion

The spread of an idea, innovation, cultural trend, or disease from its source area to other areas.

Relocation diffusion

A type of cultural diffusion when an innovation or idea spreads by the actual movement of individuals who have adopted the idea and carry it to a new place (e.g., the spread of Christianity, Spanish, and English to the New World).

Expansion diffusion

A type of cultural diffusion when an innovation or idea develops in a source area and remains strong there while also spreading outward through fixed populations in a wave-like manner.

Contagious diffusion

A type of expansion diffusion where nearly all individuals are affected as it spreads outward (e.g., the spread of Islam).

Hierarchical diffusion

A type of expansion diffusion when particular groups are affected as it leapfrogs over areas (e.g., FAX machines, AIDS).

Stimulus diffusion

A type of expansion diffusion where a small portion of the population adopts an idea or modifies it (e.g., vegetable "burgers" in India).

Lingua Franca

A language mutually understood by people who speak different languages, usually for the purpose of trade (e.g., English in international business, Swahili in East Africa, Arabic in Southwest Asia).

Creolization

The blending of European, Amerindian, and African cultures in the New World as a result of colonialism to create something new (e.g., Haitian Creole language, Santeria religion in the Caribbean).

Colonialism

The policy of acquiring control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically (e.g., English pilgrims or Spanish conquistadors landing in America).

Cultural imperialism

Dominance of one culture over another, historically often occurring as a result of colonization, and present today as pop culture commercializing local traditions.

Social construction of culture

The practices and beliefs (culture) that appear to be natural and obvious to people who accept it, but are actually learned behaviors (e.g., race).

Globalization

The process of increased interconnectedness among countries, most notably in the areas of economics, politics, and culture.

Urbanization

The movement of people to towns/cities and the resulting expansion of the rural countryside to absorb an increase in people.

Time-space convergence

Increasing connectivity between cultures that occurs as a result of communication technology (e.g., the internet).

Cultural convergence

Cultures becoming more alike as their interactions increase (e.g., increasing use of English).

Cultural divergence

The tendency for culture groups to disassociate from others in order to protect or preserve their culture from influence or change (e.g., Amish, Hutterite, Mennonite, Inuit).

Local culture (folk culture)

Culture traits of usually small, traditional, homogenous, rural communities (e.g., Amish, Hutterite, Mennonite, Inuit).

Culture hearth

The source of civilization: a place where a civilization began and their ideas and practices spread to surrounding areas.

Civilization

A society with an advanced state of social development possessing recordkeeping (writing), advanced cities (urbanization), technology, specialized workers, and complex institutions (government, religion).

Language family

A group of languages with a shared but fairly distant origin.

Dialect

A variant of a standard language along regional or ethnic lines (e.g., differences in vocabulary, syntax, pronunciation, cadence, and pace).

Indo-European language family

A family of languages believed to all come from a single ancestral language (Proto-Indo-European) that spread outward.

Conquest Theory

Theorizes that the source of the Indo-European language lay somewhere in the steppes of present-day Ukraine and Russia more than 5,000 years ago and spread by conquerors on horseback who moved westward.

Agriculture Theory

Theorizes that the source of the Indo-European language lay somewhere in the mountainous terrain of Anatolia in modern Turkey between 7,000 and 9,000 years ago and spread with the diffusion of agriculture.

Toponym

Place-names that can uncover historical information about a place and its origins, such as the language of the original inhabitants and succeeding settlement history and population dispersal (e.g., Osceola County, Florida).

Universalizing religion

Religions that actively seek converts because they view themselves as offering belief systems of universal applicability and appeal (e.g., Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism).

Ethnic religion

Religions that do not actively seek converts and are generally found near the hearth or spread through relocation diffusion (e.g., Hinduism, Judaism).

Buddhism

A universalizing religion founded by Siddhartha Gautama in northern India with roots in Hinduism (reincarnation); spread by relocation diffusion to East Asia and expansion diffusion in China, Korea, Thailand, Burma, and Japan.

Christianity

A universalizing religion with roots in Judaism, founded in Southwest Asia, based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus; includes Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Eastern Orthodox branches.

Islam

A universalizing religion with roots in Judaism, founded in Southwest Asia, based on the belief in Allah and Muhammad as His prophet; major branches include Sunni and Shiite (Shia).

Sikhism

A universalizing religion with roots in both Islam (Muhammad as a prophet) and Hinduism (reincarnation), founded in Northern India and based on the teachings of Guru Nanak.

Hinduism

An ethnic religion that is the oldest major religion founded in India; cannot be traced to one single founder, is strongly connected to Hindu culture, and centers on the belief in reincarnation.

Judaism

An ethnic religion founded by Abraham in Southwest Asia that is believed by many to be the first monotheistic religion dedicated to serving one God.

Diaspora

The scattering of Jews from their homeland by the Romans, resulting in relocation diffusion.

Animism

Probably humanity's oldest religion, pre-dating civilization and centered on the belief that inanimate objects, such as mountains, rivers, and trees, possess spirits and should be revered.

Assimilation

The 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

The process by which a person or persons acquire the social and psychological characteristics of a group and cannot be distinguished from anyone else.

Multiculturalism

Maintaining a diversity of ethnic cultures within a community that are valued and respected for their unique differences (e.g., New York City).

Syncretism

The development of a new cultural trait as a result of the blending of two distinct but interacting cultures (e.g., "Americanized" Chinese food, "Americanized" Mexican food).

Placelessness

The loss of distinct local features (uniqueness) in favor of standardized landscapes resulting from the pervasiveness of pop culture, mass production, and consumables (e.g., strip malls).

Pop culture

Culture traits of large, heterogeneous, urban populations (usually rapidly changing).

Interfaith boundaries

Boundaries and conflicts between the world's major separate faiths (e.g., Islam and Judaism in Israel, Hinduism and Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Christians and Muslims in Sudan).

Intrafaith boundaries

Boundaries and conflicts within a single major faith, such as between different denominations or branches (e.g., Catholics/Protestants in Northern Ireland, Sunni/Shia in Iraq).

Sacred sites (spaces)

Areas or places of religious/spiritual significance, including cathedrals, mosques, temples, and cemeteries (e.g., Dome of the Rock and Western Wall in Jerusalem).