APHG Unit 3

Culture

Beliefs, customs, and traditions of a specific group of people.

Acculturation

The adoption of cultural traits, such as language, by one group under the influence of another.

Assimilation

The social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another

Contagious Diffusion

The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population.

Cultural Convergence

Contact and interaction of one culture and another

Cultural Divergence

The restriction of a culture from outside influences

Cultural Landscape

The visible imprint of human activity and culture on the landscape

Cultural Relativism

Not judging a culture but trying to understand it on its own terms

Diffusion

The process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time

Ethnic (Folk) Cultures

Culture traditionally practiced by a small, homogeneous, rural group living in relative isolation from other groups.

Ethnocentrism

Belief in the superiority of one's nation or ethnic group.

Expansion Diffusion

The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in a snowballing process.

Indigenous People

Natives of an area who have been conquered or dominated by others who came later

Hierarchical Diffusion

The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places

Material Culture

Tangible, physical items produced and used by members of a specific culture group and reflective of their traditions, lifestyles, and technologies

Non-Material Culture

Human creations, such as values, norms, knowledge, systems of government, language, and so on, that are not embodied in physical objects

Popular Culture

Culture found in a large, heterogeneous society that shares certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristics.

Relocation Diffusion

The spread of a feature or trend through bodily movement of people from one place to another.

Sequent Occupance

The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape

Stimulus Diffusion

The spread of an underlying principle, even though a specific characteristic is rejected.

Time-Space Convergence

The idea that distance between some places is actually shrinking as technology enables more rapid communication and increased interaction among those places

Uniform Landscape

The spatial expression of a popular custom in one location being similar to another.

Centripetal Force

An attitude that tends to unify people and enhance support for a state

Centrifugal Force

A force that divides people and countries

Ethnic Enclave

A place with a high concentration of an ethnic group that is distinct from those in the surrounding area

Race

A group of human beings distinguished by physical traits, blood types, genetic code patterns or genetically inherited characteristics.

Ethnicity

Identity with a group of people that share distinct physical and mental traits as a product of common heredity and cultural traditions.

Creolization

The blending of African, European, and some Amerindian cultural elements into the unique sociocultural systems found in the Caribbean.

Dialect

A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.

Indo-European

A large language family of hundreds of languages, including English. Spoken in Europe, the Americas, South Asia, and the Middle East,

Sino-Tibetan

Language area that spreads through most of Southeast Asia and China and is comprised of Chinese, Burmese, Tibetan, Japanese, and Korean.

Hearth

Regions from which innovative ideas originate.

Isolated Language

A language that is unrelated to any other languages and therefore not attached to any language family. EX: Basque.

Language Families

Tree trunk - Large groups of languages having similar roots

Language Tree

A representation of the relationships of languages to each other.

Family (trunk) - Group - Branch - Language

Lingua Franca

A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages

Literary Tradition

A language that is written as well as spoken

Revived Language

Language which was almost extinct, but it now being used more regularly. EX: Hebrew or Gaelic.

Toponym

The name given to a place on Earth

Universalizing Religion

A religion that attempts to appeal to all people, not just those living in a particular location.

Ethnic Religion

A religion with a relatively concentrated spatial distribution whose principles are likely to be based on the physical characteristics of the particular location in which its adherents are concentrated.

Pilgrimage

A journey to a place considered sacred for religious purposes.

Abrahamic Religions

3 religions that regard Abraham as their ancestor in faith: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Jerusalem

A city in the Holy Land, regarded as sacred by Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

Christianity

A monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and emphasizing the role of Jesus as savior.

Buddhism

Belief system that started in India in the 500s BC. Happiness can be achieved through removal of one's desires. Believers seek enlightenment and the overcoming of suffering. Leader is Buddha.

Islam

A religion based on the teachings of the prophet Mohammed which stresses belief in one god (Allah), Paradise and Hell, and a body of law written in the Quran. Followers are called Muslims.

Hinduism

A religion and philosophy developed in ancient India, characterized by a belief in reincarnation and a supreme being who takes many forms. Cremation is also an important practice.

Judaism

A religion with a belief in one god. It originated with Abraham and the Hebrew people. Yahweh was responsible for the world and everything within it. They preserved their early history in the Old Testament.

Sikhism

Indian religion founded by the guru Nanak (1469-1539) in the Punjab region of northwest India. After the Mughal emperor ordered the beheading of the ninth guru in 1675, warriors from this group mounted armed resistance to Mughal rule.

Taboo

A restriction on behavior imposed by social custom.

Terrior

The contribution of a location's distinctive physical features to the way food tastes.

3 causes of ethic conflicts

Race/Ethnicity, Religion, Resources

Apartheid

Laws (no longer in effect) in South Africa that physically separated different races into different geographic areas.

Assimilaton

To become absorbed into another culture and adopt its characteristics.

Ethnic Cleansing

Process in which more powerful ethnic group forcibly removes a less powerful one in order to create an ethnically homogeneous region

Genocide

Deliberate extermination of a racial or cultural group

Multiculturalism

A perspective recognizing the cultural diversity and promoting equal standing for all cultural traditions.

Syncretism

The unification or blending of opposing people, ideas, or practices, frequently in the realm of religion. EX: when Christianity was adopted by people in a new land, they often incorporate it into their existing culture and traditions.