Culture
practices, technologies, attitudes, and behaviors shared through society
Cultural traits
Individual elements of culture and include arch as food preferences, architecture, and land use
Custom
Practice routinely followed by a group of people
Habit
A repetitive act that a particular individual performs
Cultural complex
Group of traits that define a particular culture
Cultural hearth
Area in which a unique culture or specific trait develops
Taboo
Behaviors heavily discouraged by a culture
Local cultures/Folk cultures
Small, homogenous, groups of people that often live in rural areas that are relatively isolated and are slow to change
Sense of place
Cultural regions
Broad areas where groups share similar but not identical cultural traits
Formal region
An area that has officially recognised boundaries defining it
Nodal/functional region
An area organized around a node or focal point
Perceptual/vernacular region
Based on how people think of a particular area (south, east, north, and west coast of US)
Cultural landscape
The visible imprint of human activity and culture on the landscape
Ethnic enclaves
Clusters of people of the same culture, but surrounded by people of a culture that is dominant in the region
Cultural realms
Larger area that include several regions; cultures within these realms have a few traits they all share, such as language families, religious tradition, food preferences, architecture, or a shared history
Space time compression
The increasing sense of connectivity that seems to be bringing people closer together even though their distances are the same
Globalization
The process of intensified interaction among people, govt, and companies of different countries around the globe
Modern/popular/global culture
Consists of cultural traits that spread quickly across over a large area and are adopted by various groups
Diffusion
The spreading of information, ideas, behaviours, and other aspects of culture over wider areas
Relocation diffusion
The spread of a cultural traits by people who migrate and carry their cultural traits with them
Expansion diffusion
The spread of cultural traits through direct or indirect exchange without migration
Three types of expansion diffusion
Hierarchical, contagious, and stimulus
Contagious diffusion
Occurs when cultural traits spread continuously outward from its hearth through contact among people
Hierarchical diffusion
The spread of culture outward from the most interconnected places or from centers of wealth and importance
Reverse hierarchical diffusion
The processes in which a trait diffuses from a lower class to a higher class
Stimulus diffusion
Occurs when people in a culture adopt an underlying idea to process from another culture, but modify it because they reject one trait of it
Acculturation
An ethnic or immigrant group moving to a new area adopts the values and practices of the larger group that has received them while still maintaining major elements of their own culture
Assimilation
When an ethnic group can no longer be distinguished from the receiving group
Multiculturalism
The coexistence of several cultures in one society, with the ideas of all cultures being valued and worth of study
Nativist
Anti immigrant
Relativism
Belief that moral behavior varies among individuals, groups, and cultures, as well as across situations
Sequential occupancy
The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape
Centripetal forces
Forces that tend to unite or bind a state together
Centrifugal forces
Forces that divide a state (internal religious, political, economic, linguistic, or ethnic differences
Language family
A collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestor long before recorded history
Language branch
A collection of languages related through a common ancestor that existed several thousand years ago - differences are not as extensive or as old as with language families, and archaeological evidence can confirm that the branches are derived from the same family
Language group
A collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display relatively few differences in grammar and vocabulary
Instituitional language
A language used in education, work, mass media, and government
Official language
The language used by the government for the conduct of business and publication of documents
Literary tradition
A language that is written as well as spoken
Developing language
A language spoken in daily use with a literary tradition that is not widely distributed
Vigorous language
A language that is spoken in daily use but that lacks a literary tradition
Extinct language
A language that was once used by people in daily activities but is no longer used (such as Latin)
Lingua Franca
A language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different
Syncretism
Blending of 2 or more cultural or religious traditions
Colonialism
Attempt by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles in another territory (settlement)
Imperialism
Domination by one country of the political, economic, or cultural life of another country or region (No settlements just ruling from afar)
Urbanization
The movement of people from rural areas to cities
Globalization
Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope
Indo-European
A family of languages consisting of most of the languages of Europe as well as those of iron, the Indian subcontinent, and their parts of Asia
Sino-tibetan
Language area that spreads through most of southeast Asia and china and is comprised of Chinese, Burmese, Tibetan, Japanese, and korean
Linguistic fragmentation
A condition in which many languages are spoken, each by a relatively small number number of people
Pidgin
A language that adopts simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of a Lingua franca, used for communication among speakers of two different languages
Creole
A language that is made from the mixing of a colonizers language with he indigenous language of the people being dominated
Universalizing religion
Religion that people all around the world practice and is spread through missionaries and conversion
Ethnic religion
A religion that is identified with a specific ethnic group or region, and does not seek new converts
Cultural convergence
for cultures to converge together through technology and organizational structures
Cultural divergence
The way cultures can become increasingly different as time passes
Polytheism
Religion that believes in more than 1 god
Monotheism
Religions that believes in one god
Indigenous religions
Belief systems and philosphies practiced and passed down generation to generation in tribes or people-groups
Sect
A small group that has broken away from an established religion
Syncretic religion
The combination of 2 different religions into a distinct new religion that contains traits of both religions
Race
Identification of a group of people through a perceived trait, such as skin color or physical characteristics
Ethnicity
Identification of a group of people who share a cultural tradition or a particular hearth
Nationality
Identification of a group of people who share legal attachment and personal allegiance to a particular country
Racism
The belief that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
Ethnic enclave
A place with high concentration of an ethnic group that is distinct from those in the surrounding area
Genocide
The deliberate killing of a large people-group in attempt to erase them from existence
Ethnic cleansing
The mass expulsion, removal, or killing of members of an unwanted ethnic or religious group in society
Centripetal force
Binds a nation together
Centrifugal force
Tears a nation apart