AP Human Geography Unit 3 Culture

creole

A language that results from the mixing of a colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated.

dialect

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

extinct language

A language that was once used by people in daily activities but is no longer used.

isogloss

A boundary that separates regions in which different languages usages predominate.

language

A system of communication through the use of speech, a collection of sounds understood by a group of people to have the same meaning.

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 derived from the same family.

language family

A collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestor long before recorded history.

lingua franca

A language that is mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages. Pilots and people in the control tower use English.

official language

The language adopted for use by the government for the conduct of business and publication of documents.

pidgin language

A form of speech that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of a lingua franca; used for communications among speakers of two different languages.

Spanglish

A combination of Spanish and English spoken by Hispanic Americans.

accent

a distinctive way of pronouncing a language, especially one associated with a particular country, area, or social class.

toponym

Name of a place.

Indo-European

The language family that is the most widely-spoken and has the largest number of speakers; Includes the Germanic, Romance, and Slavic branches (among many others).

ethnicity

Cultural traits; Identity with people who share cultural traditions of a particular homeland or hearth.

Hispanic/Latino/Latina

a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race; One of the largest ethnic minorities in the U.S.

animism

The attribution of a soul to plants, inanimate objects, and natural phenomena; Associated with hunter-gatherer societies.

Buddhism

Belief system that started in India in the 500s BC. A religion founded in India by Siddhartha Gautama which teaches that the most important thing in life is to reach peace by ending suffering.

caste

A class or distinct hereditary order into which a person is assigned according to a religious law; Associated with Hinduism.

Christianity

A monotheistic universalizing religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus.

Christian population

A religion of 2.2 billion people; The largest religion by followers and the most widespread.

Confucianism

A philosophy that adheres to the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius. It shows the way to ensure a stable government and an orderly society in the present world and stresses a moral code of conduct.

denomination

A division of a branch that unites a number of local congregations in a single legal and administrative body

Jerusalem

Hearth of Christianity

ethnic religion

A religion that is particular to one, culturally distinct, group of people

missionary

An individual who helps to diffuse a universalizing religion

monotheism

The belief of the existence of only one god

pilgrimage

A journey to a place considered sacred for religious purposes

polytheism

Belief in or worship of more than one god

Hadj

Pilgrimage to Mecca; Fifth "Pillar of Islam".

Hinduism

An ethnic religion and philosophy developed in ancient India, characterized by a belief in reincarnation and a supreme being who takes many forms

Muslims

Followers of the religion of Islam.

Jainism

A religion founded in India in the sixth century BC as an offshoot of Hinduism; Believers practice an extreme form of nonviolence as a daily guiding principle.

Judaism

A monotheist ethnic religion that originated with Abraham and the Hebrew people in the 8th century BCE; Hearth at Canaan (modern day Israel and Palestine).

Muslim population

A religion of 1.5 billion people in the world; The predominant religion of the Middle East from North Africa to Central Asia.

reincarnation

In Hinduism and Buddhism, the process by which a soul is reborn continuously until it achieves perfect understanding.

religion

A system of beliefs shared by a group with objects for devotion, rituals for worship and a code of ethics.

sacred space

An area that has special religious significance or meaning that makes it worthy of reverence or devotion.

Sharia Law

The code of law derived from the Koran and from the teachings and example of Mohammed.

Shia

A Muslim group that accepts only the descendants of Muhammed's son-in-law Ali as the true rulers of Islam; A major branch of Islam.

Shintoism

The ancient indigenous religion of Japan lacking formal dogma.

Sikhism

A belief system which blends Hindu traditions with Islamic monotheistic traditions. Hearth in India and Pakistan; Holy city at Amritsar, India.

Sunni

A branch of Islam whose members acknowledge the first four caliphs as the rightful successors of Muhammad; The major branch of Islam.

Taoism (Daoism)

An indigenous Chinese philosophy in which people live a simple life in harmony with nature.

universalizing religion

A religion that attempts to appeal to all people

folk culture

Traditionally practiced by a small, homogeneous, rural group living in relative isolation.

popular culture

Found in a large, heterogeneous society that shares certain habits despite differences in personal characteristics.

custom

Frequent repetition of an act until it becomes characteristic of a group of people.

taboo

A restriction on behavior imposed by social custom.

homogenous

Of the same kind; alike; Used to describe social groups of cultural practices (especially popular culture).

assimilation

The process through which people lose originally differentiating traits, often used to describe immigrant adaptation to a new place of residence.

cultural hearth

Heartland, source area, innovation center; place of origin of a major culture.

Eastern Orthodox Church

An ancient Christian church concentrated in Eastern Europe, especially Russia and Greece.

Catholic Church

The largest Christian church; Headed by the Pope in the Vatican City, enclaved within Rome.

Protestant Church

The second largest form of Christianity with collectively more than 900 million adherents worldwide (40% of all Christians); Originated with the Reformation, a movement against what its followers considered to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church.

Kaaba

The most sacred temple of Islam, located at Mecca

Switzerland

multi-lingual state where French,German, Italian, and Romansch are spoken

Belgium

multilingual state where Flemish (Dutch) and Walloon (French) is spoken.

Hierarchical Diffusion

the spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority, power, or influence to other persons or places

Relocation diffusion

the spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another

Stimulus Diffusion

a form of diffusion in which a cultural adaptation is created as a result of the introduction of a cultural trait from another place (McDonald's spreads, but the menu items may differ from place to place)

Contagious Diffusion

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

cultural landscape

the visible imprint of human activity and culture on the landscape

Acculturation

Prolonged contact between two or more cultures may result in acculturation which is when people within one culture adopt some traits from the other culture.

Multiculturalism

The acceptance and tolerance of many different cultures which exist in close proximity to one another. Openness, acceptance, diversity.

syncretism

When two culture’s traits blend together and form a new cultural trait. This can happen through contact between peoples such as imperialism, military conquest, immigration or intermarriage

Buddhist god

Siddhartha

Christianity house of worship

Church

Judaism house of worship

Synagogue

Islam house of worship

Mosque

Hinduism house of worship

Temple

Jews, Christians, and Muslim Gods

same god

germanic

branch of indo-european family

indo-european

language family

Built environment

Produced by the physical material culture; the tangible human creation on the landscape.

Sequent occupancy

the current cultural landscape of a region as a combination of all the people which have 'sequentially' occupied that region from the past to the present.

Reverse hierarchical diffsuion

When ideas diffuse based on a low standard of a stereotype

sociofacts

ways of how a society behaves/organizes institutions

mentifacts

ideas, beliefs, values, and knowledge of a culture

cultural traits

visible/invisible traits combining to make up a groups culture

ancient cultural hearth

west africa, ganges river valley, mesoamerica, mesopotamia, mesopotamia

imperialism

dominance of one political community over another political community, weaker political is influenced to serve dominant powers interests

colonialism

process of using military force to conquer and settle another territory whether its occupied/unoccupied

neocolonialism

term has emerged in recent years because imperialism can be pursued through the assertion of political, economic, and cultural influence

terrior

contribution of a locations distinctive physical features to the way food tastes

cultural homogenization

process of reduction in cultural diversity through diffusion of popular culture

centripetal

a cultural value that tends to unify people

centrifu

a cultural value that tends to pull people apart

institutional language

used in education, work, mass media, and government

developing language

used in daily use with literary tradition that's not widely distributed

vigorous language

used in daily use but lacks literacy tradition

threatened language

used for face to face communication but loses users

literary tradition

language written as well as its spoken

dying language

used by older generations but not passed down onto younger ones

logogram

a single written symbol that represents an entire word or phrase without indicating its pronunciation

working language

working language used by international organization/ corporation as its primary means of communication