Unit 3

Local (Folk/Ethnic) Culture

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

Acculturation

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

African Traditional Religion

Various, mostly animistic religions based in nature and ancestor worship or veneration is a significant component.

Animism

Belief that objects, such as plants and stones, or natural events, like thunderstorms and earthquakes, have a discrete spirit and conscious life.

Cultural Appropriation

Process by which other cultures adopt customs and knowledge and use them for their own benefit.

Architecture

The art or practice of designing and constructing buildings.

Artifacts

Tangible object made by human beings, either hand-made or mass-produced.

Assimilation

The process through which people lose originality differentiating traits, such as dress, speech, particularities, or mannerisms, when they come into contact with another society or culture.

Behavior

Observable actions or responses of humans or animals.

Beliefs

Tenets or convictions that people hold to be true.

Branch

A large and fundamental division within a religion.

Buddhism

The teaching of Buddha that life is permeated with suffering caused by desire, that suffering ceases when desire ceases and that enlightenment obtained through right conduct and wisdom and meditation releases one from desire and suffering and rebirth.

Caste System

A set of rigid social categories that determined not only a person's occupation and economic potential, but also his or her position in society.

Centripetal Force

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

Centrifugal Force

A force that divides people and countries.

Chinese Traditional Religion

A combination of Buddhism with Confucianism, Taoism, and other traditional religions practiced in East Asia and Southeast Asia.

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.

Colonization

The expansion of countries into other countries where they establish settlements and control the people.

Contagious Diffusion

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

Creole/Creolized Language

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

Cultural Convergence

The tendency for cultures to become more alike as they increasingly share technology and organizational structures in a modern world united by improved transportation and communication.

Cultural Divergence

The likelihood or tendency for cultures to become increasingly dissimilar with the passage of time.

Cultural Hearth

Locations on Earth's surface where specific cultures first arose.

Cultural Landscape

The visible imprint of human activity and culture on the landscape.

Cultural Relativism

The practice of judging a culture by its own standards.

Custom

The frequent repetition of an act, to the extent that it becomes characteristic of the group of people performing the act.

Dialect

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

Diaspora

A dispersion of people from their homeland.

Ethnic Enclave

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

Ethnicity

A social division based on national origin, religion, language, and often race.

Ethnocentrism

Evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's own culture.

Gender

The socially constructed roles and characteristics by which a culture defines male and female.

Globalization

Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope.

Hierarchical Diffusion

The spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority or power to other persons or places.

Hinduism

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

Imperialism

A policy in which a strong nation seeks to dominate other countries politically, socially, and economically.

Indigenous Language

Language native to a region and spoken by the indigenous people of that region.

Indigenous People

Descendants of the people who first lived in a region.

Indo-European Language

A family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, Iran, and northern India, and historically also predominant in Anatolia and Central Asia.

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.

Judaism

A religion with a belief in one god. It originated with Abraham and the Hebrew people.

Language Extinction

The point at which a language no longer has any active speakers.

Language Family

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

Lingua Franca

A language used among speakers of different languages for the purposes of trade and commerce.

Local (Ethnic/Folk) Religion

Religion that are spiritually bound to particular regions.

Material Culture

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

Mentifacts

The complex of ideas, beliefs, knowledge, and means of their communication that characterizes a culture.

Monotheism

Belief in one God.

Multiculturalism

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

Non-material Culture

The beliefs, practices, aesthetics, and values of a group of people.

Norms

Rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members.

Pilgrimage

A journey to a place considered sacred for religious purposes.

Placelessness

The replacement of local variety with a homogeneous and standardized landscape.

Polytheism

Belief in many gods

Race

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

Relocation Diffusion

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

Sacred Space

Place or space people infuse with religious meaning.

Secularism

An indifference to religion and a belief that religion should be excluded from civic affairs and public education.

Sense of Place

The feeling that an area has a distinct and meaningful character.

Sequent Occupancy

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

Sikism

A monotheistic religion that developed in India in the 1400s.

Stimulus Diffusion

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

Syncretism

A blending of beliefs and practices from different religions into one faith.

Taboo

A restriction on behavior imposed by social custom.

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.

Universalizing Religion

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

Ubranization

The process of making an area more urban.

Values

The ideas, beliefs, and attitudes about what is important that help guide the way you live.

Homogeneous

Of a similar kind.

Hetergeneous

Differing in kind; dissimilar; varied