APHG-U3.1-4

Popular Culture

Origin: recent, known/copyrighted

Diffusion: mostly expansion (technology)

Nature of community: large, urban & heterogeneous

Folk Culture

Origin: ancient/unkown

Diffusion: mostly relocation

Nature of community: small, isolated & homogenous

Material Culture

Def: constructed objects (art, architecture, fashion)

Sig: cultural products reflect the beliefs & values

Non-material culture

rituals, aesthetics, values & ideas

Cultural Nationalism

Def: effort to unify people by a language, religion or other cultural commonality. It's often used in the face of colonialism, globalization or other centrifugal force.

Ex: protection of Gaelic language in Ireland or promoting a national holiday (dia de los muertos)

Ethnocentrism

Def: Belief in the superiority of one's national or ethnic culture.

Ex: Some Europeans may view America's use of our hands when eating pizza or chicken drumsticks as inferior (similarly how we may view other cultures who use their hands to eat something that we would eat with a fork).

Cultural Relativism

Def: the practice of judging a culture by its own standards (and not one's own cultural standards)

Ex: holding back judgement when viewing other cultures' norms on clothing and privacy (especially female attire)

Relocation Diffusion

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

EX: Members of the Sikh religion moving to Los Angeles (diffusion of Sikhism).

Expansion Diffusion

Def: The spread of an innovation or an idea in such a way that the area of distribution grows AND the number of those influenced grows.

Ex: Non-Sikh Angelenos convert to Sikhism due to contact with South Asian immigrants to LA.

Hierarchical Diffusion

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

Ex: Taylor Swift's use of a repurposed Ziplock bag as her purse led other celebrities in her circle to do the same. Eventually, Target started selling Swiftlock Bags to us.

Contagious Diffusion

Def: The distance-related spreading of an idea, innovation, or some other item through a local population by contact from person to person.

Ex: The teacher forgot to erase the answers to a test from the board before passing them out. Bob in the back pointed that out to his neighbors who then told their neighbors. Eventually it got to the front of the room.

Stimulus Diffusion

Def: the spread of an underlying principle, even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse

Ex: The topics and themes of French hip hop have largely been changed (reterritorialized), but the underlying structures remain similar to those started in the Bronx.

Centripetal Force

A factor that tends to unify people and enhance state stability

Ex: thanksgiving or the national anthem

Centrifugal Force

A factor that divides people and countries

Ex: language barriers or religious differences

Hearth

The origin of something that has diffused

EX: Bronx, NY and Hip Hop

Official Language

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

Standard language

The variant of a language that a country's political and intellectual elite seek to promote as the norm for use in schools, government, the media, and other aspects of public life