HUG Unit 3 Culture terms

Ethnic religion

A religion identified with a particular ethnic or tribal group that does not seek converts

Universalizing religion

A religion that actively seeks new members and believes its message has universal importance and application

Monotheistic

Relating to the belief in only one god

Polytheistic

The belief in many gods

Animistic religion

Souls/spirits exist in all existing forms on Earth: animals, plants, rocks, geographic features, weathering events, etc.

Orthodox Religion

Religion that emphasizes purity of faith and is generally not open to blending with elements of other belief systems

Syncretic religion

Religion that combines elements of two or more different belief systems

secular

Less influenced or controlled by religion

Ethnocentric approach

An approach to understanding other cultures that evaluates them from the perspective of the observer’s culture

Sacred Spaces

Natural or human-made sites that possess religious meaning and are recognized as worthy of devotion, loyalty, fear, or esteem

Genocide

The systematic killing of members of a racial, ethnic, or linguistic group

Time space convergence

The time for traveling between places shortening with new technologies

Cultural trait

A single aspect of a given culture or society

Convergence hypothesis

The idea that cultures are converging or becoming more alike

Assimilation

Occurs when an ethnic or immigrant group blends in with the host culture and loses many culturally distinctive traits

Cultural Relativism

An approach to understanding other cultures that seeks to understand individuals and cultures from a wider perspective of cultural logic

Placelessness

The loss of unique local characters and aspects are lost due to globalization and standardization

Sequent occupance

A place being affected and changed overtime by a group

Language family

A group of related languages that share a common ancestry

Dialect

A regional variation of a language that is understood by people who speak other variations of that language

creole/creolization

Process where languages combine and create new languages. Combined language that became a native language with more advanced vocabulary than pidgin

Lingua franca

A language of communication and commerce spoken across a wide area where it is not a mother tongue

pidgin

A trade language, characterized by a very small vocabulary derived from the languages of at least two or more groups in contact

Indigenous culture

A local culture that is no longer the dominant ethnic group within its traditional homeland because of migration, colonization, or political marginalization

Endangered Languages

A language that is not taught to children by their parents and is not used actively in everyday matters

Extinct Languages

A language that has only a few elderly speakers still living or no living speakers