Unit 3 APHG Flashcards

Flashcards for the students who literally can stand making physical ones

Artifacts

The material manifestation of culture, including tools, housing, systems of land use, clothing, etc. "What a culture uses"

Assimilation

the process of a person or group losing the cultural traits that made them distinct from the people around them

Built Environment

modifications made to the physical environment that represent material culture

Placelessness

loss of uniqueness of place in the cultural landscape so that one place looks like the next or does not inspire any strong emotional or cultural ties. (Uniform landscape)

Cultural Landscape

A natural landscape that has been modified by humans, reflecting their cultural beliefs and values

Cultural Relativism

the idea that a person's beliefs, values, and practices should be understood based on that person's own culture, rather than be judged through the eyes of another culture

Culture

The shared beliefs, values, practicesm behaviors, and technologies of a society

Custom

something that a group of people does repeatedly that becomes part of their culture (for example, bowing instead of shaking hands in Japan)

Ethnic (folk) culture

the cultural traditions that are generally held by a specific ethnic group, often localized in a specific area

Ethnocentrism

judging people or traditions based on your own cultural standards

Mentifacts

The central, enduring elements of a culture expressing its values and beliefs, including language, religion, folklore, and etc. "What a culture believes"

Ethnic Neighborhoods/Enclaves

people of the same ethnicity that cluster together in a specific location, typically within a major city.

Gendered Spaces

Places in the cultural landscape utilized to reinforce or accommodate gender roles for men and women.

Centripetal Forces

characteristics that unify a country and provide stability

Centrifugal Forces

characteristics that divide a country and result in instability

Contagious Diffusion

when a cultural trait spreads continuously outward from its hearth through contact among people

Democratization

the spread of representative government to more countries and the process of making more governments representative.

Expansion Diffusion

the spread of an idea/cultural trait through a population in a way that the number influenced becomes continuously larger. (Three types - contagious, hierarchical, stimulus diffusion)

Globalization

the trend towards increased cultural and economic connectedness between people, business, and organizations throughout the world without regard to borders or barriers.

Hierarchical Diffusion

spread of culture outward from the most interconnected places or from centers of wealth and power

Relocation Diffusion

spread of a cultural trait by people who migrate and carry their cultural trait with them

Reverse Hierarchical Diffusion

a trait that diffuses from a lower class to a higher class OR small rural communities to large urban centers.

Branch

a major division within a religion

Creole or Creolized Language

a language that began as a combination of two other languages and is spoken as the primary language of a group of people

Cultural Divergence

when a culture splits into different cultures because of lack of interaction

Cultural Ecology

the study of human adaptations to social and physical environment

Dialect

different forms of the same language used by groups that have some different vocabulary and pronunciations

Ethnic Religions

a religion that is focused on a single ethnic group (often in a centralized area) that doesn't attempt to appeal to all people. Referenced as Folk Culture sometimes.

Indigenous Language

a language that is native to a region and spoken by indigenous people

Indigenous People

the original settlers of a given region, in contrast to groups that have settled the area more recently

Pidgin

an extremely simplified language used by two people that speak two different languages. No native speakers

Bilingual

speaking two languages

Multilingual

speaking multiple languages

Orthography

the spelling system of a language

Denomination

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

Sect

a relatively small group that has broken away from a denomination

Language Branch

collection of languages that share a common origin from thousands of years ago. They separated from other languages in their family and are distinct although related.

Language Extinction

a language that is no longer spoken by anyone as their native language

Language Family

a collection of languages that are all descended from an original, proto-language

Language Group

collection of languages that share a recent past with similar vocabularies

Lingua Franca

a language that groups of people who don't speak the same language use to communicate often for trade or business (EX: Swahili)

Monotheism

belief in one god

Official Language

used by the government of a country for laws, reports, public objects, money, stamps, etc...

Cultural convergence

when two cultures become more similar because of frequent interactions

Acculturation

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

Multiculturalism

when various ethnic groups coexist with one another without having to sacrifice their particular identities

Sense of Place

a strong feeling of identity that is deeply felt by inhabitants and visitors of a location

Sequent Occupance

the idea that the current cultural landscape is a combination of all the societies who lived there previously and the changes each group made

Sociofacts

The institutions and links between individuals and groups that unite a culture, including family structure and political, educational and religious institutions. "What a culture does"

Environmental Determinism

the belief that a physical environment is THE reason societies are shaped the way they are

Hearth

origin, starting point

Stimulus Diffusion

when people in a culture adopt an underlying idea or process from another culture, but modify it because they reject one trait of it.

Syncretism

the blending traits from two different cultures to form a new trait

Taboo

something that is forbidden by a culture or a religion, sometimes so forbidden that it is often not even discussed

Possibilism

the belief that a physical environment plays a role in the development of a society, but is NOT the ONLY factor at work

Universalizing Religion

a religion that attempts to appeal to all people and has a worldwide focus as opposed to a regional focus. (EX: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism)