Cultural Concepts and Dynamics

These flashcards encapsulate key concepts related to culture, ethnocentrism, cultural diffusion, and related dynamics discussed in the lecture.

What is culture?

Describes everything about the way people live, including clothes, food, relationships, education, language, religion, rituals, customs, and art.

Ethnocentrism

Applying one's own group or culture as a frame of reference to judge other cultures.

Cultural Relativism

The principle of not judging a culture based on the standards of one's own culture.

Negative effect of ethnocentrism

It can lead to negative judgments of the behaviors of groups or societies.

Positive effect of ethnocentrism

It can create loyalty among members of the same social group or society.

Folk Culture

Cultures that preserve traditions, mainly rural and conservative with a strong family structure and distinctive religions.

Pop Culture

Consists of large masses of people conforming to ever-changing norms, influenced by globalization and rapid diffusion through media.

Characteristics of Culture

Culture is all-encompassing, learned, dynamic, and shared between different communities.

Cultural Diffusion

The process by which an innovation, concept, or practice spreads from its origin to another area over time.

Cultural Hearth

Areas where innovations in culture start.

Types of Cultural Diffusion

Includes relocation diffusion and expansion diffusion.

Contagious Diffusion

Spread to all people directions, such as viral videos or spread of a disease.

Hierarchical Diffusion

When people of power or influence have an innovation first and then pass it down.

Reverse Hierarchical Diffusion

Diffusion from a lower class to a higher class or from smaller towns to larger cities.

Stimulus Diffusion

An idea spreads but is modified, creating an innovative product.