APHuG Unit 3 Key Terms

Culture

Shared beliefs, values, and practices of a group

Artifact

Physical object made or used by a culture

Sociofact

Social organizations, like schools and families

Mentifact

Shared beliefs, ideas, and values

Ethnocentrism

Judging other cultures using your own culture's standards

Cultural relativism

Understanding cultures based on their own beliefs and values

Cultural landscape

How people change the land to reflect their culture

Ethnic neighborhood

Area where people with a shared ethnic background live and maintain traditions

Sense of place

Feelings and memories connected to a location

Placemaking

Creating meaningful places that bring a community together

Sequent occupancy

Different groups leaving cultural marks on the same place over time

Centripetal force

Something that brings people together

Centrifugal force

Something that divides people

Folk culture

Traditional practices passed down through generations

Popular culture

Widely shared trends that often change quickly

Cultural diffusion

Spread of cultural ideas and practices between places

Cultural hearth

Place where a cultural trait or practice begins

Relocation diffusion

People move and bring their culture with them

Expansion diffusion

Culture spreads outward while remaining in its original area

Contagious diffusion

Culture spreads from person to person

Hierarchical diffusion

Culture spreads through influential people or places

Stimulus diffusion

An idea spreads but changes to fit another culture

Colonialism

One country takes control of another area and establishes settlements

Imperialism

A country extends its power over other places

Globalization

Growing connections between places around the world

Urbanization

Growth of cities as more people live in urban areas

Time-space convergence

Technology makes distant places feel closer through faster communication and travel

Cultural convergence

Different cultures become more similar

Cultural divergence

Cultures become more different or maintain differences

Creolization

Different cultural traditions mix to form new cultural practices

Lingua franca

Common language used by people who speak different native languages

Language family

Group of languages sharing a common ancestor

Dialect

Regional version of a language with different words or pronunciation

Toponym

Name of a place

Universalizing religion

Religion that welcomes and seeks followers from many backgrounds

Ethnic religion

Religion closely tied to a particular ethnic group or place

Acculturation

Adopting some traits of another culture while keeping your own

Assimilation

Adopting another culture and losing much of your original culture

Syncretism

Blending religious or cultural beliefs into new practices

Multiculturalism

Different cultures living together while keeping their identities

Cultural appropriation

Using elements of another culture, sometimes without respecting their meaning

Language extinction

When a language no longer has native speakers