Unit 3: Cultural Patterns and Processes

acculturation

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

animism

Most prevalent in Africa and the Americas, doctrine in which the world is seen as being infused with spiritual and even supernatural powers.​

Artifact

Any item that represents a material aspect of culture.​

Buddhism

System of belief that seeks to explain ultimate realities for all people—such as the nature of suffering and the path toward self-realization.​

Caste system

System in India that gives every Indian a particular place in the social hierarchy from birth. Individuals may improve the position they inherit in the caste system in their next life through their actions, or karma. After many lives of good karma, they may be relieved from the cycle of life and win their place in heaven.​

Christianity

The world’s most widespread religion. Christianity is a monotheistic, universal religion that uses missionaries to expand its members worldwide. The three major categories of Christianity are Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox.​

Creole

A pidgin language that evolves to the point at which it becomes the primary language of the people who speak it.​

Cultural complex

The group of traits that define a particular culture.​

Cultural extinction

Obliteration of an entire culture by war, disease, acculturation, or a combination of the three.​

Cultural geography

The subfield of human geography that looks at how cultures vary over space.​

Cultural hearths

Locations on the earth’s surface where specific cultures first arose.​

Cultural imperialism

The dominance of one culture over another.​

Cultural landscape

The visible human imprint on the land and the cultural features that define a place.​

Cultural relativism

Understanding a culture on its own terms rather than judging it by the standards or customs of one’s own culture.

Cultural trait

The specific customs that are part of the everyday life of a particular culture, such as language, religion, ethnicity, social institutions, and aspects of popular culture.

Culture

A total way of life held in common by a group of people, including learned features such as language, ideology, behavior, technology, and government.

Customs

Practices followed by the people of a particular cultural group.​

Denomination

A particular religious group, usually associated with differing Protestant belief systems.​

Dialect

Geographically distinct versions of a single language that vary somewhat from the parent form.

Diaspora

People who come from a common ethnic background but who live in different regions outside of the home of their ethnicity.​

Ecumene

The proportion of the earth inhabited by humans.

Environmental determinism

A doctrine that claims that cultural traits are formed and controlled by environmental conditions.

Esperanto

A constructed international auxiliary language incorporating aspects of numerous linguistic traditions to create a universal means of communication.

Ethnic cleansing

The systematic attempt to remove all people of a particular ethnicity from a country or region either by forced migration or genocide.​

Ethnic neighborhood/enclave

An area within a city containing members of the same ethnic background.​

Ethnic religion

Religion that is identified with a particular ethnic or tribal group and that does not seek new converts.

Ethnicity

Refers to a group of people who share a common identity.​

Ethnocentrism

An evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions of one’s own cultural standards and traditions.​

Evangelical religion

Religion in which an effort is made to spread a particular belief system.​

Folk culture

Refers to a constellation of cultural practices that form the sights, smells, sounds, and rituals of everyday existence in the traditional societies in which they developed.​

Fundamentalism

The strict adherence to a particular doctrine.​

Gender Inequality Index (GII)

A United Nations index, introduced in 2010, which measures a country’s loss of achievement due to gender inequality, based on reproductive health, employment, and general empowerment.

Genocide

A premeditated effort to kill everyone from a particular ethnic group.

Ghetto

A segregated ethnic area within a city.

Global religion

Religion in which members are numerous and widespread and their doctrines might appeal to different people from any region of the globe.​

Hinduism

A cohesive and unique society, most prevalent in India, that integrates spiritual beliefs with daily practices and official institutions such as the caste system.​

Indigenous culture

Refers to a constellation of cultural practices that form the sights, smells, sounds and rituals of everyday existence in the traditional societies in which they developed.

Indo-European

Language family containing the Germanic and Romance languages that includes languages spoken by about 50% of the world's people.​

Islam

A monotheistic religion based on the belief that there is one God, Allah, and that Muhammad was Allah's prophet. Islam is based in the ancient city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Muhammad.​

Isoglosses

Geographical boundary lines where different linguistic features meet.

Islamic cities

Cities in Muslim countries that owe their structure to their religious beliefs.​

Judaism

The first major monotheistic religion. It is based on a sense of ethnic identity, and its adherents tend to form tight-knit communities wherever they live.​

Language extinction

This occurs when a language is no longer in use by any living people. Thousands of languages have become extinct over the eons since language first developed, but the process of language extinction has accelerated greatly during the past 300 years.

Language family

A collection of many languages, all of which came from the same original tongue long ago, that have since evolved different characteristics.​

Language group

A set of languages with a relatively recent common origin and many similar characteristics.​

Literacy

The ability to read and write.

Language subfamily

A smaller group of related languages within a language family.​

Lingua franca

An extremely simple language that combines aspects of two or more other, more-complex languages usually used for quick and efficient communication.​

Local culture

Set of common experiences or customs that shapes the identity of a place and the people who live there.​

Local religions

Religions that are spiritually bound to particular regions.

Minority

A racial or ethnic group smaller than and differing from the majority race of ethnicity in a particular area or region.

Missionary

A person of a particular faith who travels in order to recruit new members into the faith represented.

Material culture

The tangible, physical items produced and used by members of a specific culture group and reflective of their traditions, lifestyles, and technologies.​

Monotheism

The worship of only one god.

Multicultural

Having to do with many cultures.

Non-material culture

The oral traditions, songs, and stories of a culture group along with its beliefs and customary behaviors.

Official language

Language in which all government business occurs in a country.​

Pidgin

Language that may develop when two groups of people with different languages meet. The pidgin has some characteristics of each language.​

Pilgrimage

 A journey to a place of religious importance.

Polyglot

A multilingual state.

Polytheism

The worship of more than one god.

Popular culture

Dynamic culture based in large, heterogeneous societies permitting considerable individualism, innovation, and change; having a money-based economy, division of labor into professions, secular institutions of control, and weak interpersonal ties; and producing and consuming machine-made goods.​

Possibilism

The notion that humans are the primary architects of culture and yet are limited somewhat by their environmental surroundings.​

Race

A group of human beings distinguished by physical traits, blood types, genetic code patterns, or genetically inherited characteristics.

Romance languages

Any of the languages derived from Latin, including Italian, Spanish, French, and Romanian.

Religion

A system of beliefs and practices that attempts to order life in terms of culturally perceived ultimate priorities.​

Relocation diffusion

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

Sacred Space

Place or space people infuse with religious meaning.​

Secularism

The idea that ethical and moral standards should be formulated and adhered to for life on Earth, not to accommodate the prescriptions of a deity and promises of a comfortable afterlife.

Shamanism

A community faith in traditional societies in which people follow their shaman—a religious leader, teacher, healer, and visionary.​

Sino-Tibetan

Language area that spreads through most of Southeast Asia and China and comprises Chinese, Burmese, Tibetan, Japanese, and Korean.​

Syncretism

The development of a new cultural trait as a result of the fusion of two distinct but interacting cultures.​

Toponym

Place names given to certain features on the land such as settlements, terrain features, and streams.

Tradition

A cohesive collection of customs within a cultural group.

Transculturation

The expansion of cultural traits through diffusion, adoption, and other related processes.

Universalizing religion

Religion that seeks to unite people from all over the globe.