Studied by 28 people
Culture
The shared beliefs, values, practices, behaviors, and technologies of a society.
Traditional/Local Culture
Also Called Folk Culture
Heart - Rural Areas, now in mostly LDCs
Diffusion - Relocation Diffusion
Practiced By - Small, homogenous (similar) groups of people
Architecture - Materials from local, physical environment Ex: Snow, mud, stone, bricks, wood, pelts, and grass
Land-Use Agricultural, Sense of place, Distinctiveness
Example: Texas - mums, China - small feet for women
Global Culture
Also called Popular Culture
Hearth - Urban centers, MDCs
Diffusion - Contagious, Hierarchical
Practiced By - Large Heterogenous (difficult) groups of people
Architecture - Materials from factories & manufactured Ex: Glass, steel, drywall, cement
Land-use - Urban & suburban, placelessness
Ethnocentrism
Judging other cultures in terms of one's own standards and often one's own culture/ethnic group is better/normal
Example: Hijab, Food from other cultures. university gestures, etc.
Cultural Relativism
An unbiased way of viewing another culture, the goal is to promote understanding of cultural practices.
Ex: Asking why people eat this instead of judging.
Cultural Norms
Agreed upon cultural practices or standards that guide the behavior of a culture.
Cultural Taboos
Behaviors heavily discouraged by a culture
Cultural Traits (just in case)
Visible and invisible attributes that combine to make up a group's culture.
Artifacts, Sociofacts, Mentifacts
Artifacts (just in case)
Visible, physical objects created by culture.
Houses, clothing, architecture, tools, etc.
Sociofacts (just in case)
The ways in which a society behaves and organizes institutions.
Family, Schools, Government, Religion, Land use, Gender roles.
Mentifacts (just in case)
The ideas, beliefs, values, and knowledge of a culture.
Religious beliefs, language, taboos.
Cultural Landscape
Built environment.
Natural landscape that humans modified, reflecting their cultural beliefs and values.
Agricultural and industrial practices. Religious and linguistic characteristics. Sequent Occupancy. Traditional and postmodern architecture Land-use patterns.
Sequent occupancy
The idea that societies or cultural groups leave their cultural imprints when they live in a place, each contributing to the overall cultural landscape over time.
Mix of historic and modern structure.
Ethnicity
Sense of belonging or identity within a group of people bound by common acestry and culture.
Ethnicity influencing cultural landscape.
Ethnic Neighborhoods/Enclaves
Ethnic Patterns in population distribution
Ethnic Neighborhoods/Enclaves
People of the same ethnicity that cluster together in a specific location, typically within a major city.
Relates to chain migration. Formed to maintain cultural identity, avoid racism and discrimination.
Ex: Chinatown
Ethnic Patterns
Predictable distribution of ethnicities that can be examined at multiple scales.
United States: Historically and contemporarily there are clusters of ethnic groups in specific regions.
Southwest: Latin Americans & Native Americans
Southwest: Asians
Etc.
Gender influencing Cultural Landscapes
Women's status. Gendered Spaces.
Women's Status
Traditional cultures, primary role of women is to have children and not be active in education or the workforce.
More developed, women have access to further education, the workforce, and property rights.
Do women own property and businesses? Are women present in colleges? Women's dorms?
Are there women working outside of the home?
Gendered Spaces
Places in the cultural landscape utilized to reinforce or accommodate gender roles for men and women.
Land-use influencing Cultural Landscape
Geographers study land-use patterns as seen on the cultural landscape which reflect the cultural values of the people living there.
Ex: Terrace Farming, US Reservation System, Subsistence Whaling
Architecture influencing Cultural Landscape
Traditional Architecture.
Postmodern Architecture.
Traditional Architecture
Influenced by environment and built with available local materials. Reflective of history, culture and climate.
Huts/Cabins, Stone and clay houses, Portable Mongolian yurts.
Postmodern Architecture
Diverse designs, representative of popular culture, business and economic success.
Ex: Skyscrapers
Cultural Realm
Areas of the world that share cultural traits such as language families, religious traditions, food preferences, architecture, shared history, etc.
North America
Latin America
Europe
Islamic
Sub-Saharan Africa
Slav
India
South-Eastern Asia
Australian-Oceanic
Sino-Japanese
centripetal force
Characteristics that unify a country and provide stability.
Ex: Common language, ethnicity, religion, history, etc.
Centrifugal forces
Characteristics that divide a country and create instability, conflict, and violence.
Ex: Multiple competing ethnicity, languages, religions, cultural barriers, etc.
Cultural Hearths
The geographic origin of a culture or cultural trait.
Traits first diffuse from the cultural hearth.
Diffusion
The movement or spread of cultural traits, knowledge, ideas, trends from hearths to other geographic areas.
Types of Diffusion
Relocation
Expansion
Relocation Diffusion
The spread of a cultural trait through the MIGRATION of people.
People migrate and take their cultures with them.
Ex: European migration to Americas led o spread of European languages and Christianity.
Expansion Diffusion
The spread of a cultural trait through the INTERACTION between people.
Types of Expansion Diffusion
Contagious Diffusion
Hierarchical Diffusion
Reverse Hierarchical Diffusion
Stimulus Diffusion
Contagious Diffusion
A cultural trait spreads continuously rapidly, and widely from its hearth through close CONTACT between people.
Ex: Viral Videos
Hierarchical Diffusion
The spread of cultural traits from the MOST interconnected, powerful, wealthy people/places/organizations down to others.
Ex: Cell Phones, Cars, Music, Fashion, Popular culture trends, etc.
Reverse Hierarchical Diffusion
The spread of cultural traits from the LEAST interconnected, wealthy, or powerful people/places/organizations outwards.
Ex: Hip Hop, Walmart, etc.
Stimulus Diffusion
The spread of an underlying principle or cultural trait but they are altered/modified due to cultural barriers, taboos, or differences.
Ex: McDonalds in India, Baseball in Japan, American Football, Noodles, etc.
Colonialism diffusing culture
Countries establish settlements in new areas and impose their religion, language, and cultures on the indigenous population. Colonialism established modern borders.
Neocolonialism diffusing culture
MDCs economically dominanting LDCs. LDCs send laborers to MDCs and they bring their culture.
Trade diffusing culture
People interact to exchange goods. They exchange their cultures and people move to places.
Pidgin Language
An extremely simplified, limited non-native language used by two people that speak two different languages.
Ex: Spanglish, Franglish, etc.
Creole Language
A pidgin language that develops into a new combined language with native speakers. Frequently developed through settings of colonization or slavery.
Ex: Haitan, Cajun/Louisiana Creole.
Lingua Franca
A language commonly used by speakers of two different languages for communication. Usually for business, trade, commerce, or in popular culture.
World Lingua Franca: English
China: Mandarian Africa: Swahili Eastern Europe/Russia: Russian
Dialects
Variations in accent, grammar, usage and spelling and develop out of geographic distance or isolation.
Ex: US and UK
Official Language
Language used by the government of a country for laws, reports, signs, public objects, money, stamps, etc.
Friction of Distance
As a cultural trait diffuses, the people who adopt it might alter it.
Contemporary methods of cultural diffusion
Internet & Tech
Social Media & Relationships
Media
Politics
The Economy
Urbanization.
Increased cultural and economic connectedness between people.
Cultural Convergence
The process of two or more cultures coming into contact with each other and adopting each other's traits to become more alike.
Ex: World Sports, Kpop, McDonald's, Language, etc.
Cultural Divergence
Cultures become LESS alike from cultural and physical barriers.
The process of a culture restricting contact with other cultures in an attempt to retain its originality.
Separating/distinguishing from mainstream.
Ex: Amish
Language Family
Largest group of related languages which are connected through a common, ancient ancestry and trace back to a common origin.
Tree Trunk
Ex: Indo-European (3.2 billion speakers), Sino-Tibetan (1.4 billion speakers)
Language Branch
A collection of languages that share a common origin from thousands of years ago. They were separated from other languages in their family and now are distinctive although related.
Tree Branch.
Romance Branch, Germanic Branch, etc.
Language Group
A collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in a more recent past with similar vocabularies and some overlap.
Tree Twig.
Ex: West Germanic, North Germanic, Indo-Arayan
Languages
A means of communication.
Leaves.
Ex: English, Italian, Hindi
Dialects
Variations of a language. Ex: Difference in vocabulary, pronunciation, and spelling, British English and American English.
Isogloss
A geographic boundary within which a particular linguistic feature occurs.
Lines that divide dialects. Ex: Sneakers in New England states vs. Tennis Shoes every where else.
Spatial Distribution of Religion
Hearths
Diffusion
Distribution
Impact of Cultural Landscape of Religion
Architecture
Symbols
Pilgrimages & Holy Sites
Burial Practices
The big four religions
77% of the World's Population
Christianity - 2.4 Billion
Islam - 1.9 Billion
Hinduism - 1 Billion
Buddhism - 500 Million
Other religions: Judaism - 14 Million Sikhism - 24 Million
Largest: Christianity Fastest Growing: Islam
Universalizing Religions
Widely diffused from the Hearth
BOTH Expansion AND relocation diffusion
Not confined to a specific location
Missionary - Attempts to convert people to join Ex: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, etc.
Ethnic Religion
Smaller diffusion and overall distribution from hearth
Restricted to relocation diffusion ONLY
Tied to specific location and/or ethnic group
Does NOT recruit new adherents Ex: Hinduism, Judaism, Shintoism, Daoism, Confucianism, traditional religions, etc.
Diffusion of Christianity
Universalizing
Hearth: Israel
Contagious - Jesus' followers traveled through the Mediterranean & spread Christianity, Missionaries
Hierarchical - Emperor Theodosius made Christianity Roman Empire religion, the Crusades, Spanish Inquisition
Relocation - Colonization and Imperialism
Diffusion of Islam
Universalizing
Hearth - Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia
Contagious - Muhammad taught people and spread Islam, Muslim traders brought Islam to India and Indonesia
Hierarchical - Muslim Empires throughout history, military conquest in North Africa, Islamic intellectuals in cities
Diffusion of Buddhism
Universalizing
Hearth - Northern India/Nepal
Contagious - Buddha and missionaries traveled throughout Asia and spread Buddhism, Buddhist traders
Hierarchical - Emperor Ashoka of South Asia, converted to Buddhism and spread it through his empire
Diffusion of Hinduism
Ethnic
Hearth - India
Relocation - Hindu migrants brought Hinduism throughout the world
Diffusion of Judaism
Ethnic
Hearth - Israel/Lebanon
Relocation - Forced out of Israel during Roman Empire into South and East Europe, persecuted in Russia so fled, left Europe during Holocaust
Diffusion of Sikhism
Universalizing
Hearth - Punjab, India
Relocation - Migration to surrounding areas during British Empire, missionaries
Acculturation
When people within one culture adopt some traits from another culture.
Ex: Guatemalan immigrant continue speaking Spanish at home but English in public.
Assimilation
One culture forced or voluntary chose to abandon their original culture and adopts another culture.
Ex: Native Americans forced to learn English, cut their hair, change their clothing, given new names, and forced to become more "American" in Native American Boarding Schools.
Multiculturalism
The acceptance and tolerance of many different cultures which exist in close proximity to one another.
Ex: In 1971, the Canadian government established multiculturalism is a basic right of citizens.
Syncretism
When two culture's traits blend together and form a new cultural trait.
Ex: Sikhism is a mix of Islam and Hinduism.
Note 
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