Unit 3 - Cultural Patterns and Processes

Culture

the sum of human experiences by a group of people living together (all the things that make up our daily lives)

Material culture

things people make and often give value to

Non-material culture

the ideas of a society, often held dear

Shared practices

includes birth rituals and weddings

Technologies

how cultural groups communicate and use transportation

Attitude

includes age of maturity and gender roles

Cultural traits

Elements developed through social interactions that are dynamic, learned, and can vary.

Cultural Relativism

Evaluating a culture by its own standards.

Ethnocentrism

Evaluating a culture through the lens of one's own culture, which can lead to a superiority complex or xenophobia.

Cultural landscape

The combination of cultural, economic, and natural elements that make up any landscape.

Place

A location's physical and cultural characteristics.

Placemaking

A process in which a community or cultural group gets together to plan a public space.

Centripetal forces

Things that unite a group of people, such as language, nationalism, ethnicity, and religion.

Centrifugal forces

Things that divide a group of people, such as ethnicity, politics, and economic class.

Hearth

The starting point of a cultural phenomenon.

Relocation diffusion

Ideas spread through people physically moving, such as people in Latin America speaking Spanish.

Contagious diffusion

Rapid spread of an idea to almost everyone, such as memes.

Hierarchical diffusion

Starts with someone of power and moves down to more common people, such as fashion trends started by celebrities.

Reverse Hierarchical diffusion

Starts in a small place but gains influence.

Stimulus diffusion

When only the underlying concept of an idea spreads, not the entire thing.

Acculturation

When a group of people in one culture adopts traits from another.

Creolization

The process of mixing cultural traits.

Lingua Franca

A language mutually understood by the members of a society.

Barriers to diffusion

Factors that impede the spread of cultural phenomena, including distance decay, cultural barriers, physical barriers, political barriers, and economic barriers.

Colonialism

A historical factor that contributed to the worldwide use of English through cultural diffusion.

Globalization

A large scale process that contributes to cultural diffusion.

Urbanization

A large scale process that contributes to cultural diffusion.

Time-space Convergence

The phenomenon where places and people are getting closer together due to improvements in technology and transportation.

Cultural Divergence

The process where people abandon their culture of their own free will.

Cultural Convergence

The process where people develop one global culture.

Lingua Franca

A language that is becoming the most widely used language for communication across different language speakers.

Language Families

Groups of languages with distinct origins.

Dialects

Regional variances in language.

Isogloss

A boundary that separates language regions.

Ethnic Enclaves

Communities formed by migration and diffusion that can lead to the creation of distinct cultural groups.

Gentrification

The process that can uproot ethnic culture.

Acculturation

A process where a person adopts elements of a certain culture, usually the dominant culture.

Assimilation

When a minority group adopts the prominent culture, usually by force or pressure.

Syncretism

The blending and merging of different cultures.

Multiculturalism

Cultural diversity within a society, often because of immigration.

Cultural Hearths

The original sources of cultural practices and beliefs from which diffusion occurs.

Cultural Diffusion

The spread of cultural beliefs and social activities from one group to another.

Trade

A historical factor that has contributed to the spread of English as a global lingua franca.

Tourism

An example of globalization contributing to English becoming the world's lingua franca.

Education

An example of globalization contributing to English becoming the world's lingua franca.

Media

An example of globalization contributing to English becoming the world's lingua franca.