APHG Unit 3 Vocab

Custom

The frequent repetition of an act to the extent that it becomes characteristic of the group of people performing the act.

Ecumene

The portion of the earth that humans live on

Folk/Local/Indigenous culture

Culture traditionally practiced by a small, homogenous group, living in relative isolation from other groups.

Habit

A repetitive act performed by a particular individual.

Popular/Global culture

Culture found in a large, heterogeneous society that shares certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristics.

Taboo

A restriction on behavior imposed by a social custom.

Creole language(s)

A language that results from the mixing of the colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated.

Dialect

A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.

Isogloss

A boundary that separates regions in which different language usages predominate.

Isolated language

A language that is unrelated to any other languages and therefore not attached to any language family.

Language

A system of communication through the use of speech, a collection of sounds understood by a group of people to have the same meaning.

Language family

A collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestry long before recorded history.

Lingua franca

A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages.

Logogram

A symbol that represents a word, rather than a sound.

Official language

The language adopted for use by the government for the conduct of business and publication of documents.

Pidgin language

A form of speech that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of a lingua franca, used for communications among speakers of two different languages.

Agnosticism

Belief that nothing can be known about whether god exists.

Animism

Belief that objects, such as plants, stones, or natural events, like thunderstorms and earthquakes, have a discrete spirit and conscious life.

Atheism

Belief that God doesn't exist.

Branch (of religion)

A large and fundamental division within a religion.

Denomination

A division of a branch that unites a number of local congregations into a single legal and administrative.

Ethnic religion

A religion with a relatively concentrated spatial distribution whose principles are likely to be based on the physical characteristics of the particular location in which its adherents are concentrated.

Fundamentalism

Literal interpretation and strict adherence to basic principles of a religion.

Ghettos

During the Middle Ages, a neighborhood in a city set up by law to be inhabited only by Jews, now used to denote a section of a city in which members of any minority group live due to social, legal, or economic pressure.

Missionary

An individual who helps to diffuse a universalizing religion.

Monotheism

The doctrine of or belief in the existence of only one god.

Pilgrimage

A journey to a place considered sacred for religious purposes.

Polytheism

Belief in or worship of more than one god.

Sect

A relatively small group that has broken away from an established denomination.

Syncretic

A religion that combines several traditions.

Universalizing religion

A religion that attempts to appeal to all people, not just those living in a particular location.

Apartheid

Laws in South Africa that physically separated different races into different geographic areas.

Balkanization

A process by which a state breaks down through conflicts among its ethnicities.

Blockbusting

The process by which real estate agents convince white property owners to sell their houses at low prices because of fear that people of color will soon move into the neighborhood.

Ethnic cleansing

A process in which a more powerful ethnic group forcibly removes a less powerful one in order to create an ethnically homogenous region.

Ethnicity

Identity with a group of people that share distinct physical and mental traits as a product of common heredity and cultural traditions.

Genocide

The mass killing of a group of people in an attempt to eliminate the entire group from existence.

Nationalism

Loyalty and devotion to a particular nationality.

Nationality

Identity with a group of people that share legal attachment and personal allegiance to a particular place as a result of being born there.

Race

Identity with a group of people descended from a biological ancestor.

Racism

Belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.

White flight

The phenomenon of white residents leaving urban areas as minorities move in, often resulting in the segregation of neighborhoods.