AP Human Geography Unit 3

Explain the positive and negative impacts arising from the globalization of popular culture.

Globalization spreads ideas, technology, entertainment, and fashion around the world, increasing cultural connections, awareness, and understanding. However, it can also cause cultures to become too similar, resulting in the loss of local traditions, languages, and customs.

Why is the cultural landscape important to the study of geography?

Cultural landscapes are visible imprints of human activity and culture on the environment. They show how people interact with and change their surroundings, helping geographers understand the beliefs, traditions, history, and values of a place.

How does where people live and what resources they have access to impact their cultural practices?

Climate, landforms, and available resources influence people's food, clothing, housing, and traditions. People may adapt to the land (possibilism) or live based on the resources available. These choices create different cultural landscapes.

How can culture act as a centripetal and centrifugal force?

Culture acts as a centripetal force when shared languages, religions, holidays, and traditions unite people. It acts as a centrifugal force when cultural differences, such as religion, language, and beliefs, create tensions and divide people.

Explain the role of each type of diffusion in spreading cultural elements. Describe historical causes of diffusion.

Relocation diffusion: English spread through British settlers. Expansion diffusion: Christianity spread from its hearth in present-day Israel. Contagious diffusion: Slang spreads between teenagers. Hierarchical diffusion: Fashion trends spread from celebrities. Stimulus diffusion: American fast food adapts to different countries. Contemporary causes include migration, globalization, media, technology, and urbanization. Historical causes include colonialism, imperialism, military conquest, trade, and migration.

Identify and describe the origins, diffusion patterns, and present spatial distribution of the world's main religions and branches.

Christianity: Southwest Asia/Middle East; relocation and contagious diffusion; Catholicism and Protestantism. Islam: Arabian Peninsula (Mecca); relocation and contagious diffusion; Sunni and Shia. Buddhism: Northern India/Nepal; mainly contagious diffusion; Mahayana and Theravada. Sikhism: Punjab region; relocation and contagious diffusion. Hinduism: South Asia; primarily relocation diffusion; Shaivism, Shaktism, and Vaishnavism. Judaism: Southwest Asia (Israel/Palestine); relocation diffusion; Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform.

Describe the differences between universalizing and ethnic religions. Identify the main religions in each category and explain their effects on the cultural landscape.

Universalizing religions appeal to a wide variety of people regardless of ethnicity or location. Examples: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Sikhism. Ethnic religions are closely tied to a particular ethnic group or culture and are passed down through generations. Examples: Hinduism and Judaism. Both shape cultural landscapes through religious architecture, sacred sites, holidays, clothing, dietary practices, and traditions.

Culture

Beliefs, values, practices, behaviors, and technologies shared by a society and passed down from generation to generation.

Cultural Trait

Attributes or characteristics of a culture.

Artifacts

Visible objects and technologies that a culture creates.

Sociofacts

Structures and organizations that influence social behavior, such as families, governments, educational systems, and religious organizations.

Mentifacts

Central, enduring elements of a culture that reflect shared ideas, values, knowledge, and beliefs; they are the slowest to change.

Popular Culture

Widespread behaviors, beliefs, and practices of ordinary people in a society at a given time.

Traditional (Folk) Culture

Long-established behaviors, beliefs, and practices passed down through generations.

Cultural Norms

Shared standards and patterns that guide the behavior of a group of people.

Ethnocentrism

The tendency to evaluate other groups according to preconceived ideas originating from one's own culture.

Cultural Relativism

Evaluation of a culture solely by its own unique standards.

Cultural Landscape

A natural landscape modified by humans, reflecting their cultural beliefs and values.

Identity

How humans make sense of themselves and how they wish to be viewed by others.

Sequent Occupance

The idea that successive societies leave behind cultural imprints and evidence of human experiences that shape a geographic region's cultural landscape.

Ethnicity

State of belonging to a group of people who share common cultural characteristics.

Ethnic Neighborhoods

Cultural landscapes within communities of people living outside their areas of origin.

Traditional Architecture

Established building styles of different cultures, regions, and places.

Postmodern Architecture

An architectural style that emerged in the 1960s, emphasizing form, structure, and materials.

Religion

A system of spiritual beliefs that helps form cultural perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, and values.

Pilgrimage

Journey to a holy place for spiritual reasons.

Language

Carrier of human thoughts and cultural identities.

Toponyms

Place names that help define what is unique about a place, including its geographic features and history.

Gendered Spaces

Spaces designed and deliberately incorporated into the landscape to accommodate gender roles.

Gender Identity

One's innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both, or neither.

Safe Space

Spaces of acceptance for people who are sometimes marginalized by society.

Gentrification

Renovations and improvements that conform to middle-class preferences.

Third Place

A communal space separate from home (first place) or work (second place).

Sense of Place

Developed when people fill a geographic location with meaning by connecting memories and feelings to it.

Placemaking

A community-driven process in which people collaborate to create a place where they can live, work, play, and learn.

Centripetal Force

A force that unites a group of people.

Centrifugal Force

A force that divides a group of people.

Glocalization

The process of adapting global products, ideas, and marketing strategies to fit local cultures, customs, and preferences.

Custom

A repeated act or traditional practice that becomes a characteristic of a group of people.

Built Environment

Human-made physical features and infrastructure that form the setting for human activity and modify the natural landscape.

Cultural Ecology

The two-way, mutual relationship between human cultures and their physical environments.

Diffusion

The process by which a cultural trait spreads from one place to another over time.

Cultural Hearth

A place where a cultural trait originates and initially spreads from.

Relocation Diffusion

The spread of cultural traits through the relocation and movement of people.

Expansion Diffusion

The spread of a cultural aspect outward from where it originated.

Contagious Diffusion

The spread of an idea or cultural trait adjacently, from person to person or place to place.

Hierarchical Diffusion

The spread of an idea or trait from a person or place of power or authority to other people or places.

Stimulus Diffusion

A cultural trait spreads to another culture but is modified to adapt to the new culture.

Lingua Franca

A common language used among speakers of different languages or locations.

Creolization

The blending of two or more cultural elements.

Cultural Convergence

The process in which cultures become more similar by sharing and adopting one another's ideas, innovations, and cultural traits.

Cultural Divergence

The process in which conflicting beliefs or other barriers cause cultures to become less similar.

Acculturation

The process in which people adopt some traits of another culture while retaining their own distinct culture.

Assimilation

A type of acculturation in which one culture adopts almost all the cultural traits of another culture.

Syncretism

The blending of traits from different cultures to form a new custom, idea, value, or practice.

Multiculturalism

The coexistence of diverse cultures in a shared space, where people do not belong solely to one culture.

Cultural Appropriation

The act of adopting elements of another culture.

Collectivist Culture

A culture in which people are expected to conform to collective family responsibilities and obey elders.

Language Family

The largest grouping of related languages that share a common ancestral language.

Isolate

An isolated language that has no known historical or linguistic relationship with other languages.

Dialects

Variations of a standard language specific to a general area.

Accent

A distinct way in which words and sounds of a language are pronounced.

Language Branch

Languages within a family that share a common origin but separated from other branches many years ago.

Language Group

Languages within a branch that share a common ancestor in the relatively recent past and have overlapping vocabularies.

Official Language

A language adopted by a government for official use.

Isogloss

A boundary separating areas with different language features or dialects.

Bi/Multilingual Societies

Societies where people commonly speak two or more languages.

Pidgin

A simplified language created when groups without a common language need to communicate.

Creole

A language that develops when a pidgin becomes a native language.

Orthography

The system of rules for writing a language, including spelling.

Endangered and Extinct Languages

Endangered languages are at risk of disappearing. Extinct languages have no living native speakers.

Universalizing Religions

Religions that attempt to appeal to a wide variety of people and are open to all, regardless of location, language, or ethnicity.

Ethnic Religions

Religions closely tied to a particular ethnic group, generally in a particular region.

Denominations

Separate religious organizations that unite a number of local congregations.

Sect

A relatively smaller religious group separated from an established denomination.

Adherents

People loyal to a belief, religion, or organization.

Christianity

A religion based on the teachings of Jesus that began in present-day Israel.

Islam

A religion founded on the teachings of Muhammad that began in Mecca and Medina in the 7th century.

Buddhism

A religion founded by Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) that began in Northeast India.

Sikhism

A religion founded by Guru Nanak in the Punjab region of South Asia during the 1400s.

Hinduism

A religion that began around 1500 BCE in South Asia, with most followers living in India or Nepal.

Judaism

A monotheistic religion that began in present-day Israel and is associated with Abraham.

Secularized

Becoming less influenced by religion.

Monotheism

Belief in one god.

Polytheism

Belief in multiple gods.

Fundamentalism

Strict adherence to traditional religious beliefs and practices.

Hierarchical Religion

A religion with a centralized authority that spreads its beliefs through an organized structure.

Autonomous Religion

A religion with no central authority; individual groups govern themselves.