APHUG Unit 3 Session 2

Acculturation

Occurs when the less dominant culture adopts some of the traits of the more influential one

Where does acculturation takes place?

When immigrants take on the following in their new country:
Values

Attitudes

Customs

Speech

When will assimilation occur?

If over time, immigrants lose their native customs, including religion and language

This means that the dominant culture completely absorbs the less dominant one

It sometimes occurs over the course of several generations

What is transculturation?

Sometimes two-way flows of culture reflect a more equal exchange of cultural traits

Example of transculturation

Buddhism originated in India but diffused throughout Eastern Asia and came into contact with Confucianism

Both forces were strong, and transculturation occurred

Buddhism and Confucianism remained in place to influence large populations throughout East Asia

Ethnocentrism

• The practice of judging another culture by the standards of one’s own culture

• Can sometimes generate misunderstanding and conflict

• On a smaller scale, ethnocentrism is necessary for people to be emotionally attached to their way of life

• If one culture considers itself to be superior, conflict could occur

Cultural Relativism

The practice of evaluating a culture by its own standards

• Those who practice cultural relativism believe that seeking to understand other cultures in the modern world is crucial because of increasing contact with one another

Examples of ethnocentrism

• Europeans and North Americans sometimes refer to China as the “Far East,” because China is far east of Europe and North America

• This term is unfamiliar to the Chinese who sometimes refer to their country as the “Middle Kingdom” because they perceive China to be at the center of the world

Critics of Cultural Relativism

• Critics, however, point out the problems that come with accepting all actions and values as EQUAL

• Their beliefs is that cultural relativism could lead an individual to ignore or dismiss those behaviors or ideas that are clearly harmful or unjust

What is syncretism?

The fusion of the old and the new

• It helps to explain how and why cultural changes occur

Language

A systematic means of communicating ideas and feelings through the use of signs, gestures, marks, or vocal sounds

• Language is the KEY to the world of culture

• NO OTHER single cultural trait more commonly binds people together BECAUSE language is a set of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another

• Even the basic rules for writing differ among cultures

• The most commonly spoken languages have diffused in many ways:

- trade

- Conquests

- migrations

- social media

• Languages are often grouped into families with a shared, but fairly distant origin

• Some areas of the world are characterized by linguistic fragmentation, a condition in which many languages are spoken, each by a relatively small number of people

• Romance languages are part of the Indo-European language family

• They form a sub-family, with origins in Latin, including Spanish, French, and Italian

• Theorists differ as to how languages originally diffused

• Some analysts believed it was by conquest

• Others argue that it was the diffusion of agricultural practices

• The Black Sea is believed to be the heart (hearth) of Indo-European languages

• An isogloss is not a clear line of demarcation; however, with the use of particular words fading as the boundary is approached.

Language and preservation of culture

Language also helps to ensure the continuity of culture, or cultural transmission, from one generation to the next

Every society transmits culture through speech, and most today also pass it along through writing

The preservation of culture is more likely to last if people in a society can read and write

Linguists

(Those who’s study the language) estimate that between 5000 and 6000 languages are in use in the world today, with some much more widely used than others

Sources of Ten Major World Languages

Although there are thousands of languages spoken today, the majority of people in the world speak one of the languages indicated on the map below. The map shows the origins of these languages before they diffused to many other areas of the world

Dialects

• Dialects are regional variants of a standard language

• Dialects reflect differences in:

- Vocabulary

- Pronunciation

- Pace of speech (faster or slower)

- Different phrases

Isogloss

A boundary within which certain languages or dialects are spoken

Bilingualism

The ability to communicate in two languages

Multilingualism

Ability to communicate in more than two languages

Coping with Language barriers

• Long-term contact between less skilled people sometimes results in the certain of a pidgin, a collection of languages that borrows words from several

• Pidgin is essentially a hybrid language

Lingua franca

An established language that comes to be spoken and understood over a large area

Standard languages

• Recognized by the government and the intellectual elite as the norm for use in schools, government, media, and other aspects of public life

• Often the dialects identified with a country’s capital city or center of power

Official Languages

• The language endorsed and recognized by the government as the one that everyone should know and use

• The US has no official language, although there has been unsuccessful attempts in Congress to pass such legislation

Constructed Language

Do you have a secret language with your best friend? Do you know Pig Latin? If you worked for the UN, maybe you would know Esperanto. It was constructed for the many different language speakers to communicate in at the UN. Today there are 25 million speakers of Esperanto

The modern area around the Mediterranean Sea.

Most of the area around the Mediterranean Sea was dominated by the Roman Empire by the early 2nd century C.E. As political power spread, Latin became the lingua franca of the area. Once the empire fell, the area reverted to cultural practices of its various ethnicity, as reflected in the country and city names on the modern map. Latin blended with native tongues to create modern languages of Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian, and Portuguese

Toponymy

Study of place names, a special interest of linguistic geographers

• A careful study of a map can reveal cultural identities and histories by simply noticing names of geographical and political figures

• Places names may:

honor kings, queens, or heroes (e.g. Virginia for the Virgin Queen Elizabeth)

reflect geographical origins (e.g. “York” as in New York)

denote incidents or events (e.g. Battle Creek, Michigan)

commemorate religious figures (e.g. St. Louis)

Extinct languages

once in use but are no longer spoken or read in daily activities by anyone in the world

Example of attempt to preserve a language: Ethnic Groups

Pushed for measures to preserve their languages, such as the movement in Wales to continue to teach Welsh, not just English, in their schools