Local (Folk/Ethnic) Culture
Culture traditionally practiced by a small, homogeneous, rural group living in relative isolation from other groups.
Acculturation
The adoption of cultural traits, such as language, by one group under the influence of another.
African Traditional Religion
Various, mostly animistic religions based in nature and ancestor worship or veneration is a significant component.
Animism
Belief that objects, such as plants and stones, or natural events, like thunderstorms and earthquakes, have a discrete spirit and conscious life.
Cultural Appropriation
Process by which other cultures adopt customs and knowledge and use them for their own benefit.
Architecture
The art or practice of designing and constructing buildings.
Artifacts
Tangible object made by human beings, either hand-made or mass-produced.
Assimilation
The process through which people lose originality differentiating traits, such as dress, speech, particularities, or mannerisms, when they come into contact with another society or culture.
Behavior
Observable actions or responses of humans or animals.
Beliefs
Tenets or convictions that people hold to be true.
Branch
A large and fundamental division within a religion.
Buddhism
The teaching of Buddha that life is permeated with suffering caused by desire, that suffering ceases when desire ceases and that enlightenment obtained through right conduct and wisdom and meditation releases one from desire and suffering and rebirth.
Caste System
A set of rigid social categories that determined not only a person's occupation and economic potential, but also his or her position in society.
Centripetal Force
An attitude that tends to unify people and enhance support for a state.
Centrifugal Force
A force that divides people and countries.
Chinese Traditional Religion
A combination of Buddhism with Confucianism, Taoism, and other traditional religions practiced in East Asia and Southeast Asia.
Christianity
A monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and emphasizing the role of Jesus as savior.
Colonization
The expansion of countries into other countries where they establish settlements and control the people.
Contagious Diffusion
The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population.
Creole/Creolized Language
A language that results from the mixing of a colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated.
Cultural Convergence
The tendency for cultures to become more alike as they increasingly share technology and organizational structures in a modern world united by improved transportation and communication.
Cultural Divergence
The likelihood or tendency for cultures to become increasingly dissimilar with the passage of time.
Cultural Hearth
Locations on Earth's surface where specific cultures first arose.
Cultural Landscape
The visible imprint of human activity and culture on the landscape.
Cultural Relativism
The practice of judging a culture by its own standards.
Custom
The frequent repetition of an act, to the extent that it becomes characteristic of the group of people performing the act.
Dialect
A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.
Ethnicity
A social division based on national origin, religion, language, and often race.
Ethnocentrism
Evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's own culture.
Gender
The socially constructed roles and characteristics by which a culture defines male and female.
Globalization
Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope.
Hierarchical Diffusion
The spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority or power to other persons or places.
Hinduism
A religion and philosophy developed in ancient India, characterized by a belief in reincarnation and a supreme being who takes many forms.
Imperialism
A policy in which a strong nation seeks to dominate other countries politically, socially, and economically.
Indigenous Language
Language native to a region and spoken by the indigenous people of that region.
Indigenous People
Descendants of the people who first lived in a region.
Indo-European Language
A family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, Iran, and northern India, and historically also predominant in Anatolia and Central Asia.
Islam
A religion based on the teachings of the prophet Mohammed which stresses belief in one god (Allah), Paradise and Hell, and a body of law written in the Quran.
Judaism
A religion with a belief in one god. It originated with Abraham and the Hebrew people.
Language Extinction
The point at which a language no longer has any active speakers.
Language Family
A collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestor long before recorded history.
Lingua Franca
A language used among speakers of different languages for the purposes of trade and commerce.
Local (Ethnic/Folk) Religion
Religion that are spiritually bound to particular regions.
Material Culture
Tangible, physical items produced and used by members of a specific culture group and reflective of their traditions, lifestyles, and technologies.-
Monotheism
Belief in one God.
Multiculturalism
Culture found in a large, heterogeneous society that shares certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristics.
Non-material Culture
The beliefs, practices, aesthetics, and values of a group of people.
Norms
Rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members.
Pilgrimage
A journey to a place considered sacred for religious purposes.
Polytheism
Belief in many gods
Race
A group of human beings distinguished by physical traits, blood types, genetic code patterns or genetically inherited characteristics.
Relocation Diffusion
The spread of a feature or trend through bodily movement of people from one place to another.
Sacred Space
Place or space people infuse with religious meaning.
Secularism
An indifference to religion and a belief that religion should be excluded from civic affairs and public education.
Sense of Place
The feeling that an area has a distinct and meaningful character.
Sequent Occupancy
the notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape
Sikhism
A monotheistic religion that developed in India in the 1400s.
Stimulus Diffusion
The spread of an underlying principle, even though a specific characteristic is rejected.
Syncretism
A blending of beliefs and practices from different religions into one faith.
Time-space Convergence
The idea that distance between some places is actually shrinking as technology enables more rapid communication and increased interaction among those places.
Universalizing Religion
A religion that attempts to appeal to all people, not just those living in a particular location.
Ubranization
The process of making an area more urban.
Values
The ideas, beliefs, and attitudes about what is important that help guide the way you live.
Homogeneous
Of a similar kind.
Hetergeneous
Differing in kind dissimilar varied
Toponym
the name given to a place on Earth
Expansion Diffusion
when an idea spreads from where it originated and stays strong where it started
traditional architecture
traditional building styles of different cultures, religions, and places
Culture
Beliefs, customs, and traditions of a specific group of people.
cultural trait
The specific customs that are part of the everyday life of a particular culture, such as language, religion, ethnicity, social institutions, and aspects of popular culture.
indigenous community
communities that live within or are attached to geographically distinct traditional habitats or ancestral territories and who identify themselves as being a part of a distinct culture group.
Ethnic Neighborhood
an area within a city containing members of the same ethnic background-