AP Human Geography Unit 3: Culture

Culture 

Refers to the beliefs, values, practices, behaviors, and technologies shared by a society and passed down from generation to generation

Cultural trait

A shared object or cultural practice  such as food and clothing as well as language, other shared cultural practices, and activities that most group members do

Artifacts

Visible objects and technologies that a culture creates

Sociofacts

Structure or organization that influences social behaviors like families, governments, educational system, and religious organizations

Mentifacts

The central, enduring elements of a culture that reflects its own shared ideas, values, knowledge, and beliefs

Popular Culture 

Defined as the widespread behaviors, beliefs, and practices of ordinary people in society at a given point in time

Traditional Culture

Composed of long established behaviors, beliefs, and practices passed down from generation to generation

Cultural norms

The shared standards and patterns that guide the behavior of a group of people

Ethnocentrism

Tendency of ethnic groups to evaluate other groups according to preconceived ideas originating from their culture

Cultural relativism

Evaluation of  a culture solely by its unique standards

Cultural landscapes 

A natural landscape that has been modified humans, reflecting their cultural beliefs and values

Sequent occupance

The notion that successive societies leave behind their cultural imprint, a collection of evidence about human character and experiences within a geographic region

Ethnicity

The state of belonging to a group of people who share a common cultural characteristic

Ethnic neighborhoods

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

Traditional architecture

Established building styles of different cultures, religions, and places 

Postmodern architecture 

A reaction in the 1960s to “modern” designs which emphasized form, structure, and materials

Religion

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

pilgrimage 

A journey to a holy place for spiritual reasons

Language

The carrier of human thoughts and cultural identities

Toponyms

Helps define what is unique about a place such as its geographic features or history

Gendered spaces

Spaces, in countries with strict roles for men and women, designed and deliberately incorporated into the landscape to accommodate gender roles

Gender identity

How individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves

Safe space 

Spaces for acceptance for people such as members of the LGBTQ+ community who is sometimes marginalized by society

Gentrification

The renovations and improvements conforming to middle class preferences

Third place

Refers to a communal space that is separate from home (first place) and work ( second place)

Sense of place

People fill a geographic location with meaning by connecting memories and feeling to it

Placemaking

A community driven process where people collaborate to create a place where they live, work, play, and learn

Dialects

A variation to the growth of a standard language specific to a general area

Denominations

Separate organizations that unite a number of local congregations

Sect

A relatively small group that has separated from an established denomination

Centripetal force

A force that unites a group of people

Centrifugal force

A force that divides a group of people

Diffusion 

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

Cultural hearth

An area where cultural traits develop and from which cultural traits diffuse

expansion diffusion

Occurs when an aspect of culture spread outward from where it originates

Contagious diffusion

The process by which an idea or cultural trait spreads rapidly among people of all social classes and levels of power

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

The process by which a cultural trait or idea spreads to another culture or region but is modified to adapt to the new culture

Lingua franca

Common language used among speakers of different languages

Creolization

The blending of two or more languages that may not include the feature of either original language

Cultural convergence

The process by which cultures become more similar through interaction

Cultural divergence

The process by which cultures become less similar due to conflicting beliefs or other barriers

Acculturation 

The process by which people within one culture adopt some of the traits of another while still retaining their own distinct culture

Assimilation

A category of acculturation in which the interaction of two cultures result in one culture adopting almost all of the customs, traditions, languages and other cultural traits of others

Syncretism

Process of innovation combining different cultural features into something new

Multiculturalism

A situation in which different cultures live together without assimilation

Cultural appropriation

The act of adopting elements of another culture

Collectivist cultures 

A culture in which people are expected to conform to collective responsibility within the family and to be obedient to and respectful of elder family members

Language family

The largest grouping of related languages and includes those languages that share a common ancestral language from a particular hearth or origin

Isolate

An isolated language

Language branch

A collection of languages within a language family that share a common origin and separated from other branches in the same family several thousands of years ago

Language group

Languages within a branch that share a common ancestor in the relatively recent past and have vocabularies with a high  deep overlap

Universalizing religion 

A religion that tries to appeal to all humans and is open to membership by everyone

Christianity

A universalizing religion based on the teaching of Jesus Christ that began in what is now the West Bank and Israel around the beginning of the common era and has spread to all continent

Islam

A universalizing religion based on the teaching of Muhammad that originated in the hearth of Mecca on the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century

Buddhism

The oldest universalizing religion, which arose from a hearth in northeastern India sometime between the mid-sixth century and mid fourth century BCE and is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama called Buddha

Sikhism

The newest universalizing religion founded by Guru Nanak who lived from 1469 to 1539 in the Punjab region of northwestern India

Ethnic religion

A religion that is closely tied with a particular ethnic group often living in a particular place

Hinduism 

An ethnic religion that arose a few thousand years ago in South Asia and is closely tied to India

Judaism

The world’s first monotheistic religion, which developed among the Hebrew people of Southwest Asia about 4,000 years ago

Secularized

Focused on worldly rather than spiritual concerns