Unit 3: Culture

How are architecture, land use, and food preferences shaped by culture?

They are shaped by the body of material traits, beliefs, and social forms of a specific group of people.

What is the definition of culture?

A body of material traits, customary beliefs, and social forms that together constitute the distinct tradition of a group of people.

What is a habit?

A repetitive act of a particular individual.

What is a custom?

A repetitive act of a group.

What is folk culture?

Beliefs and practices of small, homogeneous groups of people living in rural areas that are relatively isolated and slow to change.

What is popular culture?

Cultural traits that spread quickly over a large area, often beginning in urban areas and spreading through modern technology.

What are core parts of cultural identity?

Language, religion, ethnicity, and race.

What is the difference between ethnicity and race?

Race divides people based on physical characteristics; ethnicity describes the culture of people in a given geographic region.

What is cultural relativism?

The practice of understanding and interpreting another culture based on its own values and beliefs.

What is ethnocentrism?

The belief in the superiority of one's own culture, often leading to the judgment of other cultures.

What is sequent occupancy?

The concept that many places have been controlled or affected by a variety of groups over time.

What is placelessness?

The feeling that results from the standardization of the built environment.

What can linguistic landscapes reveal?

They can show the dominant language, indicate bilingualism, and reflect cultural differences.

What is cultural syncretism?

The blending of beliefs, ideas, practices, and traits, especially in a religious context.

What is acculturation?

The process through which an ethnic or immigrant group adopts enough of the ways of the host society to function in that society.

What is assimilation?

The process where an ethnic or immigrant group blends in with the host culture and loses many of their distinctive traits.

What do toponyms tell us?

They reflect spatial patterns of language, dialect, and ethnicity and preserve traces of cultural history.