AP HUG Unit 3 Vocabulary

Acculturation

The process of adjustment to the dominant culture.

Assimilation

The process of giving up cultural traditions and adopting the social costumes of the dominant culture of a place.

Custom

The frequent repetition of an act, to the extent that it becomes characteristic of the group of people performing the act.

Folk Culture

Culture traditionally practiced by a small, hometown, rural group living in relative isolation from other groups.

Habit

A repetitive act performed by a particular individual.

Popular Culture

Culture found in a large heterogeneous society that shares certain habits in other personal characteristics.

Taboo

A restriction on behavior imposed by social custom.

Terroir

The contribution of a location's distinctive physical features to the way the food tastes.

Creole (or creolized) Language

Language that results from the mixing of a colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated.

Denglish

The combination of Deutsch (German word for German) and English.

Developing Language

A language spoken in daily use with a literary tradition that is not widely distributed.

Dialect

A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.

Ebonics

A dialect spoken by some African Americans.

Extinct Language

A language that was once used by people in daily activities but is no longer used.

Franglish

A combination of francais and anglais (the French words for French and English, respectively).

Institutional Language

A language used in education, work, mass media, and government.

Isogloss

A boundary that separates regions in which different language usages predominate.

Isolated Language

A language that is unrelated to any other language and therefore not attached to any language family.

Language

A system of communication through the use of speech, a collection of sounds understood by a group of people to have the same meaning.

Language Branch

A collection of languages related through a common ancestor that can be confirmed through archaeological evidence.

Language Family

A collection of languages related to each other through the common ancestor language before recorded history.

Language Group

A collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display relatively few differences in grammar and vocabulary.

Lingua Franca

A language mutually understood and commonly used trade by people who have a different native languages.

Literary Tradition

A language that is written as well as spoken.

Logogram

A symbol that represents a word rather than a sound.

Official Language

The language adopted for use by a government for the conduct of business and publication of documents.

Pidgin language

A form of speech that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of a lingua franca: used for communication among speakers of two different languages.

Received Pronunciation (Rp)

The dialect of English associated with upper-class Britons living in London and now considered standard in the United Kingdom.

Spanglish

A combination of Spanish and English spoken in Hispanic Americans.

Standard Language

The form of a language used for official government business, education, and mass communications.

Sub Dialect

A subdivision of a dialect.

Vigorous Language

A language that is spoken daily but lacks a literary tradition.

Vulgar Latin

A form of latin used in daily conversation by ancient romans, as opposed to the standard dialect, which was used for official documents.

Agnosticism

The belief that the existence of God can't be proven empirically.

Animism

The belief that objects, such as plants and stones, or natural events, like thunderstorms and earthquakes, have a discrete spirit and conscience life.

Atheism

The belief that God does not exist.

Autonomous Religion

A religion that does not have a central authority but shares ideas and cooperates informally.

Branch

A large and fundamental division within a religion.

Caste

The class or distinct hereditary order into which a Hindu is assigned, according to religious law.

Congregation

A local assembly of persons brought together for common religious worship.

Cosmogony

A set of religious beliefs concerning the origin of the universe.

Denomination

A division of a branch that unites a number of local congregations into a single legal and administrative body.

Ethnic Religion

A religion with a relatively concentrated spatial distribution whose principles are likely to be based on the physical characteristics of the particular location in which its adherents are concentrated.

Fundamentalism

Literal interpretation and strict adherence to basic principles of a religion (or a religious branch, denomination, or congregation).

Ghetto

During the Middle Ages, a neighborhood in a city set up by law to be inhabited only by Jews; now used to denote a section of a city in which members of any minority group live because of social, legal, or economic pressure.

Hierarchical Religion

A religion in which a central authority exercises a high degree of control.

Missionary

An individual who helps to diffuse a universalizing religion.

Monotheism

The doctrine of or belief in the existence of only one God.

Pilgrimage

A journey to a place considered sacred for religious purposes.

Polytheism

Belief in, or worship of, more than one god.

Solstice

An astronomical event that happens twice each year, when the tilt of Earth's axis is most inclined towards or away from the sun.

Bonfires of the summer solstice

Thought to bring good luck to lovers and scare away demons.

Syncretic

Combining several religious traditions.

Universalizing Religion

A religion that attempts to appeal to all people, not just those living in a particular location.

Apartheid

Laws (no longer in effect) in South Africa that physically separates different races into different geographic areas.

Balkanized

A process by which a state breaks down through conflicts among its ethnicities.

Blockbusting

A process by which real estate agents convince white property owners to sell their houses at lower prices because of fear that persons of color will soon move in to the neighborhood.

Centripetal Force

An attitude that tends to unify people and enhance support for the state.

Ethnic Cleansing

A purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspired means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group.

Ethnic Enclave

A place with a high concentration of an ethnic group that is distinct from those in the surrounding area.

Ethnicity

Identity with a group of people who share the cultural traditions of a particular homeland or hearth.

Ethnoburb

A suburban area with a cluster of a particular ethnic population.

Genocide

The mass killing of a group of people in an attempt to eliminate the entire group from existence.

Nationalism

Loyalty and devotion to a particular nationality.

Nationality

Identity with a group of people who share legal attachment to a particular country.

Race

Identity with a group of people who are perceived to share a physiological trait, such as skin color.

Racism

The belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.

Racist

A person who subscribes to the beliefs of racism.

Sharecropper

A person who works fields rented from a landowner and pays the rent and repays the loans by turning over to the landowner a share of the crops.

Triangular Slave Trade

A practice, primarily during the eighteenth century, in which European ships transported slaves from Africa to the Caribbean islands, molasses from the Caribbean to Europe, and trade goods from Europe to Africa.