AP Human Geo. | Unit 3

Artifacts

The material manifestation of culture, including tools, housing, systems of land use, clothing, etc. 'What a culture uses'

Mentifacts

The central, enduring elements of a culture expressing its values and beliefs, including language, religion, folklore, and etc. 'What a culture believes'

Sociofacts

The institutions and links between individuals and groups that unite a culture, including family structure and political, educational and religious institutions. 'What a culture does'

Architecture

The art or practice of designing and constructing buildings.

Cultural relativism

The idea that a person's beliefs, values, and practices should be understood based on that person's own culture, rather than be judged through the eyes of another culture.

Custom

Something that a group of people does repeatedly that becomes part of their culture (for example, bowing instead of shaking hands in Japan).

Ethnocentrism

Judging people or traditions based on your own cultural standards.

Caste System

A rigid set of social classes that provides privileges for the higher classes and limits on the lower classes - a person is born in a caste and castes only change upon reincarnation.

Indigenous people

The original settlers of a given region, in contrast to groups that have settled the area more recently.

Sequent Occupance

The idea that the current cultural landscape is a combination of all the societies who lived there previously and the changes each group made.

Sense of place

A strong feeling of identity that is deeply felt by inhabitants and visitors of a location.

Creole or creolized language

A language that began as a combination of two other languages and is spoken as the primary language of a group of people.

Diaspora

The scattering of people from their homeland (especially the Jews from the Holy Land).

Lingua franca

A language that groups of people who don't speak the same language use to communicate often for trade or business.

Cultural convergence

When two cultures become more similar because of frequent interactions.

Cultural divergence

When a culture splits into different cultures because of lack of interaction.

Indigenous language

A language that is native to a region and spoken by indigenous people.

Language extinction

A language that is no longer spoken by anyone as their native language.

Dialect

Different forms of the same language used by groups that have some different vocabulary and pronunciations.

Ethnic (folk) culture

The cultural traditions that are generally held by a specific ethnic group, often localized in a specific area.

Ethnic religion

A religion that is focused on a single ethnic group (often in a centralized area) that doesn't attempt to appeal to all people.

Language family

A collection of languages that are all descended from an original, proto-language.

Universalizing religion

A religion that attempts to appeal to all people and has a worldwide focus as opposed to a regional focus.

Acculturation

Adoption of cultural traits, such as language, by one group under the influence of another.

Assimilation

The process of a person or group losing the cultural traits that made them distinct from the people around them.

Multiculturalism

When various ethnic groups coexist with one another without having to sacrifice their particular identities.

Syncretism

The blending traits from two different cultures to form a new trait.

Secularism

A philosophy that interprets life on principles taken solely from the material world, without recourse to religion.

Taboo

Something that is forbidden by a culture or a religion, sometimes so forbidden that it is often not even discussed.

Neocolonialism

gaining indirect control of another country through economic or cultural pressures (as opposed to colonialism which generally used military power)