APHG Unit 3 Vocab

Culture, Language, Religion

C: Acculturation

the process where an individual or a group adopts some of the cultural traits, values, or behaviors of another dominant culture while still retaining core aspects of their own original culture.

C: Amish

a traditionalist Christian fellowship with Swiss Anabaptist origins

C:assimilation

the process by which a minority or migrant group gradually adopts the customs, language, and traits of a dominant culture, completely losing their original cultural identity in the process

C: Artifacts

any tangible, physical object made, produced, or modified by humans that reflects a culture's daily life, technology, and material culture

C: Barrio

a Spanish-speaking neighborhood or quarter located within a town or city, particularly in the United States or Latin America

C: Built enviroment

all human-made physical features and infrastructure that form the setting for human activity, modifying the natural landscape

C: Centripetal force

an attitude, ideology, institution, or condition that unifies a state, binds its population together, fosters national identity, and strengthens the central government's authority

C: Centrifugal force

any cultural, political, economic, or physical factor that divides a state, weakens its internal stability, and pushes people or regions apart.

C: Collectivist (communal) cultures

a cultural framework that prioritizes the goals, needs, and harmony of the group (such as the family, community, or nation) over individual desires or personal autonomy

C: Contagious diffusion

a type of expansion diffusion where a cultural trait, idea, disease, or innovation spreads rapidly and widely from its point of origin (the hearth) through direct, person-to-person contact.

C: Core-domain-sphere model

describes how cultural traits, beliefs, or phenomena are distributed and weaken over distance from their origin

C: Cultural convergence

the process by which interacting cultures become more similar to one another through shared ideas, values, behaviors, technologies, and practices

C: Cultural divergence

the process by which two or more cultural groups become more distinct or dissimilar over time

C: Cultural perception

he varying attitudes, beliefs, and mental models that different cultural groups use to observe, interpret, and make decisions about space, place, territory, and the natural environment.

C: Cultural ecology

he study of the two-way, mutual relationship between human cultures and their physical environments, focusing on how societies adapt to, use, and modify their surroundings

C: Cultural Landscape

the visible imprint of human activity and culture on the physical environment.

C: Cultural norms

the shared, unwritten rules, expectations, and standards of conduct that guide acceptable behavior and attitudes within a specific society or cultural group

C: Cultural relativism

the practice of understanding a culture, its beliefs, and its behaviors on its own terms, rather than judging them through the lens of one’s own culture.

C: Culture realm

the largest macro-scale geographic unit of culture

C: Culture hearth

the geographic origin point or birthplace where a cultural trait, innovation, religion, language, or technology first develops before spreading outward

C: culture complex

a unique, interconnected cluster of related cultural traits (such as beliefs, values, behaviors, and physical artifacts) grouped together around a common theme or activity

C: culture trait

a single, observable, and learned element or attribute of culture

C: culture region

a contiguous geographic area where people share common cultural traits such as language, religion, architecture, economy, or daily customs.

C: custom

the frequent repetition of an act by a group of people until it becomes a characteristic behavior of that group

C: diffusion

the process by which cultural traits, ideas, innovations, diseases, or practices spread from a cultural hearth (point of origin) across space and time

C: enviromental determinism

the belief that the physical environment—such as climate, terrain, and natural resources—directly controls and determines human behavior, culture, and societal development

C: Ethnicity

an identity with a group of people who share the distinct cultural traditions of a particular homeland or hearth.

C: Ethnocentrism

the tendency to judge, evaluate, and rank other cultures by the standards, values, and norms of one's own culture.

C: expansion diffusion

the outward spread of a cultural trait, idea, innovation, or disease from its origin point (or cultural hearth) to new people and places while remaining strong and active in its original location.

C: folk culture

culture traditionally practiced by a small, homogeneous (similar) group living in relative isolation, typically in rural areas

C: gendered spaces

an area, building, or environment that is socially constructed and culturally coded as belonging to or being appropriate for a specific gender

C: ghetto

a segregated neighborhood within a city where members of a specific racial, ethnic, or religious minority live

C: globalization

the expansion of economic, political, and cultural processes to a global scale, making different places and people around the world increasingly interconnected and interdependent.

C: glocalization

the practice of conducting business and distributing products or services on a global scale while simultaneously adapting them to fit local cultures, laws, and consumer preferences.

C: habit

a repetitive act performed by a particular individual.

C: hearth

the geographic origin point where a cultural trait, innovation, religion, language, or domesticated crop first develops before spreading outward.

C: hierarchical diffusion

Diffusion moving down a hierarchy.

C: hutterite

a member of an Anabaptist religious group that practices strict communal living, shares all property collectively, and lives in self-contained rural colonies

C: language

a system of communication through speech

C: material culture

the tangible, physical objects, resources, and built forms that a society creates, uses, and passes down across generations.

C: mentifacts

an abstract, non-material component of culture that consists of the shared ideas, beliefs, values, and knowledge that shape a society's worldview and guide its behavior

C: multiculturalism

the coexistence of multiple distinct cultural groups within the same society, where each group maintains its own unique identity, language, and traditions rather than blending into a single dominant culture.

C: placemaking

the collaborative, community-driven process of designing, planning, and managing public spaces to foster a strong sense of place and better serve local needs

C: popular culture

a set of practices, behaviors, and material traits shared by large, heterogeneous (diverse) societies that change rapidly and spread globally through mass media and technology

C: possiblism

the geographic theory that the natural environment sets limits and offers constraints, but human culture, technology, and free choice determine how a society develops and adapts.

C: postmodern architecture

a late-20th-century design style (roughly spanning the mid-1960s to early 1990s) that emerged as a reaction against and rejection of the strict, austere, and uniform rules of modern architecture

C: sense of place

the subjective, emotional meaning, identity, and unique character attached to a specific location by individuals or communities.

C: sequent occupance

the geographic concept that successive societies or cultural groups live in the same place over time, and each group leaves a visible imprint on the cultural landscape.

C: sociofacts

the social structures, institutions, and cultural norms that dictate how people organize themselves, interact, and behave within a society

C: stimulus diffusion

a form of expansion diffusion in which an underlying idea or principle spreads to a new location, but the specific form or implementation is changed/adapted to fit local cultural or environmental conditions.

C: taboo

a restriction on behavior imposed by social custom, religion, or cultural norms that forbids specific actions, behaviors, or discussions.

C: third place

a neutral, informal public gathering space distinct from a person’s home and workplace.

C: tradition architecture

building styles, forms, and construction methods that are passed down through generations within a specific culture, religion, or region

C: Traditional culture

Culture traditionally practiced primarily by a small, homogeneous (uniform), and closely-knit group living in relative isolation from other groups

C: uniform landscape

the spatial expression of a popular custom where the physical appearance, architecture, and layout of one place look very similar to or nearly identical to another place

C: vernacular region

an area that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity

L: accent

L: anatolian hypothesis

L: creole

L: creolization

L: dialect

L: extinct language

L: ideogram

L: Indo-European

L: Nostratic hypothesis

L: Isogloss

L: Isolate

L: Isolated language

L: Kurgan hypothesis

Language branch

L: language family

L: language group

L: lingua franca

L: literary tradition

L: mono, bi, multilinguality

Mono-Fluent in one language,

L: national language