Agricultural Landscape: Use of traditional/modern techniques; influence of natural features.
Industrial Landscape: Large industrial presence indicates lack of transition to post-industrial economy.
Religious Characteristics: Houses of worship, cemeteries, food taboos.
Linguistic Characteristics: Visible signage
Cultural Landscapes and Cultural Beliefs
Sequent Occupance: Successive societies leave cultural imprints, contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape; shows the history of a location.
Traditional (Vernacular) Architecture: Use of local materials and knowledge; simple and practical.
Postmodern Architecture: Reaction against formality and lack of variety; started in the 1960s.
Cultural Attitudes: Impact on the cultural landscape (e.g., ghettos, ethnic neighborhoods).
Gendered Spaces: Areas considered appropriate for specific genders.
Cultural Patterns
Language: Mutually intelligible sounds and symbols used for communication; reflects and shapes culture.
Standard Language: Published, widely used, and taught.
Regional Patterns of Language: Contribute to sense of place and placemaking.
Regional Patterns of Language - Dialects
Variations of a standard language along regional or ethnic lines.
Spelling, vocabulary, syntax, pronunciation, cadence, and pace of speech.
Isogloss: Boundary between variations in word usage or pronunciations.
Regional Patterns of Religion
Christianity:
Three main branches: Roman Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox.
Shapes global cultural landscape and contributes to sense of place.
Christians bury the dead in cemeteries.
Roman Catholic churches tend to be ornate; Protestant churches are more modest; Eastern Orthodox churches have domes with a cross.
Islam:
Houses of worship are called mosques, generally have a dome and minarets.
Muslims bury the dead in cemeteries.
Judaism:
Houses of worship are called synagogues; look for the Star of David.
Jews bury the dead in cemeteries.
Buddhism:
Houses of worship are called temples; symbolize five elements.
Buddhists traditionally cremate the dead but may bury them in cemeteries.
Hinduism:
Communal houses of worship are called Mandirs.
Hindus cremate the dead.
Sikhism:
Houses of worship are called Gurdwaras.
Sikhs are generally cremated.
Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces
Centripetal Forces: Promote national unity and solidarity (e.g., common religion, language, ethnicity).
Centrifugal Forces: Divide a state from within.
Religion as Centripetal and Centrifugal Force
Religion as a Centripetal Force: Unites people sharing the same religion.
Religion as a Centrifugal Force: Divides people (e.g., religious hostilities, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia).
Ethnicity as a Centripetal and a Centrifugal Force
Ethnicity as a Centripetal Force: Uniting force when people share the same ethnicity.
Ethnicity as a Centrifugal Force: Ethnic conflict in heterogeneous populations.
Hanification in China: Diluting the power of minority ethnic groups by moving Han Chinese into minority ethnic areas.
Cultural Diffusion
The spread of cultural beliefs and social activities from one group of people to another.
Two main types: Relocation and Expansion.
Relocation Diffusion
Movement of people who bring an idea with them to a new place.
Example: Christianity brought to Africa by missionaries and colonists.
Expansion Diffusion
Idea or innovation spreads outward from the hearth (origin).
Contagious: Rapid, widespread diffusion by direct contact; affects all areas uniformly.
Hierarchical/Reverse Hierarchical: Spreads to interconnected people or places first; may skip some people and places. Reverse Hierarchical - The idea spreads from rural to urban areas.
Stimulus: People adopt an underlying idea or process but modify the idea.
Example - McDonalds restaurants in India don’t sell hamburgers due to religious taboos.
Slowing/Preventing Diffusion
Time-distance decay: The farther away and the longer it takes for an idea to reach an area, the less likely it will be adopted.
Cultural barriers (taboos).
Cultural lag: When a social group is economically or psychologically unresponsive to change.
Historical Causes of Diffusion
Interactions between cultural traits lead to new forms of cultural expression.
Pidgin: Simplified grammar and vocabulary for specific functions like trade; not a native language.
Creolization: Language resulting from mixing a colonizer's language with the indigenous language.
Lingua Franca: Language spoken between speakers of two different languages for commerce or trade.
Shaping the Patterns and Practices of Culture
Colonialism and Imperialism: One nation assumes control over another; policy extending a country's power and influence through force.
Trade: Ideas and goods move across space.
Contemporary Causes of Diffusion
Urbanization and Globalization: Both cause cultural change.
Globalization: Intensified interaction among people, governments, and companies of different countries.
Urbanization: Product of rural to urban migration.
What influences cultural change today?
Media.
Technological Change.
Politics.
Economics.
Social Relationships.
Communication Technologies and Cultural Change
Time-Space Convergence: Caused by technological changes in transportation and communication (the internet); accelerates interactions and cultural change.
Cultural Convergence: Two cultures become more alike as their interactions increase.
Cultural Divergence: When a culture separates or isolates itself.
Diffusion of Religion and Language
Language Divisions:
Language family.
Language branch.
Language group.
Language.
Dialect.
Accent.
Language Families, Branches, and Groups
Language Families: Related languages derived from an earlier common language.
Language Branch: Languages derived from a common family, but split into individual languages.
Language Group: Several languages sharing a recent common origin.
Origin of Indo-European Languages
Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic, and Indo-Iranian languages stemmed from Proto-Indo-European.
Nomadic Warrior Theory: Kurgans (nomadic pastoralists and warriors) spread the Proto-Indo-European language through migration.
Sedentary Farmer Theory: Proto-Indo-European speakers in Eastern Turkey spread language and agricultural practices.
Diffusion of Indo-European Languages
Most spoken language family.
3. 5 BILLION people speak an Indo-European language.
Four Main Branches: Germanic, Romance, Indo-Iranian, Balto-Slavic.
Origin of English
Evolved from language spoken by Germanic tribes.
Viking invasion from Norway.
Norman (French) invasion.
Diffusion of English
British colonialism.
English is the official language in many former British colonies.
Diffusion of Language - Toponyms
Toponyms: Place names.
Migration.
Changes in power and influence.
Colonial renaming of local places.
Post-colonial independence.
Indigenous People.
Religion.
Two Main Types of Religion
Universalizing Religions:
Faiths that claim applicability to all humans.
Open to anyone willing to commit.
Individual Founder.
Relatively recent origin.
Holidays based on events in founder’s life.
Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, and Buddhism.
Ethnic Religions:
Strong territorial and cultural group identification.
Do not proselytize.
Adherents tend to be spatially concentrated.
No known founder.
Holidays based on local climate and agricultural practice.
Shinto, Hinduism, Taoism, and Judaism.
Diffusion of Universalizing Religions
Christianity:
Hearth: Middle East.
Missionaries diffused the religion worldwide (Relocation and Expansion Diffusion)
Islam:
Hearth: Middle East.
Relocation and Expansion Diffusion.
Buddhism:
Hearth is in South Asia.
Relocation and Expansion Diffusion.
Sikhism:
Hearth: Punjab in Northern India.
Relocation and Expansion Diffusion.
Diffusion of Ethnic Religions
Judaism:
Hearth: Middle East.
Relocation Diffusion due to persecution.
Jews clustered in the USA and Israel today.
Hinduism:
Hearth: South Asia.
Hindus are clustered in India.
Effects of the Diffusion of Culture
Diffusion causes changes to the cultural landscape.
Acculturation: Adopting practices of a larger group while maintaining elements of own culture.
Assimilation: Total loss of culture due to contact with a more dominant culture.
Syncretism: Mixing of religion and cultures to create unique rituals, artwork, and beliefs.
Multiculturalism: Coexistence of several cultures in one society.