APHG Unit 7: Cultural Patterns, Processes, and Social Media

Cultural Patterns and Processes: Foundations and Materiality

• The Culture Iceberg Metaphor     * Culture is conceptualized as an iceberg where the visible surface does not represent the entirety of the system lying beneath.     * Material Culture: This is the visible portion of the "iceberg." It is categorized into two types:         * Survival Activities: Actions and items necessary for daily existence.         * Non-Survival Activities: Elements of culture that go beyond basic needs.     * Nonmaterial Culture: The unseen portion of the iceberg. This includes language, religion, governance, social norms, ethnicity, and race.

• Folk vs. Popular Culture     * Folk Culture:         * Practiced by small, homogenous groups living in relative isolation to maintain their values.         * Origins often predate recorded history and cluster near a cultural hearth.         * Adaptation: Folk cultures tend to adapt directly to their physical environment.         * Gender Roles: In many folk cultures, women are viewed as dependent on men.     * Popular Culture:         * The culture of modern life found in large, heterogeneous communities.         * Modification: Popular cultures modify the environment to suit human needs rather than adapting to it.         * Clothing: Reflects occupational notions of success.         * Gender Equality: While theoretical, popular culture in practice is not always perfectly equal between men and women.

• Environmental Interaction and Food     * Folk Foods: These reflect the specific characteristics of the local environment.     * Food Taboos: These are created because the specific environment cannot sustain certain foods or because of cultural/social prohibitions.

• Cultural Dynamics and Interactions     * Sequential Occupancy: The process where groups migrate to locations formerly occupied by other groups. Each group leaves a distinct mark, resulting in a landscape layered with indigenous, colonial, and postmodern cultural elements.     * Acculturation: Often results from immigration. A cultural custom is adopted from a surrounding culture. Accommodations made by immigrants often succeed, though some changes are required (e.g., learning to speak English in the $U.S.$).     * Assimilation: A forced process where individuals drop their original culture to adopt the culture of the host country.         * Example: Indigenous youth in the United States were forced into boarding schools with poor conditions to eliminate indigenous culture; many did not survive.     * Cultural Appropriation: The act of picking and choosing specific customs from other cultures to use for profit. This can occur unintentionally or through insensitivity.

Language: Distribution, Classification, and Diffusion

• Linguistic Forces     * Centripetal Force: A cultural value that unifies people (e.g., a shared official language).     * Centrifugal Force: A cultural value that pulls people apart.

• Levels of Language Organization     * Languages are classified into hierarchy: Language Family, Language Branch, and Language Group.     * Indo-European: The world's largest language family.         * English belongs to this family.         * Most Europeans and South Asians speak Indo-European languages.     * Sino-Tibetan: Includes Madaran (Mandarin), which is the second most spoken language in the world.     * Austronesian: Spoken in areas around Australia, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Madagascar.

• Language Diffusion and Change     * Historical Diffusion: Primarily occurred through relocation diffusion (moving with people).     * Contemporary Diffusion: Increasingly influenced by communication technology, leading to contagious diffusion.     * Divergence: Occurs when a language is isolated in two different locations, causing the versions to become distinct.     * Literary Tradition: Important for the spread of a language; refers to an established system of written communication.

• Specific Language Branches and Theories     * Germanic Branch: Includes English and is spoken in Germany, Scandinavia, Britain, and former British colonies. Common origins date back approximately $200$ years.     * Indo-Iranian Branch: The most spoken branch of Indo-European roots, prevalent in India and Pakistan.     * Balto-salvic Branch: Found in Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union suppressed internal languages to promote Russian, but these suppressed languages revived after the Soviet collapse.     * Romance Branch: Spoken in regions that were formerly part of the Roman Empire.     * Origins of Indo-European:         * Nomadic Warrior Thesis: Centered on the Kurgans, who had a military advantage due to horses and chariots. They spread the language while searching for grassland for their horses.         * Sedentary Farmer Thesis: Suggests the language spread through the contact between farmers.     * Sound Shifts: Slight changes in words across subfamilies. Jacob Grimm’s theory (of Fairy Tales fame) suggests consonants became softer over time.

• Global English and Modern Variations     * English is the official language of $56$ countries.     * Lingua Franca: A language used by people who have different native languages for the purpose of communication (e.g., Arabic, English, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish are the $6$ main working languages of the United Nations).     * Pidgin Language: A simplified form of speech with no native speakers.     * Creole: Results from a mix of colonizer and native languages; unlike pidgin, it has native speakers.     * Dialects: Distinguishable by vocabulary, pronunciation, and spelling.         * Isogloss: A geographic boundary within which a particular linguistic feature occurs.         * BRP (British Received Pronunciation): Associated with higher wealth classes and better education.         * African American Vernacular: Evolved because slavery threw people of varied African languages together to work, creating a unique version of English.         * Appalachian Accent: Often faces prejudice, where speakers are accused of being uneducated.

Religions: Distribution and Diversity

• Classification of Religions     * Universalizing Religion: Meant to appeal to all people globally. They actively use missionaries to spread the faith. The three major ones are Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism.     * Ethnic Religion: Appeals primarily to one group of people living in one place. There is no active attempt to spread the message. Examples include Hinduism and Judaism.     * Unaffiliated: Individuals who may believe in a god, not believe in a god, or remain agnostic (unable to prove/disprove a higher figure).

• Major Global Religions     * Christianity:         * Roman Catholic: Largest branch, highly organized under the hierarchical authority of the Pope. Prominent in Spanish-speaking regions. Focuses on art and stained glass.         * Eastern Orthodox: Focuses heavily on architecture.         * Protestant: The third major branch.         * Founder: Jesus ($4\,BCE$ – $30\,CE$).         * Hearth: Southwest Asia, Jerusalem.     * Islam:         * Expected to surpass Christianity in followers within a few years.         * Sunni Islam: The branch with the most followers.         * Founder: Muhammad ($570\,CE$ – $632\,CE$).         * Five Pillars: Shahadah (Faith), Salat (Prayer $5$ times daily), Zakat (Charity), Sawm of Ramadan (Fasting), and Hajj (Pilgrimage to Makkah).     * Buddhism:         * Mahayana: The branch with the most followers.     * Hinduism: The most autonomous religion (lacking central authority). It is an ethnic religion found primarily in India. Revere the Ganges River.     * Judaism: Ethnic religion concentrated in Israel. Revere the Mount as a junction of heaven and earth.

• Religion and Space     * Churches: Often built on the highest point in a town/city.     * Pagodas: Shrines containing parts of the Buddha’s body or clothing; not intended for public worship.     * Disposal of the Dead: Varies by faith; includes cemeteries, cremation (becoming more common), and exposure.     * Hierarchical Religion: Organizes territory into local administrative units (e.g., Province, diocese, parish in Christianity) with a central authority like the Pope.     * Autonomous Religion: Self-sufficient religions with little formal organization (e.g., Islam and Hinduism).

Territorial and Political Religious Conflicts

• Religion and Governance     * Caste System: A social structure in India traditionally linked to Hinduism, determining jobs and social interactions.         * Brahmans: Highest ranking (priests).         * Shudraws: Poorest caste.         * Paradaws: Those outside the system, the lowest level.         * Karma and reincarnation provide the spiritual justification for maintaining one’s place in the caste.     * Communism: Political ideology based on the ideas of Colin Marks. He described religion as a "drug" that blinds people to the misery of their existence.         * The Soviet Union (established after the $1917$ revolution) suppressed religion, followed by a religious revival after its fall.         * China invaded the Buddhist country of Tibet in $1951$.

• Tensions and Identity     * Fundamentalism: Strict adherence to the foundation or start of a religion, believing only one way is correct.     * Extremism: Using violence or killing to further religious beliefs.     * The Israel-Palestine Conflict:         * Jewish Claim: Based on ancient roots and the loss of the Temple (symbolized by the Western Wall).         * Muslim Claim: The Dome of the Rock, where Muhammad ascended to heaven.         * Balfour Declaration: Britain’s support for the creation of a Jewish state.         * UN Mandate: Following $WWII$, Britain gave control to the UN, which proposed a split. In $1948$, the day Israel became a country, Arab nations attacked. Israel gained significantly more territory during the resulting war than the original $50\text{-}50$ split proposed.         * Diaspora: The forced spreading out of the Jewish people across a large territory.