Key Concepts in Cultural Patterns and Processes

Culture and Its Components

  • Culture: Shared practices, technologies, attitudes, and behaviors of a society.
    • Material Culture: Includes food, shelter, clothing.
    • Non-Material Culture: Encompasses beliefs, religions, language, activities.
    • Cultural Landscape: The physical imprint a culture leaves, shaped by interactions between humans and nature.

Cultural Relativism vs. Ethnocentrism

  • Cultural Relativism: Understanding a culture based on its own values/contexts, not judging with one's norms.
  • Ethnocentrism: Evaluating other cultures based on one’s own cultural standards, often leading to bias.

Cultural Landscape Features

  • Imprints of human activity include buildings, artwork, and agricultural practices.
  • Sequent Occupancy: Different groups leave their cultural footprint in a place over time, impacting local identity.
  • Sense of Place: Emotional attachment to a location based on personal experiences.
  • Placemaking: Enhancing community connection through collaborative public space improvement.

Forces Affecting Culture

  • Centrifugal Forces: Factors that divide people (e.g., multiple languages, ethnic conflicts).
  • Centripetal Forces: Factors that unify people (e.g., shared language, ethnicity, or religion).

Types of Diffusion

  • Relocation Diffusion: Spread through physical movement of people.
  • Contagious Diffusion: Rapid spread through population.
  • Stimulus Diffusion: Adoption of underlying principles, while specific traits may not spread.

Cultural Change and Globalization

  • Major forces: Urbanization, technological change (e.g., internet), globalization.
  • Loss of Indigenous Languages: Threatened by cultural globalization; preservation policies can help.
  • Global Dominance of English: English as a lingua franca for communication and commerce.

Religions and Their Diffusion

  • Universalizing Religions: Attempt to appeal to all; include Christianity, Islam, Buddhism.
  • Ethnic Religions: Primarily found in specific locations; include Hinduism, Judaism.

Cultural Effects of Diffusion

  • Acculturation: Weaker culture adopts traits of a dominant culture.
  • Assimilation: Replacement of a weaker culture's traits with those of a stronger one.
  • Syncretism: Blending of cultural traits to create new traits.
  • Multiculturalism: Coexistence of multiple cultures in a shared space.