AP Human Geography Unit 3 Review Notes

Culture is defined as the shared practices, technologies, attitudes, and behaviors passed down by a society.
It can be thought of as an iceberg.
- Above the water: easily observable aspects like language, clothing, behavior, land use, and built environment.
- Below the water: Less observable aspects like thought patterns and cultural rules.

Cultural traits are obvious or observable elements of a culture.
They fall into categories:
- Food preferences: Reflect a society's culture and history (e.g., Singaporean food influenced by Southern Chinese cuisine).
- Architecture: Reveals shared national aspects or local tastes (e.g., uniform suburbs in America vs. adobe homes in the Southwest).
- Land use: Shows a society's culture (e.g., grass lawns in Nevada reflecting Eastern influence).

Cultural Relativism: Evaluating another culture by its own standards, embracing different beliefs without judgment.
Ethnocentrism: Evaluating another culture by one's own cultural standards, considering one's own culture superior.
- Often accompanied by xenophobia: fear or dislike of foreigners with different traits.

Cultural landscape describes how people modify a physical landscape in a way that reflects their culture.
Categories:
- Agricultural and Industrial Practices:
  - Agricultural practices: farming (e.g. cornfields in the Midwest or terraced rice paddies in Southeast Asia).
  - Industrial practices: economic activity that leaves a mark on the environment. Some economic marks lead to placelessness while some reflect regional culture.
- Religion: Buildings that reflect faith; Churches, mosques, temples, synagogues create sacred spaces.
- Linguistic Characteristics: Signs in various languages.
- Sequent Occupants: Cultural marks left by each group that has occupied a place over time.
- Traditional and Postmodern Architecture:
  - Traditional Architecture: Buildings reflect local materials and the needs of local people.
  - Postmodern Architecture: Emphasizes form over function; is more culturally expressive.

Culture's attitude towards ethnicity affects how people shape their space.
- Distinct markers of ethnicity are present via smells, taste, and auditory clues.
Attitudes about gender affect cultural landscapes.
- Examples include unequal property rights, gender-segregated parks, and the presence of childcare facilities.
Ethnic Neighborhoods.
- Often a result of migration or historic discrimination.
Presence of Indigenous Communities.

Place Making: Modifying a landscape to live in a place.
Sense of Place: Meaning people attach to a place.
- Factors contributing to a people's sense of place:
  - Language.
  - Religion.
  - Ethnicity.

Centripetal Forces: Factors that bring people together (e.g., religion, language, ethnicity).
Centrifugal Forces: Factors that drive people apart (e.g., religious differences, language debates, ethnic tensions).

Cultural Diffusion: Process by which a cultural trait spreads from one place to another.
Cultural Trait: Characteristic of a cultural hearth, which is the place where people of particular ethnic and cultural identities originate.

Relocation Diffusion: Spread of cultural traits as people migrate.
Expansion Diffusion: Cultural trait spreads while people remain in their cultural hearth. Subtypes include:
- Contagious Diffusion: Rapid spread of a cultural trait to adjacent populations.
- Hierarchical Diffusion: Top-down spread from persons/groups of power to those with less.
- Stimulus Diffusion: Original cultural trait doesn't spread, but inspires a new, related trait.

Colonialism and Imperialism
- Imperialism: Powerful state extends power over another place.
- Colonialism: Powerful state establishes settlement in another place for economic/political gain.
- Waves of European Imperialism led to:
  - Diffusion of languages (e.g., English in North America, Portuguese in Brazil).
  - Transatlantic African slave trade.
Trade: Exchange of ideas and cultural traits along trade routes like the Silk Road, as well as goods.

Lingua Franca: A single language adopted by people of different languages to facilitate communication (e.g., English).
Creolization of Language: Two languages combine to form a new language (e.g., Afrikaans).

Cultural ideas and practices are socially constructed and can change through small and large scale processes.
Globalization: Increasing interweaving and dependence of peoples throughout the world on each other economically, politically and socially.
Increasing Urbanization: Movement of people from rural areas into cities.

Ways that those in areas outside of cities can be exposed to urban ideas:
- Media.
- Technological Change.
- Politics.
- Economics.

Cultural Convergence: Cultures interact, adopt traits, and become more similar.
- Time Space Convergence: As transportation technologies advance, the time and space between places shrinks.
Cultural Divergence: Cultures become more distinct.

Categorization:
- Language Family: Largest category; languages share a common ancestral language.
- Branch: Languages develop from the same family and branch out separately.
- Individual Languages and Dialects.

Universalizing Religions: Appeal to a wide variety of cultures; Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism.
- Lend themselves to diffusion typically by relocation and expansion.
Ethnic Religions: Tied to particular ethnic groups and regions; Hinduism, Judaism, Shinto.
- Tend to remain close to the cultural hearth.
Representations: Languages and religions can be visually represented on maps, charts, or toponyms (place names).

Acculturation: Adopting some traits of another culture while maintaining one's own.
Assimilation: Assuming almost all characteristics of the culture around them.
- Forced Assimilation
- Voluntary Assimilation
Syncretism: Two or more cultural traits blend to create a new cultural trait.
Multiculturalism: Maintaining cultural identities while other groups around them do the same.