Unit 3: Culture

Module 18 -  Introduction to Culture

1. How are architecture, land use, and food preferences shaped by culture? (explain)

Culture—Body of material traits, customary beliefs, and social forms that together constitute the distinct tradition of a group of people>>The shared beliefs, practices, and items that belong to a specific group of people

Habit—repetitive act of a particular individual

Custom—repetitive act of a group

Traits and characteristics

Architecture

Land Use

Food Preferences

Innovations and Technologies 

2. How do cultural traits and attitudes impact a place? (describe)

Material vs. nonmaterial culture 

Local culture

Indigenous culture

Folk Culture (local, indigenous):

Beliefs and practices of small, homogeneous groups of people, often living in rural areas that are relatively isolated and slow to change

Popular culture:

Cultural traits that spread quickly (or diffuse) over a large area and are adopted by various groups. Often begin in urban areas and spread through modern technology. Emphasizes what is new. (Clothing, Music, movies)

Attitudes and ideas 

3. How are language, religion, and ethnicity core parts of cultural identities? (explain)

Practice and behaviors 

Language

Religion

Ethnicity & Race

Race—dividing people into groups on the basis of various sets of physical characteristics—socially constructed

Ethnicity—describes the culture of people in a given geographic region, including their language, heritage, religion, and customs

Ethnic & Racial Geographies

4. What are cultural relativism and ethnocentrism? (define)

Understanding cultural difference 

Define multiculturalism 

Ethnocentric Approach

Cultural Relativism

Module 19 - Cultural Landscapes

Physical landscape—bison and pronghorn antelopes on the American plains 

Industrial landscape—large mansions on Summit Avenue in St. Paul, and multifamily apartments located near the Mississippi River where old flour mills used to be located 

Agricultural landscape—tulip fields in the Netherlands or cranberry bogs in Wisconsin

Architectural landscape—a home in Arizona, made of packed earth

Renovating old warehouses into upscale apartments in downtown St. Paul is an example of sequent occupancy.

Practical and efficient structures like the skyscrapers in downtown Minneapolis are examples of post-modern architectures: False

1. What are elements of the cultural landscape? (describe)

Elements 

Physical Landscape

“All the natural physical surroundings that create and shape the places we are living in or examining” (ex. Rocks, vegetation, wildlife, climate, deserts, plains)

Much easier to describe and/or catalog than cultural landscape 

Anything humans did not build, create, mold, or shape is part of the physical landscape

Physical landscape occasionally is a component of the cultural landscape (ex. Flowers are physical—well-manicured garden is cultural because it reflects how people shaped the landscape for their own, individual purposes)

Metropolitan regions—common to have more trees in affluent neighborhoods than in poorer

Trees natural—societies value trees for privacy, incorporate trees into land-use patterns, use trees to create economic distinctions between neighborhoods>>physical to cultural unique differentiation

Industrial & Economic Landscapes

Society’s economic activities’ visible markers in the landscape (ex. Factories, stores, malls, hospitals, interstate highways) belong to broader communication and other forms of business networks that can have some requirements relevant to location>>features are sometimes generic contributing to ‘placelessness’

Features of industrial and economic landscape sometimes perform their functions in culturally distinctive ways to a particular region making them symbolic of the cultural landscape (ex. Harnessing large amounts of energy before electricity became commonplace meaning factories needed to locate next to source of power—primarily such as rivers>>decades after, in U.S. and globally—water power stopped being important in deciding where to locate factories)

Another ex. New England old town clues towards historical industrial patterns of the regions—immigrant working in mills changed ethnic makeup of mill towns so mill itself now becomes/is a ‘picturesque feature of the mill town’s cultural landscape>>plus, mills and factories hereby brought successive waves of migrants into growing industrial cities as sources of cheap labor>>population grows in industrializing cities, new housing patterns emerge like row housing such as Baltimore became a common marker in the working-class neighborhoods>>homes of workers/mansions of investors too are a major part of the industrial and economic landscape just as much as the factories and smokestacks are, conclusively and/or in final end, finally

placelessness

”The feeling resulting from the standardization of the built environment; occurs where local distinctiveness is erased and many places end up with similar cultural landscapes” (ex. McDonald’s near most U.S. highway exits making them look extremely similar)

Agricultural Landscape

Most fundamental cultural and economic land use>>dominant feature of rural landscape

Many regions are distinct from these so they powerfully evoke a sense of place (ex. Corn fields in the Midwest, terraced rice paddies in Southeast Asia, tulip fields in the Netherlands

‘Emblematic’ of places that created these landscapes, serving as a source of pride>>land uses are part of cultural landscape like fishing docks and other signs of how people get food from the physical environment are

Indigenous Architecture Landscapes

Basic human needs–shelter–societies have created many types of housing

Some architectural forms are local to the area as well as indigenous while more popular forms of architecture are definitely widespread

Most often–indigenous and local architecture is better suitable to and more directly tied to that of the physical landscape than popular because mass-produced architecture could be adapted to just about any place

Ex. connection between traditional, indigenous architecture and local physical geography is the nipa hut found in the Philippine countryside>>many variations on the nipa hut due to the mixing of Malaysian, Spanish, Muslim, and American influences…hut is constructed primarily of bamboo framing fastened and roofed with nipa leaves–showing the link between local architecture and local vegetation>>often raised on stilts particularly in coastal areas and floodplains

Combination of hut’s large windows, wide eaves, and elevated position results in the free flow of cooling breezes which is a cultural adaptation to the hot, humid climate present in that of the Philippines

Nipa hut widely considered the Philippine national dwelling>>therefore is closely associated with its cultural and national identity

Postmodern Architecture Landscapes

Rural landscape = often regionally distinctive indigenous architecture>>urban landscapes = often modern and postmodern architecture that ‘interrupts the skyline’

Modernist architecture: “A functional, rational, and orderly style for building designs”>>open spaces, straight lines, dominated the early 1900s>>>downtown skyscraper perfectly straight without much ornamentation perfectly exemplifies this modernist style

Postmodern Architecture: “A design style that is a reaction against modernist architecture; it has a flair for the dramatic, creating a spectacle while serving a variety of functions”...ex. Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain>>is art not just containing art…postmodern architecture encourages artists, city planners, and architects to make places both vibrant and joyful, sometimes by mixing old and new in lively and/or whimsical ways

Sequent Occupance - What? Examples? 

“Refers to the fact that many places have been controlled or affected by a variety of groups over a period of time; those groups have reshaped the functions or meanings of those places and left behind layers of meaning”

Numerous cultural groups have affected a city–on a more complex scale than that of one building>>over millennia, more than 2 dozen empires have controlled the city of Jerusalem, including the Persians, Romans, Greeks, and Ottomans

Sometimes new society destroys old cultural markers but sometimes it adopts the symbolic cultural places as its own–in which case the result is an intertwined cultural landscape that blends multiple influences>>ex. The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem on the site where Muslims believe that prophet Muhammad ascended into heaven

“Thus, the cultural landscape of Jerusalem is the result of numerous political, cultural, and ethnic groups that have occupied the area at different times.”

2. How are cultural identities visible in the cultural landscape? (explain)

Ethnicity in the landscape 

Ethnic and racial landscapes often differ from the landscapes of the dominant culture

Differing styles of architecture, differing patterns of surveying the land, and the distribution of houses and other buildings can signal the presence of certain ethnic or racial groups in the cultural landscape

Occasionally distinctive markers of race and ethnicity ain’t visible but rather can be seen, smelled, touched, or tasted>>ex. Food via street vendors, and additionally/plus ethnic flags and monuments are prominent and/or profound symbols on the landscape>>moments and statues harken to past eras and then people can become points of contention>>like in the Civil War generals in the U.S. South; different members of the community might support different versions of local or national history, nationalism, or national heritage

Urban ethnic landscapes 

Ethnic cultural landscapes often appear in urban settings.

Ex. brightly colored exterior mural typically found in Mexican American ethnic neighborhoods in the southwestern United States (U.S.)

Murals began to appear in 1960s in Southern California, exhibit influences rooted in both Spanish and indigenous cultures of Mexico>>apartments, store exteriors, bridge supports, and highway underpasses provide the space for this ethnic expression

Subjects portrayed are wide ranging>>from religious motifs to political ideology, from statements about historical wrongs to urban zoning disputes

Often are specific to the site, incorporating well-known elements of the local landscape, thus heightening the sense of place and ethnic “turf”

Inscriptions can be in either spanish or english>>many Mexican murals however do not contain written message>>relying on image sharpness and vividness of color to make an impression

Important to remember that urban ethnic neighborhoods are created by internal cultural forces as well as those coming from outside the community

Some exclusionary policies like linguistic profiling, redlining, and ethnic steering made some ethnic neighborhoods a safe haven from cultural hostility outside the neighborhood

Linguistic landscapes

Cultural landscapes = important differences and commonalities within and between cultures revealed

Road signs, graffiti, and other publicly displayed words reveal the locally dominant language and indicate bilingualism, linguistic oppression of minorities, and other facets of linguistic geography 

Plus, taking a more observant and/or closer look, differences in writing systems ‘render’ some linguistic landscapes nearly illegible to those not familiar with these particular and/or specific forms of writing 

Religious landscapes 

Visibly, religions differ a lot, in major quantities/amounts….however still with those least apparent to the eye some subtle mark on the cultural landscape is left behind

Sacred space(s)

“Natural or human-made sites that possess religious meaning and are recognized as worthy of devotion, loyalty, fear, or esteem”

Many developing countries = becoming more secular: “Less influenced or controlled by religion”

Due to increased secularization, sites not religious can actually become a secular version of a sacred space (ex. Ground Zero in NYC functions as a secular sacred space for many Americans—primarily those who travel great distances to this pilgrimage site to mourn the loss of many people on 9/11(/2001))

3. How do attitudes, values, and power relationships shape the cultural landscape? (explain)

Cultural Messages in the Linguistic Landscape

Linguistic landscapes send messages = both friendly and hostile

Messages = often political content, dealing with power, domination, freedom, or subjugation

Historically, Turkey = not allow Kurdish-speaking minority to broadcast music or television programs in Kurdish, to publish books in Kurdish, or even to give their children Kurdish names

People = speak Kurdish = arrested and imprisoned

2002–Turkey reformed legal restrictions to say yes to the Kurdish language being used in daily life, but still not in the sectors of primarily of public education

2012–Kurdish language instruction = elective subject in Turkey’s public schools

Less hostile, still very politically charged example—Canadian province of Québec tried to eliminate English-language signs

French-speaking immigrants settled Québec and its official language is French…everywhere else in Canada>>official policy is bilingualism in English and French

Meaning of certain elements of the cultural landscape are not understood by everyone. Plus, factually, some landscapes are designed to convey meaning to some people and not to others. Ex. Graffiti can denote ownership of territory and/or send messages…only people understanding specific symbols used will be able to entirely decipher the message’s full meaning…misreading writing like this can have dangerous consequences primarily for those who stray off into unfriendly territory…therefore we can think of graffiti as a dialect that is transmitted through symbols or a highly stylized script and is particular to a subculture: “A group of people with distinct norms, values, and material practices that differentiate them from the dominant culture surrounding them’

Symbolic Use of Religious Landscapes

Religious buildings = prominent and/or profound additions to the landscape as they create a place to worship and a communal gathering place for the community, as a whole

Religious architecture (ex. Mosques, temples, shrines)—literally mark the landscape with the imprint of particular religious beliefs…conveying information about the values, goals, and identities of the religious groups in the community

Structures vary greatly in function, architectural style, construction material, size, and degree of ornateness (ex. Medieval European towns, Catholic cathedrals = tallest buildings, representing supremacy of religion over all other aspects of life…>>By contrast, a Protestant church building = simple place to assemble for worship…For this primary reason, traditional Protestant houses of worship typically not designed for comfort, beauty, or high visibility…they are just small, simple structures…are deliberately/purposefully humble and appeal less to the senses and more to your /a/the personal faith)

Gendered Landscapes

Religious identity affects the cultural landscape just like gender does too…meanings in the cultural landscape often have gender-specific messages…ex. Around the world, many countries memorialize the past through monuments that portray the nation as a woman—not a historical woman, but rather an ‘allegorical and idealized’ woman

Gender roles appear in everyday modern landscapes (ex. Road signs in Germany)

Picture of stick woman holding child’s hand is message for parents to carefully watch their children and symbol for parental care of young children is particularly/specifically female

Same street = sign warning motorists to be careful of people playing in the street showing a stick man and a boy…here, cultural assumptions and norms about gender roles are extremely visible in the cultural landscape…

looking at these 2 (two) signs together, women are portrayed as the primary caregivers who are responsible for children’s safety and boys and men are portrayed as active and athletic

Heritage & History is Cultural Landscape

Cultural landscape = symbolic marker of communal identities 

Features of the/a built environment (ex. Buildings, shrines, public art, and monuments) tell a story about the history of place: like who owned it, who is welcome, and what happened there

Race and ethnicity = often feature prominently and/or profoundly in these cultural stories about place…ex. Colors used to paint buildings can mark them as territory of particular ethnic groups…countries narrate their national history in part through the monuments, plaques, and statues that denote important places in that history

In the U.S. (United States)…some elements of the cultural landscape refer to the Civil War era (1861-1865)…when the northern states fought the southern states over states’ rights and the legality and ethics of slavery….not surprisingly, monuments, plaques, and statues commemorating this defining historical period often feature individuals who were slave owners and who fought to uphold the right to own slaves

Elements of cultural landscape have become the focus of intense conflict…many public officials, African American descendants of slaves, and progressive groups have actively called for their removal from public spaces…arguing that they are unwelcome reminders of a racist past that the U.S. would now supposedly like to move beyond 

Others claim that they are historically accurate representations of things that have happened and people who were influential in their time…but otherwise neutral in their meaning…>>result has been protests and violent clashes across the country (ex. Public works crews removing Confederate landmarks from many United States’ cities do so at night, wearing protective gear and under police guard)

Many countries have seen similar racial or ethnic conflicts erupt over cultural landscapes commemorating past eras. Indeed, iconoclasm—destruction of statues, monuments, plaques, and other religious or political landscape elements—dates back to biblical times. Most recently, former Soviet republics = destroyed likenesses of repressive leaders like Joseph Stalin, Anti-colonial protesters toppled a statue of Christopher Columbus in Caracas, Venezuela and the Taliban destroyed ancient statues of the Buddha in Afghanistan…

All these examples underscore the key fact that cultural landscapes, and the elements that comprise them, are never simply passive backdrops against which life plays out…Instead, the cultural landscape = dynamic actor in the drama of nationalism, colonialism, religion, and racism

Cultural Attitudes in the Landscape

Landscape has tangible aspects = also reveals invisible elements of culture, like cultural attitudes, communal insecurities, values, and beliefs

ex. Japan, comparatively fewer trash cans in their prominent/profound public spaces…yet Japanese cities are famously clean…>>aspect of Japanese cultural landscape is indicative not only of importance of communal responsibility for public cleanliness but also some underlying fears—trash collection is much more rigorous in Japan that it is in the U.S., and Tokyo even has a superhero patrolling the streets to fight the evil of litter wherever it is found

Goal: teach children to admire those who fulfill their civil duty with pride and exactness…when foreign dignitaries visit Tokyo or a major sporting event takes place, it is not uncommon for few remaining public trash cans in Tokyo to be locked, sealed, or shut down—a response to the 1995 sarin gas attacks that injured thousands in the Tokyo subway

“Much as many in the United States see airplanes as potential weapons after the 9/11 attacks, many in Japan see trash cans as a weak point for their communal safety.”

Agricultural, Architectural, and industrial features are all visible in the cultural landscape>>some more substantial cultural elements that are key components of identity—such as ethnicity, language, and religion—are also apparent in the cultural landscape

Reading aspects of cultural landscape = rich details about local and global cultural patterns provided

Module 21 - Types of Diffusion and Their Historical Causes 

1. What are the types of diffusion? (describe)

Diffusion 

Module 3 review–diffusion is pattern by which phenomenon spreads from one location to another through space and time

2 main types of diffusion:

  –Relocation diffusion: occurs when individuals or groups with particular idea or practice migrate from one location to another>>bringing idea of practice to their new homeland…religions frequently spread through this type of diffusion

–ex. When Lutherans from northern Europe migrated to U.S.’s Upper Midwest>>brought their religious practices to MN and the Dakotas

–when people move, the cultural traits they care about go with them

–Expansion diffusion: occurs when ideas or practices spread throughout a population, from area to area

–Hierarchical diffusion: occurs when ideas leapfrog from one influential person to another or from one important place to another, skipping other persons or places

–Fashion styles and hashtags from influencers can easily skip over you if you are not connected to these networks 

–Contagious diffusion: wavelike spread of ideas in the manner of a contagious disease, equally moving throughout space

–Exposure is required for something to be spread through contagious diffusion

–Most agricultural innovations have spread from one village to the next

–Stimulus diffusion: happens when a specific trait is not adopted in its original form, but the underlying idea is accepted and the cultural trait is adapted…isn’t wholesale adoption of a trait

–Involves cultural adaptation to create something new

–ex. Central America wheat-thickened ketchup rejected from North America rejected because of low abundance of wheat…idea of thickening tomato-based food with something locally plentiful did take root where ketchup used bananas as a start in their major ingredient(s)

Barriers to diffusion 

Distance decay limits ability of some cultural traits to diffuse to faraway locations

Absorbing barriers: “Barriers that completely halt diffusion”

–impede spread of an innovation through time and distance 

–could be mountain range, ocean, legal code, political institution, or cultural taboo

–ex. Islam has cultural taboo restricting consumption of pork while in U.S. there is explosion of bacon-related food products in recent decades–area mostly Muslim would have absorbing barrier due to pork-related food trends

Few absorbing barriers are completely effective or persist forever

Permeable barriers: “Barriers that slow diffusion, but still allow partial or weakened diffusion”>>allow innovations to diffuse partially and in a weakened way

Ex. casual-dress Friday in U.S. inspired by Hawaiian trends

Language is a key mechanism that shapes human interactions, and languages change when they come into contact with other people with different cultural traditions.

2. How can global forces create new forms of cultural expression? (explain)

Linguistic change 

Societies economically motivated to nurture new business opportunities>>historically trade = largest motivator for people of different cultural groups to meet and interact>>people who speak different languages but need to interact on basic level can find some common ground with the pidgin language

Pidgin, creole, lingua franca 

Pidgin: “A trade language, characterized by a very small vocabulary derived from the languages of at least two or more groups in contact”

Primarily serve the purposes of trade and commerce, facilitate exchange at a basic level but don’t have any complex vocabulary or grammatical structures

Ex. Tok Pisin–“talk business” Papua tongues spoken near this official language which is influenced of English even if majority of it cannot be understood to a speaker of standard English 

Pidgin goes to transition into creole: “A combined language that has a fuller vocabulary than a pidgin language and becomes a native language”>>transition has to do with politics and social recognition as it does with the fuzzy boundaries between languages form 

Ex. Haitian graduates have to speak French but Haitian Creole is national language with a mix of French in the language that is thrown into the mix

Creolization: “The linguistic process where languages converge and create new languages and forms of communications”

Sometimes one existing language is elevated to status of lingua franca: “A language of communication and commerce spoken across a wide area where it is not a mother tongue”

Swahili language enjoys this status in much of East Africa

English is fast becoming a global lingua franca

During colonial times–French language used as culturally unifying force among linguistically diverse populations

Regions that have linguistically mixed populations may be characterized by bilingualism: “The ability to speak two languages fluently”

Bilingualism is a practice–even if not in official policy–means there is no need for lingua franca 

3. How did colonialism, imperialism, and trade shape cultural patterns and practices? (explain)

What is an empire? 

Empire: “A sovereign political entity that seek(s) to expand beyond their origin land to control more territory politically and/or economically”

Successful empires in ancient times like Persian were able to extend their power beyond their core area and to integrate newly conquered territories and people into their empire…usually in shaping terms economically, religiously, and politically empire’s needs are framed to need to be put above local concerns

Define colonialism and define imperialism 

Some empires = peaceful and others = bloody and oppressive

Imperialism: “The motivating impulse to control greater amounts of territory”

Colonialism: “The act of forcefully controlling a foreign territory, which becomes known as a colony”

Both of these topics have been at the root of many atrocities in human history

–Ex. Europe’s colonization of vast territories in Africa, Asia, and Latin America>>based on drawing sharp distinctions that were often expressed in racial terms between the colonizers and the colonized who were the conquered peoples that were viewed as so different from European that whether or not they were even human beings was debated

European colonialism frequently drew on existing ethnic and racial divides in colonized societies

–Ex. Famous exchanges in the mid-16th century between Carribean-based Spanish priests and intellectuals in Spain is a case in point >>conquered peoples are not animals and abuses of indigenous peoples is not okay>>>but they also did not see bad in owning black slaves too

How have colonialism and imperialism been at the root of the atrocities (genocide) in Rwanda(in sub-Saharan Africa)? 

Composed of two major ethnic groups of Hutu: 85% pop. and also minority Tutsi

–differences in status long existed between these 2 groups but not until 1918 Belgian takeover of territory that official distinction between Hutu and Tutsi became racialized

Tutsi–power in colonial government positions, educational systems, economic structure of colonial Rwanda under Belgian rule

Hutu has physical differences from Tutsi which were examined by European racists

–Shorter and darker, ugly, intellectually inferior, natural slaves

Tutsi: physical beauty praise, lighter, taller, virtues of cultural refinement and leadership

1959-Hutu majority rebelled>>20,000 Tutsi deaths and many more displaced

Rwanda independent from Belgium–1961>>displaced Tutsi refugees regrouped in neighboring Uganda and in 1990 launched an invasion of Rwanda>>END TO RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND REINSTATEMENT OF THEIR CITIZENSHIP WANTED

Hutu-Tutsi relations rapid deterioration >> plan to exterminate Tutsis and Hutu sympathizers promoted as only way to get rid of Rwanda’s problems

1994–genocide: “The systematic killing of members of a racial, ethnic, or linguistic group”

–massacre carried out: 1 mil. ppl in just a few months span 

Ethnic and racial distinctions were central features of European colonization, and tensions based on race and ethnicity predate the modern era. Yet racial and ethnic conflict is far from erased in today’s global world.

Technology, language, Empire 

How did imperial expansion alter linguistic practices around the world? 

Most basic and profoundly influential technology for diffusing language is writing

Invention of writing as early as developed 5300 years ago including areas in several focused geographic areas like Egypt>>writing helped with civilizations developing and spread>>giving written languages a major advantage and over languages that were only spoken>>can be published and widely distributed, and they carry with them status of standard, official, and legal communication

Facilitates recording keeping, helping governments and empires to develop

Thus, languages of conquerors tend to diffuse as the political power of any given empire spreads further

Ex. imperial expansion of Britain and the U.S. across globe altered linguistic practices of millions of ppl 

Empire building superimposed Indo-European languages, like English and Spanish throughout tropics and subtropics>>areas most affected were Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific

A parallel case from the ancient world is China>>formidable imperial power spreading its language to those conquered as well>>during Tang dynasty (618-907 C.E.) Chinese control extended to Tibet and other parts of contemporary northeastern China and Korea

4000-yr-old written Chinese language = proved essential for cohesion and maintenance of China’s far-flung empire

Ppl throughout empire spoke diff dialects or even diff languages>>>common writing system = lent measure of mutual understanding at level of written word

Today, Chinese concerned about “Romanization” of their language as Chinese schools prioritize learning English and youth are not as familiar with as many Chinese characters as generations above them

Imperial nations have for most part given up colonial empires, languages transplanted overseas survive still

Ex. english still has foothold in much of africa, south asia, philippines and more

French persists in former French and Belgian colonies ex. In places like primarily madagascar and northern, western, and central africa 

Most of these areas–English and French = languages of educated elite>>usually hold official legal status>>also used as a lingua franca of government, commerce, and higher education>>helping hold together states in which multiple native languages are spoken 

How does transportation technology shape the geography of language? 

Transportation technology also profoundly affects geography of languages>>ships, railroads, highways all serve to spread languages of the cultural groups that build them>>sometimes spelling doom for the languages of less technologically advanced peoples whose lands are suddenly opened to outside contacts

Ex. Trans-Siberian Railway–built about a century ago>>spread Russian language eastward to Pacific Ocean

Alaska Highway–runs through Canada carried English into native american spaces

Construction of highways in Brazil’s remote Amazonian interior threatens native languages of that region while it promotes diffusion of portuguese 

Lingering cultural consequences 

Colonialism affects cultural of colonized as colonizers brought their languages, religions, technologies, and other cultural traits to each colony

Sometimes, cultural traits were forced on native people while other traits were enthusiastically embraced

Ex. native americans in the u.s. Plain area did not have horses until arrivals of Europeans but many native americans quickly mastered horseback riding and used horses to resist colonization and to continue their way of life

Just as colonialism changes places so too is the colonizer culturally transformed

London today has many elements of Hindu cultural landscape including Hindu temples and such like vibrant colors adorned with gold>>cultural landscape attests to fact that British colonial rule in South Asia also changed the heart of the British empire

How was South America shaped by colonialism? 

Sometimes colonial cultural influences are more complex and to understand the cultural patterns we need to follow the various political strands

Ex. suriname was south american colony of netherlands from 17th century to 20th century

About 14% of the population was Muslim>>Muslim pop. would be unexpected in South America, to which the Spanish and Portuguese colonizers brought Roman Catholicism>>however, Netherlands also colonized Indonesia at that time called Dutch East Indies in order to take advantage of the spice trade to Europe

Indonesia today>>largest Muslim-majority country in world and even though Suriname is on the other side of the world, colonial connection facilitated an otherwise surprising migratory flow of Muslims

Hinduism–other Suriname major religion  and neighboring Guyana is a British colony

–during colonial times, british brought hindu indentured servants from india to work in the plantations of guyana

These colonial networks, economic trade systems, and political connections transformed the ethnic, linguistic, and religious composition of Central America.

Many of the cultural patterns we see today are results of historical diffusion patterns that stem from trade, imperialism, and colonialism. This early diffusion was the first wave of globalization, integrating economies around the world into a larger system, and its impact cannot be overstated. Subsequent waves of globalization continue to reshape the world through contemporary patterns of cultural diffusion.

Module 22 -  Contemporary Causes of Diffusion 

1. How are modern forces reshaping cultural patterns? (describe)

Cultural identities 

Unit 1 review–globalization is an ongoing process that has unfolded over several centuries>>useful when looking at culture, ethnicity, and race from historical and global perspectives

Shared language, religion, and ethnicity provide group members with perception of a common history and shared destiny–that deep feeling of “we-ness”--that is the basis of many countries

Israel’s identity as Jewish nation, Turkey’s common language, and Japan’s distinctive cultural traditions set the stage for people in those nations to join together as furthermore political entities

–yet all three (3) of these countries harbor long-standing tensions with the groups that reside within their borders but whose members are not considered (or do not consider themselves) part of the cultural mainstream 

–they may not practice the official religion of the country like Israel’s Palestinians that are Muslims and Christians

–they may not speak the official language as with seen Turkey’s Kurdish–speaking minority 

–they may follow cultural traditions distinct from the mainstream–the case with Japan’s indigenous Ainu population>>ethnic groups of these often identify themselves or are identified by their cultural differences from the country’s dominant group

Subject to Debate feature–contemporary cultural forces complicate cultural identities and national characteristics

How has/does urbanization shape culture? 

Globalization = most prominent and/or profound force affecting global culture, many processes continue to shape cultures around the world

–Urbanization is 1 (one) such process

..Popular cultures draw upon urban centers for their inspiration often, urban hierarchy shapes cultural impact of new traits

Ex. south korea–seoul largest city with most powerful influence on emerging cultural trends, music, and fashions like k-pop single chart-dominating “gangnam style” is referenced to an upscale, fancy neighborhood in seoul>>can be emblematic of all things Korean for the outsider>>majority of Korean cultural influence impacting European or American countries comes primarily through linkages to Seoul>>South Korea is like Seoul as that is all they have ever seen in their mind, for many

Urbanization transforms and reshapes cultures in their newer context as well

Ex. Japanese heritage–often looks to the fishing village as a core component of its national identity>>seafood is incredibly important to japanese people even though today the vast majority of pop. lives in cities and don’t fish for a living

Consequently, food and transportation industries have collaborated to modernize the systems that preserve this strong cultural preference>>japanese cities have seen a rise in international cuisine, including Western-style fast food>>as more fast food and nontraditional food products are consumed in Japan, it is seeing a sharp increase in formerly rare issues as diabetes and obesity>>cities can change to adapt old traditions into modern life or can reshape cultural traits in new ways

What is the effect of globalization on local and Indigenous cultures?

Global-local tensions also exist for the world's indigenous peoples, whom globalization often affects in unexpected ways

One hand shows new global communication systems in institutions of global governance and international non-governmental organizations like NGO where indigenous peoples are being provided with extraordinary networking possibilities

—Indigenous peoples around the world are linked in global networks now, and therefore they can share strategies rally international support for local classes, and create a united front to defend cultural survival

The other end of that equalization brings the world to formerly isolated cultures for global mass communications introduced new values multinational corporation search for new markets and, sources of gas and other resources which can threaten local economies and environments 

Go to this aspects of indigenous peoples interactions with globalization were evident of the World Trade Organization WTO ministerial conference in Cancun Mexico, 23

From around the world, indigenous people organizations gathered for the conference hosted by the Mayan community, and these indigenous groups came together to strategize ways to forward their collective cause of cultural survival and self determination, gain publicity and produce a WTO vision of globalization. One outcome of this was international Cancun declaration people where the document was highly critical of current trends

—Arguments have been made that because globalization facilitates the creation of global networks that provide strength and numbers it may ultimately improve indigenous people’s efforts to control their own destinies so therefore the future of indigenous cultural survival will depend on how globalization is structured and for who it ends up more with benefits

Cultural Diffusion from and Resistance to Globalization

Differences do not always cause conflict, tension, or oppression

Write an ethnic or racial distinctiveness is common, but as revolutions in communications and transportation are bringing diverse peoples into heightened contact throughout the world distinct of marks of ethnicity are coming under pressure

There is belief the exposure to Western cultural practices in different ways encourage indigenous people to shed their locally distinctive ways so that they can adopt a homogeneous, modern and popular culture

20th century late— an ethnic resurgence, especially among indigenous groups became evident in many countries were today many ethnic groups, and their geographical territories have become resistant to globalization

— but it is too simple to think of indigenous groups as the keepers of ethnic distinctiveness in a globalizing world only, because members of indigenous groups have to cope with challenges, and they have to take advantage of the opportunities that they get due to globalization, and therefore their actions will always be able to modify their identities in complex ways

Ethnic minority groups are facing similar pressures with respect to asserting their identities in the majority of society

— regardless of ethnicity, young people are typically concerned of fitting in which therefore involves them hiding their aspects of themselves that they find to be different from the mainstream

— these differences are often apparent in their language, dress, religion, and cuisine

Ex. Brazil’s population of Japanese descent 

— numbering around 1.5 million Brazil’s Japanese ancestry population is the largest outside of Japan because Brazil was quite late in abolishing slavery in 1888 and since it was the last country in the western hemisphere to do so the need for a cheap agricultural labor remained so then in the first decade of the 20th century Japanese immigrants began to fill this need

— Japanese immigrants worked on Brazil’s coffee plantations because they were fleeing the poverty and their home country and therefore their immigration to Brazil reached a peak in the years of 1931 to 1935 where over 70,000 Japanese migrated to Brazil due to the strife in their homeland after the first world war, and around this time, the Brazilian government attempted to force immigrant populations from Germany, Italy in Japan, as well as Jews to assimilate into the mainstream, and since they found the Japanese particularly resistant to such effort by the 1970s Japanese immigrant and their descendants known as Nikkeijin formed the distinctive and economically wealthy minority group in Brazil

— Brazil's Nikkeijin youth revealed the pressures that were being faced by ethnic minorities, and they are often stereotyped as being smarter more polite and neither than non-Japanese Brazilians

— many of Brazilian-born youths, and their parents return to Japan in order to take advantage of the economic opportunities now available there, so therefore when they arrive, the young people face considerable pressure to speak and act Japanese and in order to assert their ethnic identity, many react by wearing Brazilian clothing, speaking Portuguese loudly in public and generally acting more Brazilian than they ever did in Brazil so clearly globalization and its associated movements of people and ideas lead to highly complex geographies

2. How do communication technologies impact human interactions? (explain)

Cultural Change and Technology

Similar to that of all elements of cultural geography, religions must adapt to the globalizing world and its communication technologies especially the Internet, but religions still do influence globalization as well

— mid 15 century we see Gutenberg‘s printing press made the Bible available to a mass audience and the Internet was where proponents argue that it was a representation of a similar technological revolution—one that would attract new adherents to religious faiths 

Gathering together regularly in a holy place, such as a temple or a shrine is at the heart of most organized religions, and we see that traditionally people have come together to receive sacraments sing pray, and celebrate major life events in these houses of worship and today with the tens of thousands of religious websites in existence, it is no longer necessary to worship community and in person rather you can sit in front of a computer and read a holy book or submit online prayers and watch online broadcasts of services

Google searches depict an online geography that mirrors regional religious patterns on the ground. 

The Differing Experience of Time and space 

Geographers have observed that the speeding up of life and movement produces a uniquely modern experience of time and space.

Time space convergence: “The phenomenon whereby the introduction of new transportation technologies progressively reduce(s) the time it takes to travel between places” 

—ancient process, has accelerated greatly since the Industrial Revolution and is usually associated with modern times

— as airplanes carry people across the United States in few hours and text messages move from one smart phone to another almost instantly—the world is feeling increasingly smaller, and of course, improvements and transportation do not literally shrink the globe

— earth remains unchanged in terms of absolute distance or the precise measurement of physical space between two points on Earth surface 

—however, technological change, has reduced the time and cost of movement between places they used to feel much further apart

— one’s sense of time and space reflects one’s cultural, social, economic circumstances, for example— 500 years ago, unless you were an extraordinarily unusual person you rarely visited places more than 100 miles from your home even today. 

—Life moves much more slowly and the world seems unfathomably larger to a poor subsistence farmer and Nicaragua, then to a financial manager in Singapore.

The differing experience of time and space is a defining characteristic of local and popular cultures.

   Language and technology 

Ex of time-space convergence— predominance of English on the Internet, which is a contemporary information highway

— unclear what will happen when other languages begin to challenge the dominance of English on the Internet, which is bound to happen sooner or later, but from 2000 to 2017 the number of Chinese speakers on the Internet grows by 2263% and if/when this trend continues when the 47% of Chinese speakers who do not now use the Internet to log on, we can expect Chinese to surpass English as the most popular language on the Internet

Language Modification

English dominates the Internet, but much of what comes across our computer and cell phone screens isn’t readily recognizable form of English

— diffusion of spoken English to far-flung regions of the British empire show that the English language that spreads through electronic correspondence is significantly being modified

— text messaging Standard English on cell phones requires a lot of typing and text is notoriously deficient and conveying emotions when compared to the spoken word, and for those reasons, abbreviations and symbols are used to shorten the number of key strokes and to add emotional punctuation

English is an alphabetic writing system in which letters represent discrete sounds that must be strung together to form a word’s complete sound

A second major writing system is syllabic in which characters represent blocks of word sounds— languages that use this type of writing are prevalent throughout the Middle East and Southeast Asia and they include languages like Arabic and Hindi

The third form of writing is logographic—in which characters represent entire words in a good example of this is Chinese, which is the only major language in this category

English-speaking texters, quickly, learn to take shortcuts to avoid the lengthiness, inherent in alphabetic writing systems

Simplest and most commonly used shortcut involves using abbreviations instead of whole words to convey common phrases

Texter sometimes use logographic writing in the form of symbols, such as emojis and the meaning of the symbols is understood by speakers of many languages, but non-English languages also employ their own symbol combinations

Ex. Chinese uses the number “5” to pronounce in a way of resembling crying so “555” is the way that Chinese texters convey sadness

Texting shortcuts are making their way into spoken and written English, for instance LOL is now commonly used in speech…as speakers of non-English languages become more heavily involved in texting based activities, their spoken and written languages will also change.

Endangered languages 

What is an endangered language? 

Language is a/the primary way of expressing culture so therefore a language dies out there’s a good chance that the cultural will die out to

Like animals, species languages can be classified as endangered or extinct.

“A language that is not taught to children by their parents and is not used actively in everyday matters”

Lingua francas gain more speakers because of global business, online interactions, and official usage in social institutions than other languages. Endangered languages are losing viability at the exact same time precisely because they are not as connected with major businesses, cultural institutions and governments as the more dominant languages.

Some linguists believe the more than half of the worlds roughly 7000 languages are endangered and according to Ethnologue- which is an online language resource 377 languages have become extinct since 1950 and another 906 on the dying list

Languages that only have a few elderly speakers are still living or no speakers at all fall into the category of extinct languages: “A language that has only a few elderly speakers still living or no living speakers”

Language hotspots, which are places with the most unique misunderstood or endangered tongues are located around the globe

 the enduring voices project and National Geographic Society have teamed up to document and endangered languages and they are attempting to prevent language extinction 

1/4 of the world languages that are in trouble or dying, may be found in the Americas and they represent a wealth of Native American languages that are slowly becoming suffocated by English, Spanish and Portuguese

Maintaining an Endangered Language

Conquest can lead to the imposition of a new language and the abandonment or suppression of native tongues. 

These threatening languages can reappear, and they also thrive in new places as their speakers migrate for economic or cultural survival.

Ex. New York City is taught to be home to as many as a 800 languages making it the most linguistically dense place in the world, and there are more speakers of Vlashki in Queens that in the Croatian Mountain villages where the language originated and roughly the same number of Garifuna speakers in the Bronx and Brooklyn as in Honduras and Belize combined

New York City became home to such linguistic richness because originally these languages relocated there through the migration of their native speakers.

As populations in the language source region fall victim to ethnic conflict, disease, starvation, compulsory schooling, or assimilation into dominant language groups they are losing their ability to speak their native language meanwhile, migrant speakers from these places may have a better chance at keeping the tongue alive in their new homes.

Many of these relocated languages are finding themselves under new pressure from the dominant English language in the United States, and for this reason members of the nonprofit endangered language alliance, canvass city neighborhoods in search of immigrant speakers of vulnerable languages. 

— speakers are videotaped, and the alliance encourages the teaching and use of these languages

The reality is that many of these languages will vanish/potentially move from New York City’s linguistic landscape when the children of these immigrants cease to speak them regularly or when parents stop teaching these languages to their children.

Technology can help to preserve and revive endangered languages.

Ex. Native American groups are working with software developers to create language apps for the iPhone and iPad. They are also producing toys and video games that speak in native languages. Facebook texting video chat and YouTube also help to connect speakers and promote the use of native speech, especially among younger people around 90% of native American languages speakers are middle-aged and older so capturing the youth interest is vital important to survival of these languages, in addition, language, immersion schools have been established with mentor relationships, forming between elders and youth with the US government, providing federal funds to support these language, preservation efforts, and some tribes utilizing casino earnings for this purpose.

Regardless of the funding source, most Native American groups are engaged in language preservation and instruction.

Cultural Convergence

Directly and visibly, globalization influences popular culture.

Increased leisure time, greater affluence for many people, and our attachment to place are some of the many features of popular culture, which had the possibility to cause massive spatial restructuring.

It has long been assumed that the result of such globalizing forces and trends, especially mobility and electronic media, will be the loss of diverse cultures, according to many social scientists. Assumption called-convergence hypothesis: “the idea that cultures are converging or becoming more alike”

—The result will be placelessness in which local distinctiveness is raised and many places end up with similar cultural landscapes, however as we have seen placemaking efforts offset placelessness

Cultural Divergence

While globalization is an ongoing process or more accurately a set of processes it is incomplete and its outcome as far from predetermined.

— cultural differences are not simply obliterated under the wave of globalization because people from places with a proud history, might choose to fight the impacts of globalization

— cultural practices are rooted in place that shaped the effects of globalization through resistance, transformation, and adaptation in other words goes to show the globalization is not all-powerful force— communities respond in different ways rejecting outright some of what globalization brings while transforming and absorbing other aspects into local culture

To acknowledge local history and global forces simultaneously many businesses adopt glocalization policies.

Glocalization: “Adapting global practices to fit local cultural practices and preferences”

Ex. Global fast food chains often ultra menus to match local food taste or religious beliefs as we can see it in China where KFC offers local favorites like pumpkin porridge and Beijing chicken rolls and as we can see in Saudi Arabia where a McDonald’s restaurant closes five times a day for the Muslim call to prayer

— McDonald’s expansion into Saudi Arabia and KFC plunge into China represent globalization, but the presence of US based fast food restaurants will not erase long-standing traditions in these countries.

In fact, globalization can revitalize local differences if people decide that components of their culture are worth saving. The same forces that can lead to cultural convergence in some instances might also lead to cultural divergences in a different geographic context. For example, globalization might lead to an increase of secularization in some places, while it can lead to a rise in religious fundamentalism in others. Transportation and communication technologies have accelerated and reshaped many cultural patterns. While distance is much less of a barrier than in previous centuries, geographic concepts are still foundational to understanding the cultural context of places around the world. 

Module 24 -  Effects of Diffusion 

1. What are the effects of cultural diffusions on peoples and places? (describe)

Diverse Cultures

Occasionally, groups within a dominant culture become distinctive enough in norms, values, and material practices that we label them as a subculture.

Subculture—can be the result of resistance to dominant culture or the result of a separate religious, ethnic, or national group forming its own distinct community within a larger culture.>>may create distinct identities through the use and reinterpretation of mass-produced goods

Popular cultures diffusing more broadly today and now impacting previously unexpected places 

Ex. 21st-century American-style break dancing became popular in Cambodia

flow of cultural influence isn’t a one-way street (ex. K-pop in the United States as their market and cultural influence have expanded)

Culture is constantly changing, and the new forms that it can take are infinite.

Acculturation and Assimilation

Migration and cultural diffusion reconfigure cultural patterns all over the world. Ethnic minorities typically adapt, in some measure, to the predominant ethnic culture of their area.

Acculturation: “Occurs when an ethnic or immigrant group adopts enough of the ways of the host society to be able to function economically and socially”

If an immigrant family stays in its new home for a few generations, the grandchildren may lose the cultural distinctiveness of their grandparents>>possibly know a few words of their grandparents’ language or eat some food from the old country, but they are culturally more a product of their new country than the country of their ethnic origin

Assimilation process is stronger than simple acculturation 

Assimilation: “Occurs when an ethnic or immigrant group blends in with the host culture and loses many culturally distinctive traits”

Some groups that have remained distinct strongly encourage their children to marry within the group to preserve cultural distinction.

Because nearly all societies have some cultural diversity, multiculturalism is becoming a key goal in many places. Fostering multiculturalism often entails cultural initiatives that seek greater representation of underrepresented voices.

In recent years, strong proponents of multiculturalism have argued that assimilation culturally impoverishes a country, while others have argued that blending in with the host culture, even if it means losing distinctive ethnic traits, is critical in building a communal identity.

Although the push for cultural assimilation has declined in the last 75 years, the intermixing of culture continues to weaken the prevalence of some cultural traits.

Transculturation: “The notion that people adopt elements of other cultures as well as contribute elements of their own culture, thereby transforming both cultures” …is a better way to view the interaction among cultures

2. How is syncretism a result of cultural diffusion? (explain)

Cultural Syncretism

Can help explain the complex patterns that emerge as multiple cultures affect one another to create new traits and new cultural patterns

Syncretism: “The blending of beliefs, ideas, practices, and traits, especially in a religious context”

Syncretic and Orthodox Religions

Syncretic religion: “Religion that combines elements of two or more different belief systems”

Orthodox religion: “Religion that emphasizes purity of faith and is generally not open to blending with elements of other belief systems”

Intolerance of other religions, or of those fellow believers not seeming to follow the “proper” ways, is associated with fundamentalism rather than orthodoxy. Many who consider themselves orthodox are, in fact, quite tolerant of other beliefs, but they do not want their beliefs to be impacted by cultural diffusion or changing cultural norms.

Catholicism

Conquest of Americas by Iberians (people of modern-day Spain and Portugal) violent affair in which religious conversion of indigenous peoples to Christianity accompanied political takeover>>coercion was used and temples were destroyed>>at the same time, indigenous influences became a part of Christianity in the Americas as syncretic representations of indigenous Mexican beliefs blended with European Catholicism…yet recognizable to both cultural traditions

Today>>Virgin of Guadalupe = greatest symbol of Mexican Catholicism>> one of the most powerful healing figures in the Americas

Appeared some 1531 with indigenous Mexican convert Juan Diego>>10 years only after Cortes’s conquest of Mexico>>often portrayed with mixture of European and indigenous American symbols

Kind manner of speaking to Juan Diego in Nahnuatl and resemblance to Tonantzín … native Americans made sense of her

Spaniards = dark-skinned virgins long part of religious symbolism

—Acted as a bridge that allowed people from these two very different cultures to understand one another 

Sikhism

Best example of religious syncretism on grand scale

fifth largest religion with around 30 million adherents 

universalizing religion 

hearth: Punjabi region near modern-day border of India and Pakistan

began around 1500 when first Sikh Guru Nanak began teaching things that were distinct from the two dominant religions of the areas, Hinduism and Islam, but that also had strong connections to both of these religions 

break with Hindus caste system and like Muslims, avoid worshipping with statues and/or idols

believe in some Hindu concepts like reincarnation and such as karma

scriptures include original teachings and writings showing greater appreciation and references

has its own unique rituals, customs, and beliefs, that are more than just a blend of other religions >> difficult to imagine Sikhism developing in a different part of the world other than right on the border of Hinduism and Islam

Relocation diffusion today>>taken Sikhism beyond original South Asian Punjabi hearth to UK, Kuwait, Canada, U.S., Australia, and East African and Southeast Asian countries 

Religion in the Face of Globalization

Religion provides stable anchor is the belief = one that is welcome amidst flux and turmoil that characterize globalization and cultural diffusion

though religions may be seen as fixed, they are always adapting to the changing world

if not, risk losing believers 

Religious customs, meetings, and obligations form a strong basis of community

Typically, these communities are experienced locally; however, through long-distance pilgrimage, the faithful from across the globe may gather together in one place

today’s increased mobility and communication make possible religious communities at a truly global scale

the rise of the internet has reshaped how people worship and interact with others, allowing for online faith communities to arise

in some places, organized religion appears to be losing ground, while in others the numbers of the faithful are on the rise

all in all, religion is an enduring feature of human existence that will likely transcend the forces of globalization 

as human mobility and communication networks have gone global, so have cultural traits and patterns

languages, religions, ethnicities, subcultures, popular cultures, and local cultures are mixing, blending, and interacting today more than ever

more parts of the world have a greater degree of cultural diversity than ever before, while at the same time more migrants are acculturating and assimilating into their new homes

The acceptance and integration of new cultural traits can provide an exciting exploration of new cultures. 

Key Terms to Know: highlight these in your notes or define them in the space below

• Acculturation

• Assimilation 

• Centrifugal forces

• Centripetal forces

• Colonialism 

• Convergence hypothesis

• Cultural hearth

• Dialect

• Endangered language

• Ethnic religion

• Genocide

• Imperialism 

• Lingua franca

• Long-lot settlement

• Material culture

• Monotheistic 

• Physical landscape

• Pidgin

• Placelessness

• Polyglot

• Polytheistic religion 

• Race

• Religion

• Secular

• Syncretism

• Toponyms

• Universalizing religions

Practice Questions: Record your answers to the practice questions at the end of the unit below. 

**Check here ______ if you have completed the AP Classroom Progress Checks. Score? _______

Cultural Hearth of Five Major World Religions: Northern India & Southwest Asia

Middle East = Southwest Asia; Middle East is where Islam is more widespread rather than the sub-Saharan Africa in certain cases, and/or more anew

Use words like clustered rather than that there is an ethnic majority in this part of the state unless cases are necessary

Popular trends: The spread of social media via the Internet making it rapid to have great outreach 

Islam is a universalizing religion and used missionaries to relocate via trade routes in Middle East —but, in contrast, used conquest hierarchically to the west 

Tensions don't always mean conflict but can also mean differences 

English initially diffused via the process of relocation diffusion as the British settled and established a number of colonies 

Even if France is one of the French language’s cultural hearths, it has a more widespread access that colonies were a much more major reason as to why the language still exists in multiple areas today—by a large scale even after independence of these particular colonies