3.1 Intro to Culture

What is Culture?

  • Culture is the shared beliefs, values, practices, behaviors, and technologies of a society.

  • Cultural traits are visible and invisible attributes that combine to make up a group's culture.

    • Artifacts: Visible, physical objects created by a culture.

      • Examples: House, clothing, architecture, toys, tools, furniture.

    • Sociofacts: The ways in which a society behaves and organizes institutions.

      • Examples: Family, School, Education, Government, Religion, Land use, Gender Roles.

    • Mentifacts: The ideas, beliefs, values, and knowledge of a culture.

      • Examples: Religious beliefs, Language, food preferences, and taboos.

Schools of Thought in Cultural Geography

Environmental Determinism:

  • The belief that the physical environment, especially the climate and terrain, actively shapes cultures (human responses are molded almost entirely by the environment).

  • Similar environments produce similar cultures.

  • Example: People who live near coasts focus on fishing and navigating waterways.

Possiblism:

  • The belief that cultural heritage is as important as the environment in shaping human behavior.

  • Environment plays a role, but people are the primary architects of culture.

  • People make choices based on their environment, but they are also guided by their cultural heritage.

  • Believe that technology increases the number of options people have… so technologically advanced cultures have more control over their physical surroundings.

Environmental Perception:

  • Emphasizes the importance of human perception of the environment rather than the actual character of the land.

  • If people believe that a flood was caused by the gods, they are likely to try to please their gods.

  • If people believe that the flood was a natural disaster, then they may work to prevent future damage.

Cultural Determinism:

  • Emphasizes human culture as ultimately more important than the physical environment in shaping/molding human actions.

  • Modern movements encourage action to reverse global warming, air and water pollution, or the destruction of rainforests.

Types of Culture

Folk Culture

Small, homogenous (similar) groups of people, often living in rural areas that are isolated and unlikely to change.

  • Architecture

    • Materials from the local physical environment.

    • Snow, mud, stone, bricks, wood, pelts, grass.

  • Land Use

    • Agricultural

    • Sense of Place: Unique attributes of a specific location - cultural influences and feelings evoked by people in a place.

Global/Popular Culture

Large, heterogeneous groups of people, often living in urban areas that are interconnected through globalization and the internet/social media. Quick to change—time-space compression.

  • Architecture

    • Materials from factories and manufacturing.

    • Glass, steel, drywall, cement.

  • Land Use

    • Urban and suburban

    • Placelessness: loss of uniqueness of place in the cultural landscape so that one place looks like the next or does not inspire any strong emotional or cultural ties.

Attitudes Toward Culture:

Ethnocentrism

Cultural Relativism

Judging other cultures in terms of one’s own standards, which often includes the belief that one’s own culture/ethnic group is better than others.

An unbiased way of viewing another culture, the goal of this is to promote understanding of cultural practices that are not typical of one’s own culture.

  • Cultural Norms: Agreed-upon cultural practices or standards that guide the behavior of a culture.

  • Cultural Taboos: Behaviors heavily discouraged by a culture.

Character of Place: the physical and human geographic characteristics that distinguish a particular place.

Economic

Agriculture (subsistence & commercial), Trade, and Manufacturing.

Social/Demographic

How people live, Social Groups, Families, Education, and Gender Roles.

Political

Government, Politics, Election, Rights, Role of citizens, War.

ENvironmental

Physical World: Climate, Biomes, landforms, Resources, HEI (Human-Environmental Interaction).

Culture is an invisible force guiding people.

  • Visible + Invisible = Cultural Traits, which make up a Culture Complex.

  • A culture trait is a single attribute of a culture and could come from:

    • Language

    • Religion

    • Traditions and Customs:

      • Customs are a widely accepted way of behaving or doing something that is specific to society.

      • Traditions are the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation.

    • Institutions

    • Technology