Culture

Values, Community, Knowledge & Stories, Language

The culture wheel consists of food, drinks, traditions, rituals, the arts, tools, objects, techniques, and skills.

Culture is shared practices, technologies, attitudes, and behaviors transmitted by a society.
Cultural traits include food preferences, architecture, and land use.
Cultural relativism and ethnocentrism are different attitudes toward cultural difference.

Culture encompasses shared beliefs, values, practices, behaviors, and technologies of a society.
It is central to a society and the identity of its people.
Cultural traits consist of visible and invisible attributes that make up a group's culture.
- Artifacts (Material culture)
- Sociofacts (Non-Material)
- Mentifacts (Non-Material)

Material Culture: Artifacts are visible objects, material items, and technology created by a culture.
Non-Material Culture: Sociofacts are the ways in which a society behaves and organizes institutions (families, governments, education systems, gender roles, religious groups).
Mentifacts are the shared ideas, values, and beliefs of a culture (religion, language, viewpoints, ideas about right/wrong behavior).

Can be regionally distinctive, using local resources (Environmental Determinism).
- Example: Adobe style in the Southwest uses local clay resources.
Streets, homes, materials used, and architectural style are all culturally influenced.
Can be based on the main religion in an area.
- Example: Buddhist temples in Singapore.

Land use can reflect cultural values.
Land use patterns are based on climate, soil, terrain, access to water, and cultural values.
Agricultural land use reflects cultural values.
- Example: French Long-lot: a linear settlement pattern with each farmstead at one end of a long, narrow rectangular lot, providing access to a linear resource (river or major road).
- Value: Equity
- Seen in old French colonies like Louisiana and Quebec.
Urban land use reflects cultural values.
- Example: Noise barrier along a highway in Japan, blocks traffic noise from residential areas.
Sustainability land use reflecting cultural values.
- Example: Sweden preserves more urban green spaces.

Historically shaped by locally available food (based on climate) and cultural taboos (prohibiting some foods).
Foods have distinct preparations and labels.
- Example: Halal (lawful food in Islam) and Kosher (animal humanely killed to eat for Jews).
Foods contain local ingredients in the region.
- Example: Rice in Asian dishes, seafood in Japanese cuisine.
Globalization has popularized ingredients/dishes from all over the world.
- Examples: Sushi, Pho, Tacos, Korean BBQ.
Changes in food customs reflect cultural shifts.
Immigration, intermarriage, and technological advancements have modified traditional foods (globalization; time-space compression).
- Example: Singapore's Nonya cuisine (syncretism) due to intermarriage between Malaysian and Chinese traders.
- Example: Chinese food has had a major impact on cuisine in many other Asian countries due to close proximity.

Technology provides possibilities and constraints on a society.
Before the Industrial Revolution, goods were more regionally distinctive.
Technology plays a big role in culture.
Distributes pop. culture and creates it.
- Example: Memes spread worldwide (stimulus diffusion).
New machinery reshapes traditional foods.
- Example: Corn tortillerias disappearing; modern technology carrying on old traditions through mass production and globalization.
  Stimulus diffusion examples:
- Japanese Hot Dog Taco
- Flour tortillas in Texas.
Some cultures reject modern culture.
- Example: Amish in Pennsylvania prioritize tradition and are anti-technology; not exposed to new terms via social media.

Local/Folk cultures: rural, ethnically homogeneous cultures deeply connected to the local land, slow to change; opposite of popular culture. Beliefs/traditions are passed down from generation to generation.
- Tied to the land.
- Shows how people adapt to the physical landscape.
- Examples: Small tribes in the Amazon, Amish.
- Cause: Relocation diffusion
Indigenous cultures: local cultures that are no longer the dominant ethnic group in their homeland due to migration, colonization, or political marginalization; a subset of local cultures.
- Reside in ancestral lands.
- Have unique, exclusive traits.
- Not dominant in their homeland anymore.
- Examples: Native Americans in the US, Brazilian Yanamamo tribe, Inuits in Canada
- Indigenous Peoples: distinct social/cultural groups that share ancestral ties to the land & natural resources where they live

Popular culture: heterogeneous culture more influenced by key urban areas & quick to adopt new tech.; opposite of local culture.
- Diffuses hierarchically THEN contagiously.
- Quick to adopt new ideas based on technology.
- Younger generations drive change, more open to it.
- Older generations are sometimes resistant to pop culture.
- Example: Adopting new terms (slang).
- Not exclusive to one place.
- More urban and ethnically diverse.
- Examples: Soccer during the 1900s, spread of memes via social media apps, social media, TV shows.
Global culture includes elements adopted worldwide, creating uniformity (similarity).
Time-space compression accelerates cultural change due to social media (Internet) & adv. transportation systems
Globalization involves interaction amongst people, governments, and companies across the world (e.g., spread English language, movies, events, music).

Society: Traditional culture is rural and isolated with a homogeneous population, while popular culture is urban and connected with a diverse population.
Social Structure: Traditional culture involves indigenous or ethnic local languages and horizontal diversity, while popular culture involves a global language (e.g., English, Arabic), and vertical diversity.
Emphasis: Traditional culture emphasizes community and conformity, while popular culture emphasizes individualism.
Families: Traditional culture families live close together with well-defined gender roles, while popular culture families are dispersed with weakly defined gender roles.
Diffusion: Traditional is slow and limited with oral traditions, while popular is rapid and extensive through social media and mass media.
Buildings/Housing: Traditional culture uses locally produced materials (stone, grass) built by the community with similar styles, while popular culture uses materials produced in distant factories (steel, glass) built by businesses with a variety of styles.
Food: Traditional architecture uses locally produced foods with limited choices prepared by the family, while popular culture often imports a wide range of choices purchased in restaurants.
Spatial Focus: Traditional has local and regional focus, while popular has national and global focus.

An Indigenous/native culture has a distinct landscape because of deep-rooted ties to the local land.
Cultural traits of Local/Folk culture:
- Architecture:
- Materials from the local environment: snow, mud, stone, bricks, wood, pelts, grass, whale bones.
- Land-Use:
- Agricultural-tied to land.
- Sense of place: Unique attributes of a specific location - cultural influences and feelings evoked by people in a place; distinctiveness.
- Social structure/values:
- Emphasis on community preparing food.

Architecture:
- Materials from factories & manufactured; glass, steel, drywall, cement.
- Post-modern arch. in skyscrapers around the globe.
Land-Use: