Introduction to Culture

Sustainability issues

• Waste products (environmental capacity), uniform landscapes, animal endangerment (overuse of animal products), need for recycling, etc

Ethnocentrism: biased perspective of one's ethnic group as being superior

• Being racist or sexist

Cultural relativism: objective (unbiased) view of understanding others cultural beliefs & customs

• Having your own beliefs different from how you were raised or taught

Cultural Patterns

Centripetal forces unify a state and provide stability

• Means “directed towards the center”

“NATIONALISM” loyalty & devotion to a nationality

Nations & states foster it:

• Promoting symbols of the nation state

• Flags & songs

Centrifugal forces divide a state leading to balkanization, weakening, etc.

Means “to spread from the center”

• Leading too:

  • Cultural shatter-belt is where a state breaks down through Ethnic Conflict (balkanization)

  • Ethnic cleansing is where the more powerful ethnic group forcibly removes the less powerful ethnic group to make a homogenous nation state

    • WWII: millions of Jews, Romas & other ethnicities were forcibly moved to concentration camps & later exterminated

  • Balkanization is the process by which a state breaks down due to conflicts among its ethnicities

    • Yugoslavia was once multicultural with multiple ethnicities broke up into 6 republics

Types of Diffusion

Diffusion feature spreads across space from one place to another over time

• Originates at a Hearth or place from which an innovation begins (Point of origin)

Relocation diffusion spread of an idea through the physical movement of people from one place

• People carry their culture (language, religion & ethnicity)

  • Spread of Christianity to Africa followed by Expansion diffusion

Expansion Diffusion spread of a feature from one place to another in an additive process

Refers to:

• Hierarchical diffusion: spread of an idea from one node of power & authority to another

• Contagious diffusion: rapid & widespread diffusion of something throughout a population because of proximity

  • Contagious disease like influenza or HIV/AIDS

• : spread of a principle rather than a specific characteristic

  • Feature of an iPad that are now common on competitor’s products

Diffusing of Language

Organization of Language:

• Language family: collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed long before recorded history (pre-historic)

• Language branch: exists within a family, comprising a collection of languages that are related through a common ancestral language that existed several thousand years ago

  • Connections between languages in a branch can be seen in archaeological evidence

• Language group: collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past

  • Exhibit many similarities in grammar & vocabulary

One theory that all languages originate in Africa

• Attributing to the complexity & diversity of languages present in Africa today

• 142 language families

Indo-European: largest language family (2.8 Billion speakers) between 400 – 500 languages

• Evidenced by its predominant usage in Europe, S. Asia, North & Latin America.

  • Four branches widely used: Indo-Iranian, Germanic, Romance & Balto-Slavic

  • Four branches spoken by relatively fewer people: Albanian, Armenian, Celtic & Greek

Sino-Tibetan: 2nd largest language family in the world as it includes Mandarin (world’s single most-spoken language)

• Spoken in People’s Republic of China, world’s most populated of state with 1.3 billion

African Language Families

• Arabic is the primary Afro-Asiatic family language

  • 206 million people speak, official language across 2 dozen countries in SW Asia & N. Africa

• 1 billion Muslims in the world speak some Arabic

  • Due to Islam’s holiest book, Quran (Koran) written in Arabic

  • Hebrew is a member of the Afro-Asiatic language family

    • Original language of Judaism’s Bible & Christianity’s Old Testament

• More than 95% of sub-Saharan Africans use a language from the Niger-Congo family

  • Swahili developed through interactions between African groups & Arab traders (Lingua Franca of Africa)

    • Its vocabulary has a pronounced Arabic influence

    • One of the few African languages with a thorough literary tradition

Distribution of Indo-European Branches

• 8 branches make up the language family

  • 4 being extensively spoken & 4 others comprising fewer speakers

Germanic Branch

• English is part of the West Germanic group of the Germanic branch

  • Other W. Germanic group include Dutch, Flemish, Frisian, Afrikaans & German.

  • Another important Germanic group is N. Germanic

    • Includes 4 languages spoken in Scandinavia (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian & Icelandic)

Romance Branch is composed of descendants of Latin

• Stretches from Portugal along the Mediterranean to Slovenia, pocket in Romania & Moldova

• 4 most widely used Romance languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French & Italian

  • Romanian is separated from other Romance languages by Slavic-speaking countries

Mixed Languages

Lingua Francas are adopted common languages due to trade & business

• English, Spanish & Mandarin Chinese

Creole languages (a mixture of two languages that is a native language of a group of people)

• Used to describe languages in the Caribbean when slavery & colonization merged cultures

  • Ex: Haitian Creole

Pidgin language is a language that develops when two or more different languages meet in one geographic region

• Result of trading among people who speak different languages

  • Ex: Swahili which combines some Bantu dialects with Arabic

Evolving to a primary language of a region, it becomes a creole language

Dialects regional variation of a language

• Different regions throughout the U.S. have dialects of the English language

• Someone in the southern regions may pronounce English words differently compared to someone in the northern regions of the US

  • Variations in vocabulary & accent

Due to its widespread diffusion around the world, English has an especially large number of dialects & subdialects

Isogloss is a geographic “barrier” that exists between the use of one word over another

• Soda vs Pop

Diffusing of Religion

Two classifications of religion:

• Monotheistic: believing in one supreme being or god.

• Polytheistic: believing in more than one supreme or deity.

  • Include Hinduism & Shintoism

  • Pagan is a polytheistic religion in ancient times.

Fundamentalism is the literal/strict interpretation of the fundamental(basic) principles of a religion.

Theocracies are gov’ts ruled by religious laws

• During the Enlightenment era, vast majority of theocracies ended in the western hemisphere

  • Today, still practiced in Iran & Saudi Arabia

Religions

• Universalizing Religion - anyone can be a member of it

  • Beliefs attract the universal population

  • Seek converts throughout the world through Missionaries

    • Make it easier to spread

    • Diversity in its worshipers from various ethnic backgrounds

      • Christianity (Worlds Largest Religion), Buddhism & Islam

• Ethnic Religion - part of a particular ethnic or political group

  • Must be born into it &/or through marriage

    • Hinduism (World Largest Ethnic Religion) & Judaism

  • Folk religions being classified as ethnic

World’s largest religions:

1. Christianity (2.2 billion people)

2. Islam (1.6 billion people),

3. Hinduism (1 billion people)

4. Buddhism (500 million people)

Effects of Diffusion

Cultural diffusion causes the altering of the cultural landscape, practices, innovations, ideas

Acculturation: people change some of their cultural habits when they arrive in their new country but maintain other traditions.

• Spanish speakers that immigrated to the U.S. & learned English to speak it when in public but speak Spanish around friends & family

• Mongols conquered China & largely adopted Chinese culture

Transculturation: differs in that it is an equal exchange or flow of traits between two cultural groups

• Strong influence of both Buddhism & Confucianism in East Asia

  • One did not dominate the other but rather Buddhism diffused & interacted with Confucianism.

Syncretism: blending of beliefs and practices between different cultures to create something new.

• Sikhism which combines elements of Islam & Hinduism

  • Baha’i which accepts other religious founders, Shin-Buddhist which blends Buddhists & Shinto practices in Japan.

Assimilation: When people completely abandon their old culture & adopt the culture of their new country.

• Teenager gives up the folk music of his/her homeland & submerges into American pop music

• Immigrating to a new country & no longer speak native language or carrying on traditional customs.

• Latin language & culture is an early example adopted & basis of most modern-day languages

  • Language became dominant due to the power of the Roman people

Cultural appropriation describes a situation where a dominant cultural group takes a product or idea from an oppressed/minority cultural group and uses it for its own benefit

• Using a Native-American tribal name as an American sports team name (Redskins, Blackhawks, etc.)

Cultural imperialism is the invasion of a culture into another by dominating