AP HUG UNIT 3

Culture: Practices, attitudes, and behaviors shared by a group of people, forming their collective identity and influencing customs, language, and beliefs.

Cultural Region: Geographic area where people share similar cultural traits, like language and religion.

Artifacts: Material objects associated with a culture, such as clothing, tools, and artwork.

Customs: Practices followed by people of a particular culture.

Tradition: A cohesive collection of customs that are passed down through generations.

Syncretic: A blend of cultural traits from different sources, often creating a new tradition or practice.

Culture Hearth: The origin point of unique cultural traits; for example, Classical Greece as the hearth of democracy.

Diffusion: The spread of cultural traits from one place to another through various methods.

Relocation Diffusion: When people migrate and carry their culture with them to a new place.

Expansion Diffusion: Culture spreads outward without the movement of people, including contagious, hierarchical, and stimulus diffusion.

Contagious Diffusion: Rapid spread of a cultural trait through direct contact, such as the popularity of music.

Hierarchical Diffusion: Spread of culture from influential figures or urban centers to less prominent places.

Reverse Hierarchical Diffusion: Spread of cultural traits from lower social groups to higher ones.

Stimulus Diffusion: The adoption of an idea in a modified form.

Cultural Landscape: Visible features of an area shaped by human activity, including architecture, land use, and toponyms.

Space-Time Compression: The process by which advances in communication and transportation reduce the time it takes for culture to spread.

Popular Culture: Culture that arises in urban areas, spreads quickly through media, and often promotes uniformity.

Folk Culture: Practices of small, homogeneous groups that are rural and slow to change.

Indigenous Culture: Culture connected to ancestral lands and traditions, preserving long-held practices and beliefs.

Artifacts, Mentifacts, and Sociofacts: Categories of cultural attributes, with artifacts being tangible, mentifacts including beliefs and values, and sociofacts reflecting social structures.

Acculturation: Process where immigrants adopt some aspects of the dominant culture while retaining elements of their original culture.

Assimilation: When an ethnic group becomes indistinguishable from the dominant culture.

Multiculturalism: Coexistence of diverse cultures, which can lead to both cultural enrichment and conflict.

Centripetal Forces: Factors that unify people within a culture, such as shared religion or language.

Centrifugal Forces: Factors that divide a culture, potentially causing conflict, like religious or ethnic diversity.

Sequent Occupancy: Process by which successive cultures leave their imprint on a place, creating a layered cultural landscape.

Globalization: Increased interconnection and cultural mixing worldwide, often leading to cultural homogenization.

Time-Space Convergence: The idea that improved technology and transportation make distances seem shorter and increase cultural interaction.

Cultural Convergence: The blending or merging of cultures through interactions, leading to shared practices or traits.

Cultural Divergence: The restriction of a culture from outside influences, often to preserve traditional practices.

Taboo: A behavior or practice discouraged or forbidden in certain cultures.

Ethnic Enclave: An area where a particular ethnic group clusters, often to preserve cultural identity.

Cultural Homogenization: Process where diverse cultures become more similar due to influences like globalization.

Cultural Complex: A group of interrelated cultural traits, such as the various ways people greet each other.

Language Family: A group of related languages descended from a common ancestor.

Universalizing Religion: Religion that seeks to appeal to all people and often spreads through missionary work, such as Christianity and Islam.

Ethnic Religion: Religion closely associated with a specific cultural group and not actively seeking converts, like Judaism or Hinduism.