Ch 3: Cultural Patterns and Processes Vocab Flashcards
Acculturation
The adoption of cultural traits, such as language, by one group under the influence of another.
Animism
Most prevalent in Africa and the Americas, doctrine in which the world is seen as being infused with spiritual and even supernatural powers.
Artifact
Any item that represents a material aspect of culture.
Buddhism
System of belief that seeks to explain ultimate realities for all people—such as the nature of suffering and the path toward self-realization.
Caste System
System in India that gives every Indian a particular place in the social hierarchy from birth. Individuals may improve the position they inherit in the caste system in their next life through their actions, or karma. After many lives of good karma, they may be relieved from the cycle of life and win their place in heaven.
Christianity
The world’s most widespread religion. Christianity is a monotheistic, universal religion that uses missionaries to expand its members worldwide. The three major categories of Christianity are Roman Catholic, Protestant, and eastern Orthodox.
Creole
A pidgin language that evolves to the point at which it becomes the primary language of the people who speak it.
Cultural Complex
The group of traits that define a particular culture.
Cultural Extinction
Obliteration of an entire culture by war, disease, acculturation, or a combination of the three.
Cultural Geography
The subfield of human geography that looks at how cultures vary over space.
Cultural Hearths
Locations on the Earth’s surface where specific cultures first arose.
Cultural Imperialism
The dominance of one culture over another.
Cultural Relativism
Understanding a culture on its own terms rather than judging it by the standards or customs of one’s own culture.
Cultural Traits
The specific customs that are part of the everyday life of a particular culture, such as language, ideology, behavior, technology, and government.
Culture
A total way of life held in common by a group of people, including learned features such as language, ideology, behavior, technology, and government.
Customs
Practices followed by the people of a particular cultural group.
Denomination
A particular religious group, usually associated with differing Protestant belief systems.
Dialects
Geographically distinct versions of a single language that vary somewhat from the parent form.
Diaspora
People who come from a common ethnic background but who live in different regions outside of the home of their ethnicity.
Ecumene
The proportion of the Earth inhabited by humans.
Environmental Determinism
A doctrine that claims that cultural traits are formed and controlled by environmental conditions.
Esperanto
A constructed international auxiliary language incorporating aspects of numerous linguistic traditions to create a universal means of communication.
Ethnic Cleansing
The systematic attempt to remove all people of a particular ethnicity from a country or region either by forced migration or genocide.
Ethnic Neighborhood
An area within a city containing members of the same ethnic background.
Ethnic Religion
Religion that is identified with a particular ethnic or tribal group and that does not seek new converts.