Chapter 4 - Divided World: Culture, Place, Politics Flashcards
While culture gives some people a sense of belonging, it has also created visible ________ between people around the world
divisions
Our greatest human achievement, culture, has both created ________ and sparked _______ between peoples
“barriers” “conflict”
Culture is deep rooted and very difficult to change, since we would have to _______ the way we think about certain things and experiences
The only way to change culture is to ______________
re-engineer
“create a new set of overarching values”
Culture shock, where is it felt?
Can be felt by people entering new countries, new schools, and new places
Can even be felt by people seeing how others live across the province (rural vs. urban Alberta)
Define culture
Way of life of a society’s members, including belief systems, norms, and material practices; forms of social practices that differentiate one group from another
Define culture as a practice
Ways of communicating, expressing, making meaning
Ways of representing the world to ourselves
Describe the idea behind culture “as a thing” and how cultural food is an example
In India they just eat food, but when it is imported to Canada it is considered “Indian Food,” and the same goes for Chinese food
Define culture as superorganic
Superorganic means culture is viewed as an entity above man, not reducible to the actions of individuals, mysteriously responding to laws of its own
Describe how Language distribution works around the world
Languages are NOT spread randomly across the world
Far more language varieties are found in the tropical regions of the world than in the temperate zones
T/F: Language is the principal means by which a culture continues its existence; the death of a language typically means the death of a culture
True
why are languages declining around the world (2 reasons)
Globalization encourages language consolidation
Langauges with fewer speakers are associated with less economic opportunity (and aren’t passed on)
Why has English become so widespread?
Migration, economic advantage, and prestige
what is the significance of language loss
language loss evokes the same feeling of death;
language loss feels like losing another lens of the world because many words are untranslatable into common languages
Language families
a group of similar languages derived from a common but distant ancestor
what contributes to linguistic diversity (3 main factors)
environmental: climate affects common words
spatial heterogeneity: higher topographic complexity is often correlated with greater diversity
socio-cultural variables: as groups in society become larger, they break off and form new ones
what are the 2 most common language families
Indo-European (English, Spanish) and
Sino-Tibetan (Chinese, Japanese)
what propelled Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan languages to the forefront
Indo-European language grew from colonial expansion
Sino-Tibetan language grew from numerical population expansion within China
Language & Place: how does place influence language specifically using Indigenous languages
Indigenous communities have different terms for places than the English language has, which reflects the physical environment they occupied
There are more words for snow in Inuit language than there are words for desert and sea
place names can be related to the culture of that. place (Wayne Gretzky Drive)
Spatial distribution of languages: are there more languages in temperate or tropical areas? and why
temperate areas have less languages than tropical areas because:
the ability for agriculture to expand through temperate climates, which led to forming large societies that replaced smaller ones
tropical regions are fraught with dense rivers and mountainous ranges that create physical barriers between people, causing separation and language division
Most spoken native and non-native languages
native: Mandarin, Spanish, English
non: English, Mandarin, Spanish
Nationalism
the expression of belonging to a nation, and the belief that the nation has the right to determine its own affairs; the nation and state are congruent
Lingua Franca
an existing language that two different language groups use to communicate
Pidgins
language that combines vocab from more than one language and is common in areas for trading/commerce, though the vocab is usually limited
What do place names tell us about the land?
provides insight into the original settlers on that land, such as the French names in Quebec and Louisiana, or the Spanish named places in Southwest US and California
define religion
A social system of beliefs and values through which people make sense of the universe and their place within it
ethnic religion
a religion, usually of narrow geographic scope that is tied to a particular ethnic tribal group and does not actively seek converts
universal religion
a religion of broad geographic scope that expands and diffuses through the active conversion of new members
Caste System
A hierarchical social rank, based solely on birth, to which an individual belongs for life and that limits interaction with members of other castes; an element of Hindu society
Formal Cultural Regions
these are areas that are homogeneous in culture and share many similar cultural characteristics
How are culture and place closely related
many religions originate from beliefs about nature and how humans relate to it, thus many religions choose to display their religion through landscape:
making sacred spaces aligned with their beliefs
A _______ sense of place is a key part of what defines culture (in place)
shared
How does cancel cutlure relate to place and culture
Controversies reflect how locations take on meaning and value through people’s subjective experiences with them
People develop strong emotional reactions to certain places, which geographers refer to as a sense of place
What was Yi-Fu Tuan’s perspective on sense of Place
According to Yi-Fu Tuan, the sense of place has spirit and personality
Spirit: spirits are believed to dwell there, they are sacred
Personality: some locations are unique and acquire signatures over time
Public Symbols
Public symbols cater to the eye and command attention and awe (Statue of Liberty, CN Tower)
They have spirit, but over time can lose their status
sacred space
a location of particular significance to an individual or group of people, usually for religious reasons
Vernacular Regions and Culture
region doesn’t have to be formally defined, as long as region is perceived to exist by the people living there or elsewhere
Consider your home, the attachment you have to your home is shared with your family
(Cascadia)
Cultural Adaptation
changes people make to technology, organisation, or ideology that take place in response to problems (whether physical or human problems)
These adaptations include changes in attitude and behaviour; an example is the recent attitudinal change towards using land more sustainably, and the behavioural change is actually adopting practices to conserve land
Core (hearth), domain and sphere model for culture
culture is strongest at the core (hearth), the domain is the area where the culture dominates, and the sphere is the peripheral area surrounding it.
As one gets further and further away from the hearth, the cultural identity diminishes
First Effective settlement
the concept describing the likely importance of the initial occupancy of an area in determining later landscapes
Control of Place
the requirement of a sufficient population needed to claim an area as their homeland
Gemeinschaft
form of human association based on loyalty, informality and personal contact; characteristic of traditional rural village communities
Gesellschaft
form of human association based on rationality, formality, depersonalization, and anonymity; characteristic of people in urban communities
Hierarchical and Neighborhood Cultural Diffusion
Hier: where culture spreads to select groups first
Neig: where culture spreads in a wave like manner
