Culture Part 2 Flashcards
Neolocalism
The seeking out of the regional culture and reinvigoration of it in response to the uncertainty of the modern world.
Nonmaterial Culture
Anything on the landscape that comprises culture that cannot be physically touched.
Placelessness
The loss of uniqueness of a place in the cultural landscape so that one place looks like the rest.
Popular Culture
Culture that is not tied to a specific location but rather a general location based on widespread diffusion.
Postmodern Architecture
Decries the modern architectural emphasis on efficiency and industry; instead it tries to design buildings that are visually pleasing to human beings and provide modern humans with a link to their past.
Sacred Place
The place where religious figures and congregations meet to perform religious ceremonies.
Sequent Occupancy
The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape.
Sharia
An attempt to follow a literal interpretation of a religious faith.
Sociofacts
Ways people organize their society and relate to one another.
Taboos
A restriction on behavior imposed by social custom.
Theocracies
A state whose government is under the control of a ruler who is deemed to be divinely guided or under the control of a group of religious leaders.
Traditional Architecture
Traditional building styles of different cultures, religions, and places.
Traditional Culture
Contains aspects of the following: passing down long-held beliefs, values, and practices; resistant to rapid changes in their culture; exhibits horizontal diversity; has its own distinct customs and language that makes it distinct; people are homogenous and similar to one another.
Relocation Diffusion
Migration from the source area and carrying the innovation or idea to new areas.
Expansion Diffusion
An idea develops in a source area and remains strong there while spreading outward.
Contagious Diffusion
Culture trait spreads continuously outward from its hearth through contact among people, including word of mouth.
Hierarchical Diffusion
Ideas and artifacts spread first between larger places/people and only later to smaller places/less prominent people.
Reverse Hierarchical Diffusion
Diffusion up a hierarchy, such as from a little city to a big one.
Stimulus Diffusion
Occurs when a culture changes as it spreads from its original point. It may or may not stay the same in the original location, but the further it spreads, the more it changes.
Acculturation
Group moving to a new area adopts the values of the larger group that has received them while maintaining elements of their own culture.
Adages
A traditional saying expressing a common experience or observation.
Adherents
A person who supports a certain religion.
Animism
Belief that objects, such as plants, stones, or natural events (thunderstorms and earthquakes), have a discrete spirit and conscious life.
Assimilation
When an ethnic group can no longer be distinguished from the receiving group; usually not absolute.
Buddhism
The teaching of Buddha that life is permeated with suffering caused by desire, that suffering ceases when desire ceases, and that enlightenment obtained through right conduct and wisdom and meditation releases one from desire and suffering and rebirth.
Caste System
A system of classes or distinct hereditary orders into which a Hindu is assigned according to religious law.
Christianity
A universalizing and monotheistic religion based on the teachings and life of Jesus Christ, Christianity was founded by Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish carpenter, at Palestine around c. 33 AD.
Colonialism
Refers to the process by which one nation exercises near complete control over another country which they have settled and taken over. Often, the governing country uses the colony for its resources, taking what is useful without regard to the original inhabitants.
Creole Language
Formed by the combination of two or more languages. When this newly combined language becomes the primary language of the people in a region it is called a “creole” language.
Cultural Convergence
The tendency for cultures to become more alike as they increasingly share technology and organizational structures in a modern world united by improved transportation and communication.
Cultural Divergence
When a culture separates or goes in a different direction.
