Unit 3: Cultural Patterns & Processes Flashcards
Culture
a group’s learned behaviors, actions, beliefs, and objects.
Visible Culture
seen in groups’ actions, possessions, and influence on the landscape.
Invisible Culture
guiding people through shared belief systems, customs, and traditions.
Cultural Traits
types of visible/invisible elements i.e. language, religion, ethnicity, social institutions.
Cultural Complex
a set of interconnected cultural traits i.e. the process of greeting someone in a different culture.
Taboos
behaviours heavily discouraged by cultures.
Traditional Culture
used to encompass traditional, folk, and indigenous cultures; all three share the function of passing down long-held beliefs, values, and practices.
Folk Culture
beliefs and practices of small, homogenous groups of people (often living in rural areas that are isolated and slow to change). They demonstrate how humans adapt to their physical environment.
Indigenous Culture
when members live in their ancestral lands and possess unique cultural traits (i.e. exclusive language); many have been displaced from their original lands.
Globalization
refers to the increased integration of the world economy since the 1970’s, and has had profound impacts on culture.
Popular Culture
when cultural traits (i.e. clothes, music) spread over a large area very quickly; usually are short-living and also begins in an urban area and diffuses from there.
Horizontal Diversity
own, distinct languages and customs yet people in the group are homogenous i.e. traditional cultures.
Vertical Diversity
multiethnic neighborhoods exist and people in the area are heterogenous; usually in urban areas i.e. popular cultures.
Artifacts/Material Culture
tangible things that can be perceived by the senses i.e. food, sports.
Mentifact/Nonmaterial Culture
intangible concepts such as beliefs and values.
Sociofacts
the ways people organize societies and their relation; embodied through family, govt., etc.
Placelessness
phenomenon when modern cultural landscapes exhibit homogeneity i.e. similarity between Chicago and LA.
Cultural Landscape
the visible reflection of culture i.e. China’s houses are different than Germany’s.
Traditional Architecture
style that reflects a local culture’s history, beliefs, values, and community adaptations to the environment i.e. Spanish adobe houses.
Contemporary Architecture
style that uses multiple advancements to curve, rotate, and stretch the limits of size/height of buildings.
Ethnicity
membership within a group of people who have common experiences and share similar characteristics such as ancestry, language, or history.
Ethnic Enclaves
clusters of people of the same ethnicity in an urban area.
Gendered Spaces
areas in which particular genders of people, and particular types of gender expression, are considered welcome or appropriate, and other types are unwelcome or inappropriate i.e. women’s restrooms.
Cultural Regions
regions that are usually determined based on characteristics such as religion, language, and ethnicity.
Sacred Places
specific places/natural locations that have religious significance i.e. Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
Christian Landscape
churches (cross, original architecture: Mediterranean dome shapes or steep-pitched roofs), bury the dead underground.
Hindu Landscape
temples (complex sculptures of deities/characters, located near rivers as they are considered holy), cremation (burning of the dead).
Buddhist Landscape
meditation/harmonizing with nature (represented in stupas), pagodas (used as temples), usually cremate.
Jewish Landscape
synagogues/temples, which vary in size based on how many Jews are in the area, bury the dead.
Diaspora
scattering of a group of people because of persecution or oppression.
Islamic Landscape
mosque (dome architecture with complex Islamic writing), burial of the dead.
Shinto Landscape
cultural hearth lies in Japan and emphasizes relation between one and nature, torii (gateway from outside world to sacred space).
Charter Group
first group to establish cultural/religious customs in a space i.e. Native Americans in North America.
Ethnic Islands (Rural)
ethnic concentrations in rural areas, maintain strong sense of cohesion.
Ethnic Islands (Urban)
occupied by migrants who settle in a charter group’s former space.
Sequence Occupancy
ethnic groups moving in and out of neighborhoods which creates new cultural imprints on the landscape.
Neolocalism
process of re-embracing the uniqueness of a place i.e. neighborhood hosts festival to celebrate food, history, etc.
Cultural Patterns
consist of related sets of cultural traits and complexes that create similar behaviors across space.
Culture Hearth
where a religion/ethnicity starts.
Regional Religious Patterns in the U.S.
Congregationalists are still strong New England; Baptists/Methodists are most common in the Southeast; Lutherans live mostly in the Midwest; Mormons live in Utah; Roman Catholics are common in the Northeast/Southwest; Jews, Muslims, & Hindus live in urban areas.
Nationality
based on people’s connection with a country.
Centripetal Forces
forces that unify a group of people or a region i.e. common heritage, common language, etc.