Unit 3 Vocab - Culture Patterns & Processes Flashcards
Acculturation
A process where the less dominant culture adopts some of the traits of a more influential culture.
Animism
The belief that inanimate objects have spirits and conscious life.
Artifacts
A wide range of concrete human creations; is only seen in material culture.
Assimilation
A belief where a dominant culture completely absorbs the less dominant one.
Baha’i
A type of faith founded in Iran in 1844; believe that a different God besides Muhammad was the prophet and messenger of God.
Behaviors
People’s actions are generally based on the norms of a culture.
Beliefs
Specific statements that people hold to be true; are almost always based on values.
Bilingualism
The ability to communicate in two different languages.
Buddhism
A religion that began on the Indian subcontinent and has three branches.
Confucianism
A blend of Buddhism; provides a code of moral conduct based on humanness and family loyalty.
Contagious Diffusion
A form of expansion diffusion where almost all individuals and areas outward of the source region are affected.
Creole
A “mother” tongue formed from the contact of two languages through an earlier pidgin stage.
Cultural Determinism
A perspective that emphasizes human culture as ultimately more important than the physical environment in shaping human actions.
Cultural Diffusion
A process where material and non-material culture spreads to areas around the origin.
Cultural Ecology
A field that studies the relationship between the natural environment and culture.
Cultural Geography
The transformation of the land and the ways that humans interact with the environment.
Cultural Hearths
Areas where civilization first began radiated the customs, innovations, and ideologies that culturally transformed the world.
Cultural Landscape
The modification of the natural landscape by human activities.
Cultural Relativism
The practice of evaluating a culture by its own standards.
Cultural Transmission
The process by which one generation passes culture to the next.
Culture
The complex mix of values, beliefs, behaviors, and material objects that together form a person’s way of life.
Culture Complex
Common values, beliefs, behaviors, and artifacts that make a group in an area distinct from others.
Culture Region
An area marked by culture that distinguishes it from other religions.
Culture System
A group of interconnected culture complexes.
Culture Trait
A single attribute of a culture.
Daoism
A blend of Buddhism; believes that human happiness lies in maintaining proper harmony with nature.
Dialect
A regional variant of a standard language.
Diasporas
Forced exodus (emigration) from their lands of origin.
Eastern Orthodox
A branch of Christianity that split from Roman Catholic in the 11th century; involves only 12% of Christians and is prominent in Eastern Europe and Russia.
Environmental Determinism
A belief that the physical environment, especially the climate and terrain, actively shapes cultures.
Environmental Perception
A perspective that emphasizes the importance of human perception of the environment, rather than the actual character of the land.
Ethnic Religion
A religion that appeals primarily to one group of people living in one place.
Ethnocentricism
The practice of judging another culture by the standards of one’s own culture.
Expansion Diffusion
A type of diffusion occurs when an innovation or idea develops in a source area and remains strong there while also spreading outward.
Extinct Language
Languages that were once used, but are no longer spoken or read in daily activities by anyone in the world.
Folk Culture
A culture that is traditionally practiced by small, homogeneous groups living in isolated rural areas.
Folk Culture Region
When many people who live in a land space share at least some of the same folk customs.
Folk Life
The composite culture, both material and non-material, that shapes the lives of folk societies.
Geographic Region
An entire culture system that intertwines with its locational and environmental circumstances.
Heirarchial Diffusion
A type of expansion diffusion where ideas and artifacts spread first between larger places only later to smaller places.
Hinduism
The world’s oldest religion; has no central God or book, each individual decides their own way to worship.
Humanism
An idea that emphasizes the ability of human beings to guide their own lives.
Independent Inventions
Developments that can be traced to a specific civilization.
Indo-European Language Family
A family of languages that include English, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese, Bengali, French, Italian, Russian, German, Marathi, Punjabi, and Urdu.
Islam
A religion mostly found in the Middle East (Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India) and is divided into two branches.
Isogloss
A line on a dialect map marking the boundary between linguistic features.
Judaism
An ethnic religion spread across the world with relatively low numbers; believe there is only one God.
Language
A systematic means of communicating ideas and feelings through the use of signs, gestures, marks, or vocal sounds.
Language Family
Languages with a shared, but distant, origin that are put into the same group (“family”).
Lingua Franca
An established language that comes to be spoken and understood over a large area.
Linguistic Fragmentation
A condition in which many languages are spoken, each by a relatively small number of people.
Linguistic Geography
The study of speech areas and their local variations by mapping word choices, pronunciations, or grammatical constructions.
Mahayana
A branch of Buddhism; characterized by a broad incorporation of ideas and Gods from other religions.
Marxism
An ideology that transformed communism into a central ideology in many areas during the 20th century.
Material Culture
A type of culture that includes a wide range of artifacts, which reflect values, beliefs, and behaviors.
Migrant Diffusion
A type of relocation diffusion where the spread of cultural traits is slow enough that they weaken in the area of origin by the time they reach other areas.
Monotheistic Religion
A religion that is centered on the belief in one God.
Multilingualism
The ability to communicate in more than two different languages.
Non-Material Culture
A type of culture that consists of abstract concepts of values, beliefs, and behaviors.
Norms
The rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members.
Official Language
The language endorsed and recognized by the government as the one that everybody in a population should know and use.
Pidgin
An amalgamation of languages that borrow words from several other languages; is a hybrid that serves as a second language for everyone who uses it (ex. Spanglish).
Popular Culture
A culture founded in large, heterogeneous societies that are n]bound by a common culture despite the many differences among the people that share it; is primarily urban-based.
Possiblism
A perspective that recognizes the importance of the physical environment, but believe that cultural heritage is at least important as the physical environment in shaping human behavior.
Protestant
A branch of Christianity that split from the Catholic Church in the 16th century; is practiced in North America, Northern Europe, Britain, South Africa, and Australia.
Regional Identity
A phenomenon where people identify themselves with the social system of a certain region.
Religion Branches
Large and basic divisions within a religion.
Religion Denominations
Divisions of branches that unite local groups in a single administrative body.
Religion Sects
Relatively small groups that do not affiliate with the more mainstream denominations.
Relocation Diffusion
A process of diffusion where individuals or populations migrating from the source areas physically carry the innovation or idea to new areas.
Roman Catholic
A branch of Christianity that involves half of the world’s Christians; is practiced in Latin Ameria, French Canada (Quebec), Central Africa, and Southern/Eastern Europe.
Shamanism
An ethnic religion in which people follow their shaman, a religious leader and teacher who is believed to be in contact with the supernatural.
Shiite
A branch of Islam with less than 20% of all Muslims practice; most are located in a few Middle Eastern countries.
Sikhism
A type of faith that combines the ideologies behind Hinduism and Islam.
Standard Language
A language that is recognized by the government and the intellectual elite as a norm for use in schools, government, media, and other aspects of public life.
Stimulus Diffusion
A form of expansion diffusion that stimulates initiative behavior within a population.
Sub-Family
A language family that consists of Spanish, French, and Italian.
Sunni
A branch of Islam that over 80% of Muslims practice; many live in the Middle East but some live in Indonesia.
Symbolic Landscape
A geographical landscape that has significant meaning beyond what it simply looks like due to cultural associations.
Symbols
A physical object that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share the same culture.
Syncretism
The process of the fusion of old and new cultural beliefs, behaviors, and values.
Tantrayana
A branch of Buddhism that is characterized by magic and different meditation techniques; found primarily in Tibet and Mongolia.
Theravada
A branch of Buddhism that is characterized by a stricter adherence to the original teachings of the Buddha.
Time-Distance Decay
The rate at which the influence of culture traits weakens as time and distance increase.
Toponymy
The study of the names of places.
Traditional Religion
An integral part of a local culture and society.
Transculturation
The process of two-way flows of culture reflects a more equal exchange of cultural traits.
Universalizing Religion
A global religion that appeals to all people.
Values
Culturally-defined standards that guide the way people assess desirability, goodness, and beauty, and that serve as guidelines for moral living.
