Vocab Flashcards
Culture
Knowledge, attitudes, behaviors shared over generations
Society
a group that shares geographic region, identity, and culture
Ethnic Group
Shares languages, customs, and common heritage
Innovation
Creating something new with existing resources
Diffusion
Spread of ideas, inventions, patterns of behavior
Cultural Hearth
Site of innovation; origin of cultural diffusion
Acculturation
Society changes because it accepts innovation
Importance of Language
-Enables people to communicate within a culture
-Reflects aspects of all culture
Language Identity
-helps establish cultural identity, unity
-can also divide people, cause conflict
Language Families
-between 3,000-6,000 languages spoken worldwide
-similar languages belong to same language family
Dialect
a version of languages, ex. southern drawl
Language Diffusion
languages can spread via trade routes, migration
Religion
belief in supernatural power that made, maintains universe
monotheistic
one god
polytheistic
many gods
animalistic/traditional
divine forces of nature
Spread of religion
spreads through diffusion and conversion
Conversion
some religions try to recruit others to their faith
Judaism
monotheistic; Torah; Jews; 3,200 years ago
Christianity
evolved from Judaism; Jesus Christ; largest religion; Bible
Islam
monotheistic; based on teachings of Prophets Muhammad; followers called Muslims; worship Allah; Holy book called the Qur’an
Hinduism
polytheistic; evolved in India around 5,000 years ago; caste systems
Buddhism
-offshoot of Hinduism; evolved around 563 B.C. in India
-Founder Siddhartha Gautama, called The Buddha, or Enlightened One
-Rejects Hindu castes; seeks enlightened spiritual state, or nirvana
Other Asian practices
Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism
Creative Cultural Expressions
- performing arts: music, dance, theater, film
- visual arts: architecture, painting, sculpture, textiles
-oral and written literature: poems, folk tales, stories
