Cultural Patterns and Cultural Patterns and ProcessesProcesses

Culture: The mix of values, beliefs, behaviors, and material objects that form a

peoples’ way of life.

Geographers’ view of culture:

way that culture affects the natural environment

the spatial organization that culture stimulates

Two types of culture

1. Non-material culture—abstract concepts

a. values: culturally defined standards that guide the way people assess desirability, goodness, & beauty, and that serve as guidelines for moral living

b. beliefs: specific statements that people hold to be true, almost always based on values

c. behaviors—actions that people take

based on values and beliefs as reflected in norms

2. Material culture

concrete human creations—artifacts—that reflect values, beliefs, and behaviors

Key term: culture region—an area marked by culture that distinguishes it from another region.

Key term: culture trait—a single attribute of a culture

Traits of greeting in different cultures

Culture traits make up a culture complex

Similar culture complexes make up a culture system, which often corresponds with a geographic region.

Culture hearths

Key term: Cultural diffusion

Many things diffuse—the movement of people, goods, and ideas—while some are the result of independent invention.

Diffusion of the chariot (b.c.e.)

Carl Sauer and

Torsten Hagerstrand

Kinds of expansion diffusion

1. contagious—almost all individuals and areas outward from the source region are affected

(rate is affected by time-distance decay)

2. hierarchical diffusion--

First spread to larger areas or more prominent people, then to smaller and less prominent.

3. stimulus diffusion—a basic idea, not the thing itself, stimulates imitative behavior within a population

Sequoya invented an alphabet for the Cherokee language after seeing the English alphabet.

Relocation diffusion—individuals or populations migrating from the source physically carry the innovation or idea to the new location.

Christian missionaries carry their religion to new lands

In migrant diffusion, the spread of a cultural trait is slow enough that the trait weakens in the source area by the time it reaches the new area.

Key terms

Acculturation—the less dominant culture adopts traits of the more dominant

Assimilation—when people lose their native customs (including language and religion), as when the dominant culture completely absorbs the less dominant.

Transculturation—a two-way flow of culture reflects a more equal exchange of culture traits

Cultural differences

Syncretism explains how and why cultures change through the process of fusion of the old and the new.

Syncretizing the Gospel

LANGUAGE

A systematic means of communicating ideas and feelings through the use of signs, gestures, marks, or vocal sounds.

Language ensures the transmission of culture from one generation to the next.

Chinese, Spanish, English, Hindi, Arabic, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, Japanese, German are the 10 most common first languages.

Location of languages

Language families have a shared, but fairly distant, origin.

Half the world’s population speaks an Indo-European language.

Romance languages (Spanish) and Germanic languages (English) are subfamilies.

Language is culturally defined, and standard language is that that is

recognized by the government and the

intellectual elite as the norm for use in schools, government, the media,

and other aspects of public life.

The standard language may be designated the official language of a country.

Dialects are regional variations of a standard language.

Isoglosses are the lines that mark dialect regions.

More key terms

Bilingualism

Multilingualism

Lingua franca

Toponymy—the study of place names

Language extinction

RELIGION

Religion varies in its cultural influence.

Traditionally, almost all cultures have centered on religion.

However, there are some ideologies that have replaced religion as a key cultural component:

humanism—humans guide their own lives

Marxism—transformed communism into a central ideology

Religion emphasizes the sacred and the divine.

profane: ordinary

sacred: extraordinary, inspiring awe and reverence

Religion interests geographers because it shapes the cultural landscape.

Universalizing religions attempt to be global, to appeal to all people wherever they may live.

Subgroups of universalizing religions:

a. Branches are large and basic divisions within religions

b. Denominations are divisions or branches that unite local groups into a single administrative body.

c. Sects are relatively small groups that do not affiliate with the more mainstream denominations.

Christianity, the oldest and largest of the universalizing religions.

Three main branches

Roman Catholic—50%

Protestant—25%

Eastern Orthodox—10%

Islam, the newest and the second largest of the universalizing religions.

Two main branches

Sunni—83%

Shiite (Shi’a)—16% (Iran, Pakistan, Iraq)

Buddhism, the smallest of the unversalizing.

Three main branches

Mahayana—56%

Theraveda—18% (Southeast Asia)

Tantrayana—6% (Tibet & Mongolia)

Sikhism and Baha’i are also universalizing.

Ethnic religions—do not seek converts and are usually spatially concentrated

Hinduism—world’s third largest religion

Chinese religions—

Confucianism and Daoism

Shintoism—native ethnic religion of Japan

Judaism

Traditional Religions

Shamanism

Animism

Cultural landscape of religion

disposing of the dead

Folk Culture is traditionally practiced by small, homogeneous groups living in isolated rural areas.

Popular culture is usually urban-based, with a general mass of people conforming to and then abandoning ever-changing cultural trends.

Folk cultures don’t go away, but they blend so well with the popular culture that the difference between local and universal lose meaning.

Environmental Impact of Popular Culture

1. Uniform landscape

2. Increased demand for natural resources

Pelts for clothing

To produce one pound of beef, the animal needs to consume TEN pounds of grain.

The End