Definition of Culture

• Culture is a group’s way of life, including the shared system of social meanings, values, and relations that is transmitted between generations.

• Culture can be seen as “learned behavior.”

Cultural Geography is concerned with…

• …how place affects culture.

• …how culture affects place.

• …the distributions of culture

groups and reasons for those distributions.

Culture Traits

• …are single elements of normal practice in culture.

• …include beliefs, institutions, language, and technology.

A culture complex is a group of interrelated

culture traits related to one aspect of a culture or

society.

A Culture Region• …is an area that shares common culture

traits.

A Culture Realm…• …is a group of culture regions that share a

common culture system.

Cultural landscape refers to the distinct imprint of a culture on the

land. .

Each group of inhabitants leaves their distinctive imprint on the landscape in a

process of “sequent occupance.”

Sequent occupance--imprint of communism in Germany.

Indian imprint on New Mexico landscape

Spanish influence in New Mexico

TerritorialInfluence In New Mexico

A culture hearth is a region where cultural traits such as

religion and agriculture develop.

Cultural Diffusion

• …is the process of spreading an idea or an innovation from one area to another

Expansion Diffusion…

• …occurs where contact causes cultural traits to be adopted (often through conquest or trade).

Expansion diffusion example:

• The Spanish converted the Indians of Middle America to Roman Catholicism in the 16th and 17th Centuries.

Expansion diffusion example:• McDonald’s restaurants can be found in

many locations around the world.

Relocation Diffusion…

• …is a result of migration.

Relocation diffusion example

• German migrants to Fredericksburg, Texas brought their culture with them.

Relocation diffusion example

• It is common to find mosques in many American communities today.

Stimulus diffusion occurs when a specific trait is rejected, but the

underlying idea is accepted.

Siberians rejected cattle herding, but adopted reindeer herding instead.

Acculturation

• …is the process by which a culture is substantially changed through interaction with another more powerful culture.

Transculturation occurs when strong cultures interact with each other and each

acts as both a source and adopter.

Some things inhibit diffusion

Time-Distance decay

Cultural restraints

Perceptual regions exist in our imaginations.

What is “the South?” Where is it?

Percent who say each state is Southern

“All in all.”

Where kudzu grows

Acres of cotton cultivation

Lynchings--1900-1930

Support for third-party or unpopular major-party presidential candidates

Concentrations of poor, rural black Southerners

Housing units without complete plumbing

Illiteracy rates

Active dentists per 1000 residents

High burglary rates

Members of Baptist Churches

Birthplaces of country music notables

States mentioned in country music lyrics

Ratio of homicides to suicides

No state law against sex discrimination in 1972

Low percentage of white women employed in traditionally white male

occupations in 1985

Colleges and universities that publish sports magazines

Chapters of the Kappa Alpha Order in 1988

“Dixie” listings as percentage of “American” listings in telephone directories ca. 1975

Average scores on”Index of Southern

Preference”

“Southern Living” readers as a percentage of white population