cultural patterns and process. a. concepts of culture culture – whole complex which includes...

CULTURAL PATTERNS AND PROCESS

A. CONCEPTS OF CULTURE

CULTURE –

Whole complex which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, laws, customs & any other capabilities & habits acquired by man as a member of Society

Transmitted & created content & patterns of values, ideas, and other symbolic-meaningful systems that are factors in the shaping of human behavior & the artifacts produced through behavior

1. TRAIT –A single attribute of culture, such as wearing a turban in a Muslim society

COMPLEX –Combination of traits; related set of

traits, such as prevailing dress codes, cooking, eating utensils

SYSTEM – Combined cultural complexes;

Northern China eats wheat; Southern China eats rice; both speak a similar language; shared history, philosophy, cultural traditions & attitudes


LANDSCAPE – The imprint of cultures on the land

creates distinct and characteristic examples

HEARTH –Source of cultural growth and

achievement

2. DIFFUSION – From the hearths, cultural innovations and ideas spread to other areas

PERCEPTION –

Varying ideas and attitudes about space, place, and territory

3. ACCULTURATION –Process in which a culture is substantially changed through interaction with another culture but it does not completely disappear


4. REGIONS – areas in which there is a degree of homogeneity in the cultural characteristics; areas with similar landscapes

1 – the Americas 6 – Southeast Asia

2 – Western Europe 7 - Oceania

3 – Eastern Europe 8 – Middle East/Arab World

4 – Far East 9 – West Africa

5 – South Asia 10 – Sub-Saharan Africa

B. CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

1. LANGUAGES:

Family – shared but distant origins (Indo-European)

Branch – collection of languages related through a common ancestor (Romance, Germanic)

Group – collection of languages within a branch that share common origin and display relatively few differences in grammar and vocabulary (West Germanic: English, German, Dutch

Lingua Franca – common language understood by many people although they each speak another language

B. CULTURAL DIFFERENCES1. LANGUAGES:

LANGUAGE FAMILY MAJOR LANGUAGE #/MILLIONS

Indo-European English 405

Spanish, Hindi 300 Russian 205

Bengali 195 Portuguese 165 German 100 Punjabi, French 90 Italian 60

Sino-Tibetan Chinese 1160 Thai 50 Burmese 35

Japanese-Korean Japanese 125 Korean 75

Afro-Asiatic Arabic 170Malay-Polynesian Indonesian 150


2. RELIGION: difficult to define, but contains some common characteristics:

1 – belief in a god or gods 3 – literature/book2 – rituals 4 – ethics/rules

monotheism – belief in one god

polytheism – belief in more than one god

animism – a soul or spirit is attributed to various phenomena

universalizing – actively seeking converts - *CONFLICT*

ethnic – closely identified with a specific cultural group (usually born into the religion)


2. RELIGION: 2012 statistics

RELIGION TOTAL # %

Christianity 1,943,038 33.32

Islam 1,164,622 21.01

Hinduism 761,689 13.26

No Religion 759,755 14.09

Buddhism 353,794 5.54

Atheism 149,913 2.5

Judaism 14,111 0.2

Other Religions 12.48


2. RELIGION: Cultural Landscape

food eaten/meals

festivals/clothing

temples/mosques/churches

statues/figurines (idol worship)


3. ETHNICITY – Combination of a people’s culture (traditions, customs, language, & religion)

and racial ancestry

Ethnic cleansing is the slaughter or forced removal of one ethnic group from its home by another group

Ethnic conflicts – Former Yugoslavia, Quebec, Rwanda/Burundi, Afghanistan, Iraq…


4. GENDER –

Roles performed culturally as designated by gender

Women still perform the majority of the domestic work

In the workplace, women do not get paid the same as men or have the same number of opportunities

Urban landscapes – statues and monuments typically male (war heroes, etc.)


5. POPULAR CULTURE –

Massive, homogeneous, diffuse rapidly, technological

FOLK CULTURE –

Traditional, small, individualistic, family, little if any technology

C. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTCULTURAL ADAPTATION –

Changes in technology, organization, & ideology that permit social relationships to develop between humans and their physical environment

Core (hearth)

Domain (area where culture dominates)

Sphere (outer fringe)

D. CULTURAL LANDSCAPES & IDENTITY

1. VALUES AND PREFERENCES –

language, religion, entertainment, government buildings

“atmosphere” – easy to perceive, difficult to define

“China Town” “Little Italy” “Wall Street” “Main Street”

2. SYMBOLIC LANDSCAPES –

size of Hindu/Buddhist temples are smaller than Islamic mosque or Christian church

toponyms (New York, Washington, D.C., Palestine/Rome/Paris Texas)

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