Post on 25-Dec-2015
3. Western Europe
• Language: Indo-European– Germanic: • German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian
– Romance: • Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian
• Religion: – Germanic: Protestant– Romance: Catholic
5. East Asia
• Language family: Sino-Tibetan• Religion: Ethnic Religions
(Confucianism/Taoism); Buddhism
6. SE Asia
• Language: SE Asian Family– Sino-Tibetan, Austronesian, Austro-Asiatic
• Religion: Buddhism/Islam
What is Culture?• Is it biological? Or is it learned?• Customary beliefs (Mentifacts)• Social Forms (Mentifacts)• Material Traits (Material culture/Artifacts)Material Culture/Artifacts• Buildings• Tools• Clothing• Art/Music• Food
Mentifacts• Language• Religion• Ethnicity• Values• Beliefs
Thoughts on Culture
• Environmental Determinism: Shaped by the environment– Similar environments = similar cultures
• Possibilism: people can adjust to environment– Creates many possibilities for culture
• Cultural/Environmental Perception: culture shaped by perception of environment– Shaped by the teachings of culture
• Cultural Determinism: Culture > Environment– Humans determine the scope of the environment
Differences between Folk & Popular Culture
Folk• Small groups• Isolated• Homogenous• Rural areas
• Hearth: usually unknown• Diffusion: slow
Popular• Large groups• Connected (share common
habits...)• Heterogeneous (...despite
differences in personal characteristics)
• Urban areas
• Hearth: MDCs• Diffusion: rapid
Ideograms Phonetics• Characters represent ideas • Characters represent
sounds– Alphabet
• Ours comes from the Roman alphabet, which derives from the Greek alphabet
Written Language
Language Classification
1. Language Families2. Language Branches3. Language Groups
4. Languages5. Dialects6. Accents
Language Families• Languages that are related through a
common ancestor before recorded history
• Indo-European language family
Language Branches
• The groups of languages that share a common ancestor (language family)
• Indo-European Family– 8 Branches
Language Groups
• Collection of languages from a common origin in the relatively recent past
• Germanic Language Branch– Northern Germanic– Western Germanic
Language, Dialect, Accent
• Language is understood among a certain group of people
• Dialect: regional– Vocabulary– Spelling– Pronunciation
• Accent: sub regional/local
Indo-European
• Indo-European language family theorized to originate with “Proto-Indo-European” or “Nostratic” superfamilies– Only a theory– Nostratic theory: combines with Afro-Asiatic (Arabic),
Dravidian, Uralic, Altaic• Diffusion
1. Nomadic Warrior (Kurgan) Theory: Nomadic herders, originated in Russia/Kazakhstan, conquered much of Europe
2. Sedentary Farmer (Renfrew) Hypothesis: Originated in Turkey, spread with agricultural technology
Germanic Romance• Western Germanic
– English– German– Dutch
• Northern Germanic– Danish– Icelandic– Norwegian– Swedish
• Portuguese• Spanish• French• Italian
Western European Branches
Balto-Slavic Indo-Iranian• Eastern Slavic
– Russian– Ukrainian
• Western/Southern Slavic– Polish– Czech– Slovak
• Indic– Hindi (official language of
India)• 438 languages in India
• Iranian
Other Branches
East Asian Languages
• China– Family: Sino-Tibetan– Branch: Sinitic– Languages:• Mandarin (3/4)• Cantonese (Yue)
• Japan– Family: Japanese
Austronesian Austro-Asiatic• Indonesia
– Javanese (2/3)– Tagalog
• Vietnam– Uses the Roman alphabet
“SE Asian” Language Family
Middle East Languages
• Arabic – Afro-Asiatic Family (Semitic branch)
• Farsi – Indo-European Family (Indo-Iranian branch)
• Hebrew – Afro-Asiatic Family (Semitic branch)