Culture

Basics, Language, Religion, & Ethnicity

Family Culture Interviews: Interview each other.

– # of people living in home: Pets?:– size of “nuclear family”:– From where did family originate? – amount of time spent w/ relatives outside of “nuclear”

family (daily? yearly?):– Favorite foods:– Favorite activities:– Known values (education, sports, music, art, etc.)– Customs: (family meals, religious activities, etc.)– Rules (chores, expectations, allowed responses, etc.)– Type of home:– Expected type of career (based on parental expectations):

Mine: # of people living in home: 4 Pets?: 2 size of “nuclear family”: 5 From where did family originate? Italy-Sicily amount of time spent with relatives outside of

“nuclear” family (daily? yearly?): ~1-2/wk Favorite foods: Fajitas, Oyster-Artichoke

Soup & Crawfish Patties, Sushi Favorite activities: Television, Wii, Reading Known values: Education First Customs: Family/Holiday Meals/Vacations,

Church on Sunday Rules: Do Well in School, Be Respectful,

Curfew, Chores Type of home: Single Family; Suburban Expected type of career: Not Education;

Animation/Computer Graphics

What is Culture? “way of life” “attitudes, objectives and technical

skills of a people” Human traits acquired through

formal or informal learning process Specialized behavioral patterns,

understandings, adaptations, & social systems that summarized a group’s LEARNED way of life.

General Cultural Development– Agricultural Revolution:

• Change?

• Religion: hunter vs. farmer

– Religious revolutions:

• Changing societal hierarchies and roles

– Industrial Revolution:

• Technology; Urbanization

– Democratic Revolution:

• Reaction against?

Geographers Study Language

Single most common variable by which cultural groups are identified

Primary means by which culture passes from one generation to the next

Reinforce the sense of region & place Some 6,000 languages & many more

dialects are spoken today

Languages — words that cannot be mutually understood Dialects — variant forms of a language that have some

mutual comprehension– Dialect is distinctive enough in vocabulary &

pronunciation to label its speaker Pidgin language — results when different linguistic

groups come into contact– Serves the purposes of commerce– Has a small vocab. derived from the various contact

groups Creole language- when a pidgin becomes the native

tongue of a group & develops in complexity Lingua franca — (Frankish Tongue) language that

spreads over a wide area where it is not the mother tongue– Lang. of communication/commerce

Kenya Kenya has two official languages: – Swahili and English.

Swahili (Creole language) developed along the coast of East Africa.

English came during the British colonial period.

isoglosses — borders of individual word usages or pronunciations– Typically cluster

together in “bundles”– Bundles serve as

dividing lines among dialects and languages

English Dialects in the United States At least three major dialects,

corresponding to major culture regions, developed on the east coast by the time of the American Revolution

– Northern

– Midland

– Southern

http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/NationalMap/NationalMap.html

Today, many regional words = old-fashioned, but new words display regional variations

Controlled-access divided highway =

– Freeway -- California

– Turnpike &parkway--mainly northeastern and Midwestern words

– Thruway, expressway, & interstate

English Dialects in the United States Some African-Americans speak their

own form of English — Black English (Ebonics)– Pidgin that developed on early slave

plantations– Many features separate it from standard

speech, for example:• Lack of pronoun differentiation b/w genders

– Often not recognized as a separate linguistic group

London, England Not all English words are mutually intelligible.

London tube sign– Means?

Tubes & busking = dialect words

Americans say: Canadians say:

first grade (100%) grade one (88%)

candy bar (80%) chocolate bar (88%)

faucet (91%) tap (74%)

zee (99%) zed (74%) studio apartment (71%) bachelor apartment (61%)

ATM (89%) bank machine (57%)

gutters (91%) eavestroughs (58%)

soda (57%) pop (70%) silverware (83%) cutlery (51%)

restroom (55%) washroom (52%)

http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/programs/linguistics/faculty/boberg/Articles/n_american_survey/N_American_Survey.htm

History of English Old English: 450- 1100 CE

– Old German meets Celt– Norse invasion– Beowulf

Middle English: 1100- 1500 CE– Old German/Celtic meets Old

French (Nordic)– 1066: Normans– Chaucer

Modern English: 1500- current day Early Modern:

– German/ Celtic/ French (Nordic) meets new words and changes pronunciation (Great vowel shift- shorter sounds)

– Exploration– Shakespeare

Late Modern– Standardized Spelling– Changes in vocabulary

(Industrial Revolution)

Language families The Indo-European language family

– Largest, most wide-spread family

– Subfamilies—Romance, Slavic, Germanic, Indic, Celtic, and Iranic• Subfamilies divided into individual lang.

– By comparing vocabularies in various lang. one can see the kinship

Mother = Madre = Màthair = Mutter = Mère = Mati = Mataji

Indo-European diffusion Earliest speakers from southern and southeastern

Turkey (Anatolia) ~ 8 or 9 thousand years ago

– Diffused west and north into Europe Later language diffusion occurred with the spread

of great political empires: Latin, English, & Russian

– Conqueror’s language spread hierarchically

• Spread of Latin with Roman conquests

• Spanish in Latin America

Other major language families Sino-Tibetan family

– 2nd largest lang. family w/ 403 languages

– Extends through most of China & Southeast Asia

– Mandarin and Cantonese = dialects or languages? Afro-Asiatic family

• Semitic—Tigris/Euphrates valley west across the N. Africa

–Arabic is the most widespread

–Hebrew (was “dead”) is Israel’s off. lang.

• Hamiti--Expansion of Arabic decreased the area & number of speakers

Searching for the first language

“Ur language” Nostratic—ancestral speech of Middle

East 12,000 to 20,000 years ago– Ancestor to nine modern language families – A 500-word dictionary has been compiled

Contemporary to ↑: Dene-Caucasian– led to Sino-Tibetan, Basque, and Native-

American: Na-Dene

Environment provides refuge Inhospitable environments offer

protection and isolation– Harder or less likely to be conquered

– Mountains tend to isolate inhabitants

– Linguistic refuge areas• Rugged hill and mountain areas• Excessively cold or dry climates• Impenetrable forests and remote islands• Extensive marshes and swamps

Examples of linguistic refuge Caucasus Mountains Alps, Himalayas, and

highlands of Mexico are linguistic shatter belts

American Indian tongue Quechua → Andes Mountains of South America

Rocky Mountains of northern New Mexico, still has an archaic form of Spanish

Appalachian Mts- historically preserved 17th century English

Switzerland Switzerland has four

recognized national languages: French, German, Italian, and Romansch.

Romansch, Latin group, is spoken by only 1.1% of the population.

Facts on Religion

Religion is a great binding force in societies, especially those less dominated by technology

Religions change over time Religions have been adopted across

cultural barriers and lang. boundaries

Religion's role in society Religion manifests itself in many ways

– Animist-worship of souls of the dead living in natural objects and/or of the forces of nature

– Belief that certain living persons possess capacities granted by a supernatural power

– Belief in a deity or deities In Western, industrialized, urbanized societies

religion has become subordinate to secular culture & government; whereas, in other areas, religion almost completely dictates culture

Effect on culture

– "good" life has rewards and "bad" behavior risks punishment- controlling individual behavior

– Modes of dress acceptable and foods a person can or cannot eat

– Commercial practices

– Location and structure of houses

Major World ReligionsMajor World Religions

Religion Vocab. Inclusive vs. Exclusive

– Inclusive-“Our” way is right for us, but that doesn’t mean everyone else is wrong.

– Exclusive-any who don’t follow “OUR” beliefs is wrong and will be punished in the afterlife.

Sect, Denomination, Cult– Divisions of a religion.– Cult - used negatively, really refers to ANY religion

Syncretism– When 2 aspects blend to create a new idea

Agnostic vs. Atheistic– Agnostic- unsure about “what’s out there”– Atheistic- sure that there isn’t anything “out there.”

Religion Vocab. Apostate vs. Convert

– Apostate- leaves a religion or religious group

– Convert- joins a religion or a religions group Blasphemy vs. Heresy vs. Dogma vs. Infidel

– Dogma- accepted beliefs and traditions in a religion

– All the others- going against the dogma of a religion Solstice and Equinox

– Mark the change of seasons- important days in many religions, especially early ones

Morals vs. Ethics

– Morals- ideas about right and wrong - from religion

– Ethics- ideas about right and wrong - from society

Religion Vocab. Fundamentalist vs. Conservative vs. Liberal

– Fundamentalist- interpret every word of their religion literally as absolutely true- no interpretation

– Conservative- allows for a little interpretation, change over time

– Liberal- allows more interpretation, religious writings seen as more symbolic in meaning, rather than literally true

Idol

– Something which is admired excessively or worshipped

Religion Vocab.

Myth

– Religious stories which are not believed or have been disproved

Avatar

– Physical form of deity that has come to earth to accomplish a specific task